Fonts

List Fonts

pdfa-lab font --list FILENAME.pdf
pdfa-lab font --list -i FILENAME.pdf
pdfa-lab font --list --input FILENAME.pdf

List the names of all fonts present in a PDF document. Use --format=yaml or --format=json in order to get more detailed information about the font usage.

Example for YAML output:

- ref: 12 0 R
  embedded: true
  encoding: Identity-H
  subtype: TrueType
  baseFont: BAAAAA+NotoSans-Regular
  fontName: NotoSans-Regular
- ref: 13 0 R
  embedded: true
  encoding: Identity-H
  subtype: TrueType
  baseFont: CAAAAA+NotoSerif-Regular
  fontName: NotoSerif-Regular
- ref: 14 0 R
  embedded: true
  encoding: Identity-H
  subtype: TrueType
  baseFont: DAAAAA+CourierNewPSMT
  fontName: CourierNewPSMT

The ref is the object identifier of the font within the PDF.

The fontName is the name of the font as displayed by most tools. The baseFont is a particular subset. It usually uses six uppercase letters as a prefix in order to make it unique across the document.

Embed Missing Fonts

pdfa-lab font --embed FILENAME.pdf
pdfa-lab font --embed -i FILENAME.pdf
pdfa-lab font --embed --input FILENAME.pdf

Embed fonts that are currently missing in the document as a subset font. It is currently not possible to embed the entire font.

Most of the time, the software will be able to find suitable fonts on the system. It does this by following this strategy:

1. It uses a font that was specified on the command-line, see --font-map under Options below!
2. If installed, it uses the fc-match utility to find a suitable replacement.
3. It falls back to a platform-dependent list of default fonts.

Most of the time, the font resolution will manage to find a font without explicitly specifying a font. If not, you have to specify a font with command-line option --font-map.

Example for a simple font:

pdfa-lab font --embed --font-map Helvetica,/usr/share/fonts/Arial.ttf

This will embed the font /usr/share/fonts/Arial.ttf for the font Helvetica. The path to the font file has to be separated from the font name by a comma. Use the option --list for finding out the exact names of the fonts used in a document.

Example for a TrueType collection:

pdfa-lab font --embed --font-map Times-Roman,/usr/share/fonts/Courier.ttc,Regular

This will replace the font "Times-Romand" with the font "Regular" from the TrueType collection /usr/share/fonts/Courier.ttc.

Options

Option	Description
-i, --input FILENAME.pdf	The input filename.
-l, --list	Choose font listing as the action.
-e, --embed	Choose font embedding as the action.
-o, --output OUTPUT.pdf	Write to OUTPUT.pdf (embedding only)
-b, --base-font BASEFONT	Embed only BASEFONT
--font, --font-name FONT	Embed only FONT
-f, --format FORMAT	Choose one of text (default), json, or yaml as the output format for font listings.
--fc-match PATH	Path to the fc-match command if not found automatically.
--font-map PDF-FONT,FILENAME[,FONT]	Replace PDF-FONT with external font FILENAME (choose FONT for collections)
--compress true|false	Compress fonts (defaults to true)
-V, --version	Show version number and exit.
-h, --help	Show help and exit.