PDF Font Checker — Embedded or Not?
Before a PDF goes to a print shop or a colleague's screen, check that its fonts are embedded. Drop the file and this tool lists every font it uses and marks which are embedded and which aren't — non-embedded fonts are the classic reason text shifts, reflows, or renders in the wrong typeface somewhere else. Runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
Drop PDF files here or click to select
One or many · a font report per file
No PDF handy? Check sample-10-pages.pdf (standard fonts). More free sample files.
Why embedded fonts matter
When a font is embedded, the PDF carries the actual typeface inside it, so it looks identical on every device and at every print shop. When it isn't, the reader's software substitutes whatever it has — and the substitute has different letter widths, so lines rewrap, spacing breaks, and headings can jump to a generic font. Print bureaus reject non-embedded fonts for exactly this reason. This checker is the fast way to catch the problem before someone else does.
Reading the report
- Font — the base name, with the subset tag (the
ABCDEF+prefix) stripped for readability. - Embedded — a green badge means the font travels inside the file; a red one means it depends on the reader having it.
- standard-14 — Helvetica, Times, Courier, Symbol and ZapfDingbats are the 14 fonts every PDF reader is required to have, so "not embedded" is usually fine for these.
What to do about a non-embedded font
The fix lives in whatever created the PDF: in most "Save/Export as PDF" or print-to-PDF dialogs there's an "embed fonts" or "embed all fonts" option — turn it on and re-export. For a standard-14 font the substitution is safe and you can usually ignore the warning. For a custom or brand font, embedding is worth it before anything goes to print.
FAQ
How do I check if fonts are embedded in a PDF?
Drop the PDF into the tool above and click Check fonts — it lists every font and marks each as embedded or not, all in your browser with no upload.
My font shows "not embedded" but the PDF looks fine to me.
Because your computer happens to have that font (or a close substitute) installed, so it renders correctly for you. On a machine without it — or at a print shop — it may look different. That's exactly the risk embedding removes.
Is it a problem that Helvetica/Arial isn't embedded?
Rarely. Those are among the standard-14 fonts every PDF viewer must provide, so they render consistently even without embedding. It's custom and brand fonts you want embedded.
Does it work on scanned PDFs?
A scanned PDF has no text fonts at all — it's images — so the report will say no fonts were found. That's expected for image-only files.