Font substitution bug

[CrendKing]

I think there is a bug in PDF-XChange Viewer about font substitution. I will use several images to show how to reproduce it. I created a simple RTF file containing two line. First line uses Segoe UI and second uses Times New Roman. I use PDF-XChange printer to generate a PDF from it. No font is embedded. Both RTF and PDF are attached.

If I open the PDF in a system that has Times New Roman, both PDF-XChange Viewer (2.5) and Foxit PDF Reader (6.0) will show me that the Actual Font is Times New Roman (though PDFX's name is a bit weird).

If I open the PDF in a system that does not have Times New Roman, but correctly set up the font substitution in registry, Foxit PDF Reader will use the substituted font (Karmina), but PDF-XChange Viewer will use "Sans MM". I do not find any related preference to change this behavior, so I suppose it is a bug.

I did a little search. Looks like Adobe Reader has the same issue several years ago: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/300349 . Would be nice if PDF-XChange can use user's specified font.

Thanks for the great product.

PDFX No Subs


Foxit No Subs


PDFX Subs


Foxit Subs


Registry

[Ivan - Tracker Software]

The system's font substitution mechanism is not involved (at least for now), as well as in Adobe Reader/Acrobat (as mentioned on the Adobe's forum).

The Font name stored in the PDF is a PostScript name for the font, so, as you mentioned the Viewer's name of the font is a bit weird, it is because the PostScript name for "Times New Roman" is "TimesNewRomanPSMT" and in general cases it cannot be used to match the Windows Fonts substitution list.

PDF-XChange Viewer makes substitutions based on existing installed fonts and if no match can be found it will use the built in MM fonts.

P.S. In the PDF-XChange Editor a feature to configure font substitution will be available soon.

hth

[CrendKing]

Hi Ivan. Thank you for fast response!

Based on what you said, my conclusion is that there is an internal font substitution mechanism in the Viewer. But it does not use system's substitution list in lookup, correct?

If so, may I ask 1) is the internal substitution hard-coded or by any chance it still tries to query some system variable; 2) will the font substitution in the Editor be ported to the Viewer? Would that allow user to configure?

Thanks!

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Hi CrendKing,

1) The System font substitution table is used on the Viewer's UI, but not for substitution of PDF fonts and it cannot be changed by the user because the substitution algorithm is hard-coded;

2) This algorithm for sure will not be ported to the Viewer; the algorithm is implemented in the Editor but not yet available for the user; it will be available in one of the coming builds.

I hope that helps.

Sincerly

[CrendKing]

It is very sad to know the decision. I guess those users who needs font substitution have to seek other alternatives, such as Foxit.

Anyway, thank you Paul for the information, and for the great product.

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello CrendKing,

Yes for the moment you can't control the font substitution - but just as Paul said - this will be possible in the Editor in an upcoming build.

Regards,
Stefan

[CrendKing]

Thanks for the work in Editor. But all I care about is the Viewer. I also believe the Viewer has much larger user base than the Editor.

I can understand it is senseless to port such an advanced function to Viewer. But how about using system font substitution? Is there any significant reason to reject it? Security, layout or readability?

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello CrendKing,

The Editor is due to replace the Viewer on 21 Oct as our main product for displaying and manipulating PDF files, so while I can understand your point it's not feasible for us to even try to implement any major changes to the Viewer any more.

Regards,
Stefan