Small Caps In Adobe Acrobat

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Colby DuLin

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Aug 4, 2024, 5:34:59 PM8/4/24

to haymiczane

Isit possible to use "Small Caps" formatting on text in Acrobat fields (text, combo boxes, etc,)? I am using Acrobat 7 Pro and have a form with small caps formating in the base document and the form fields need to mirror this formatting. Thanks for any help you can provide.

I would like to know if there is a workaround to the issue that InDesign does not properly embed the Small Caps it creates when the font does not come with its own small caps. It is a major issue for printers (or when importing the PDF in Illustrator for instance)... and the only workaround is to create outlines whenever Small Caps are used.

Besides, I do not understand why Acrobat mentions that the Baskerville-SC700 is embedded (see screenshot) while Illustrator has a warning when opening the file, explicitly mentioning that the font is missing (and asks for a replacement font).

When a font does NOT have built-in Small Cap glyphs, InDesign fakes them according to your Advanced Type Preferences (e.g. ID's default 70%). When ANY font is subset in a PDF, small caps or not, the subsets will be given a custom name, such as "PostScript name: CRDRWI+Baskerville". This will identify itself simply in your PDF Document properties as Baskerville. For your "fake" Small Caps, the font is written as "CRDRWI+Baskerville-SC700"... this is so

You still don't understand. First of all, an entire font is NOT embedded unless you tell it to be. In most cases you do a subset. Why? For file space. Subset fonts take very little room in the file. Then, ONLY the characters you have used will be emdedded in the file with just those few outlines and sometimes custom encodings. This is in NO WAY the same as the original font file you used. Regardless

Illustrator is not a universal pdf editor, nor should it be used to confirm fonts in a pdf are properly embedded. If Acrobat shows all fonts are embedded, there should be no printing issues. I don't know why Illustrator is showing the font issue, but I suspect it's a red herring and should be ignored. Have you tried running an Acrobat preflight to embed the fonts? (Tools> Print Production> Preflight). Can you attach a sample pdf so we can take a look?

We are facing a real issue as we lost quite some money with our printer, who blamed us for not preparing the file correctly and refused to reprint. In the discussion, I checked if the PDF was correct with all tools available (incl. preflight and other online tools), and could not find any issue.

I want to stress that while the printer could print our books before last summer, it will no more support our files if they are not vectorised. I suspect something changed at their side but they could not tell me what.

Now, to reproduce the issue at your side is easy. I am attaching two ID files (actually one would be enough), and some screenshots (of ID for one of them showing the issue with diacritics), of the message when importing in Illustrator for both ID files). I need a font that includes diacritics (dots under letters for instance), which limits the fonts I can use.

While I do not have the export issue with Minion Pro (which seems to include Small Caps in itself), that font does not include diacritics, so I cannot use it for my work. Times New Roman (like Baskerville) does include diacritics, but does not seem to include Small Caps... But in the end, if InDesign offers the possibility to use Small Caps, I believe it would be natural that other Adobe publishing apps like Illustrator recognise these Small Caps, just like Acrobat does...

And I have looked into the preflight panel, showing exactly what Acrobat shows me: fonts are embedded (see screenshot and txt report). But as you wrote, this is not a validation: the issue is there, when importing in Illustrator, as well as with the printer (I was really arguing strongly with the printing company based on that argument, without any positive outcome: I had to create outlines...).

This said, I think I found a workaround thanks to your post reminding me of the use of preflight: it requires the use of the Preflight "PDF fixup", called "Convert fonts to outlines" (see screenshot), but it increases the document size significantly. And anyone without Acrobat will still not be able to solve the issue, which I believe should be fixed at the level of InDesign (why fix an issue created by one Adobe app with another Adobe app?).

Thank you Stephan for the clarification, especially about the copyright. However, in this case, it is Adobe ID itself that creates the font, so there is no issue of copyright. If it can use Baskerville or Times New Roman, it should also be able to use Baskerville in its Small Caps form created by the same Company.

As for the other point, I am not trying to edit the PDF in Illustrator... I never thought of doing that for my work, but I have been forced to import it in Illustrator as the only way to check that the printer will actually accept my file. And it's a big online printing company in Europe, so I guess this issue is of interest to others as well.

Opening the file in Illustrator for editing is a different task. Illustrator needs the font installed in the OS or through Adobe Fonts for the font to be available to Illustrator. Illustrator can convert the PDF to outlines if you place it and embed it in a file, but it cannot edit text using an embedded font.

Thank you for further clarifying, but how can I install the subset of a font that is produced by InDesign (***_SC700) and embedded in the file on export, so that I may be able to manually embed it in Illustrator for it to be able to see it? As far as I understand, I cannot do that.

Aso, the fact that AI is not able to edit text using the embeded font produced by ID (same company, so why should there be a legal restriction) seems to be in itself an excessive legal restriction that I consider to be a bug... as I have been struggling for quite some time with this (technically, the font is there, but it seems to be a choice of Adobe to no allow AI to see it, and tell the user that it is not there...).

In the end, the issue is less about Illustrator than simply be able to print the file: if the font is embedded, why isn't the printer able to print the file with the font embedded? If that printing company needs at some point, in their printing process, to open the file with another or more complex software, I am hopeless, unless I create outlines for all fonts (multiplying by 1.5, 2, 3, 4... the size of PDF, for instance, from 50Mb to 200Mb).

Actually, even on some of our new printers at work, it will simply not work. I had to print using a PS2 driver, and not the driver proposed with the printer. In that case as well, it is not a normal situation...

The point is that you're using the wrong tool. If Acrobat shows everything is embedded properly, it's pretty much irrelevant what anyone or anything else shows. There should be no need for any other app or to convert a quality font to outlines.

But... as I said, this is the only tool I have to be sure that the file is accepted by the printer: no import issue (with missing fonts warning) and the printer accept the file; import issues will lead to the file rejection as it already led to countless printing errors.

They reach the same conclusion: we need another tool (if Adobe does not provide quality font when exporting to PDF...) to prepare the file for printing. That was just confirmed on this post: -text-outlines-exporting-eps-file-indesign/ (see last comment).

I get that's not always possible but fake small caps have been around forever. Without seeing the file, it's very hard to make a 100% judgment but have sent this file to any other printer or service bureau?

Again, no judgment here, but there are a ton of incompetent printers out there that are working on shoestrings and haven't updated their equipment in decades. The article you're linking to is seven years old. The other one is nine years old; Ancient and again, I'm going to get on a soapbox about this...there should be no need to convert fonts to outlines.

Suit yourself, but I would rather have a real solution than a kluge. I'm not sure why you came here if you don't want to take these comments seriously. I've been doing this for a long, long time. The second the reason for using a printer is budget, it sets off an alarm for me for more than one reason.

Can you upload a sample pdf that you believe will be rejected by your commercial printer? If all fonts are embedded, as indicated in Acrobat, and the pdf prints correctly from Acrobat or Reader, I would say your commercial printer has a problem with their workflow and instead of fixing it, they are blaming you and requesting outlined type (almost never necessary). There are other Acrobat preflight fixes to address specific font issues, pehaps one of them would work for you.

Did you receive a pdf proof from your original printer before the file went to press? This would allow you to confirm all type is appearing as expected and if the printed piece appears different from the proof, the error is 100% on them. I also suggest you reach out to another printer and ask them to preflight one of your pdfs.