There is any option in pitstop to identify OpenType SVG and OpenType VAR font used in the PDF document?

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ganesh_jouve
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There is any option in pitstop to identify OpenType SVG and OpenType VAR font used in the PDF document?

Post by ganesh_jouve »

Hi ALL

There is any option in pitstop to identify OpenType SVG and OpenType VAR font used in the PDF document?

Thanks
Ganesh.R
abailescollins
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Re: There is any option in pitstop to identify OpenType SVG and OpenType VAR font used in the PDF document?

Post by abailescollins »

Neither OpenType Variable nor OpenType SVG fonts are natively supported in PDF
They are not part of the PDF specification, even PDF 2.0.

If you export a PDF from Indesign for instance, what happens depends on the way you export the PDF.
The fonts can either become images, vectors or get converted to Type 3 fonts.

You can use the Type 3 font features in PitStop in the case of the latter.

Feedback below from Adobe in 2020.

PDF Support
Neither OpenType Variable nor OpenType SVG fonts are natively supported in PDF and can't be natively supported without either an ISO-32000 PDF version update or auxilliary feature addition approved by the ISO TC171/WG8 committee. I don't forsee such an update occurring anytime within the next two years or more.

There are interim workarounds.
In the case of OpenType Variable fonts, the workaround is to create and subset embed within the generated PDF file standard OpenType CFF or TTF fonts corresponding to each “instance” of the variable font referenced in the source document. That is the process currently being used by current Adobe applications when instances (either predefined or custom) of OpenType Variable fonts are used within the corresponding documents and exported/saved to PDF. There are remaining “issues” in terms of such embedded fonts that we expect to be resolved in an upcoming set of product updates. Even then, don't expect to be able to “edit” text in Acrobat using such OpenType Variable fonts in the short to midterm; that will come later.

In the case of OpenType SVG fonts, the workaround is to create and embed within the generated PDF file a standard PDF Type 3 fonts corresponding to the OpenType SVG font. PDF Type 3 fonts have glyph definitions which are PDF object streams which are easily created from the SVG glyph definitions. Again there are still some issues in the generated PDF that we expect to resolve soon and the “edit” text function in Acrobat using OpenType SVG fonts is a way off.
Head of Product Management @ Ultimate
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