Embed font

[PhilD]

I want to create a Word document to send out to others, using a font I
doubt every recipient will have. Previously in my Windows days, I
could embed the font in the document, so that essentially I send out
the document and the font (albeit the font is not visible as a separate
file). If memory serves, this option was under Tools/Options.

Is this feature available on Mac (Office 2004)? I've hunted high and
low and cannot find it, so I suspect not, but...

I did try saving as a PDF to get around this problems, but the
resultant file was huge and cannot be compressed in a ZIP or similar.

With thanks,

PhilD

 

[Clive Huggan]

I agree: Mac Word won't embed fonts.

Just to add to what Albert is saying, Phil ­ although OS 10.4 has a
convenient way of making PDFs, it produces a very simple version of PDF. It
seems to me that if there are many graphics in the Word document, it isn't
an efficient way to go. For example, a graphics-rich document I produced
recently in Word and used OS 10.4.3 to convert to PDF took 2 minutes per
page to print. Using Acrobat Distiller 7 (in Word, Print => PDF => Save PDF
as Postscript, then produce the PDF in Distiller) the file was much smaller
and printed at the printer's normal speed. Specifying the more recent
versions of Acrobat for compatibility produces smaller file sizes, and of
course you can reduce the file size further from within Acrobat (from File
menu or other tweaks).

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is at least 5 hours different from the US and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
============================================================
* A SUGGESTION -- WAIT FOR CONSIDERED ADVICE: If you post a question, keep
re-visiting the newsgroup for several days after the first response comes
in. Sometimes it takes a few responses before the best or complete solution
is proposed; sometimes you'll be asked for further information so that a
better answer can be provided. Good tips about getting the best out of
posting are at http://word.mvps.org/FindHelp/Posting.htm (if you use Safari
you may see a blank page and have to hit the circular arrow icon -- "Reload
the current page" -- a few times).

============================================================

Phil,

As far as I am aware the Mac office version does no longer support embedding
fonts. However there is a way to compress a PDF from within the standard PDF
functionality in OS X 10.4.x

Select in Print dialog box PDF and the option should appear (see
screenshot). If it is still too large a PDF utility could help

 

[PhilD]

I agree: Mac Word won't embed fonts.

That's a shame, but there it is.

Specifying the more recent
versions of Acrobat for compatibility produces smaller file sizes, and of
course you can reduce the file size further from within Acrobat (from File
menu or other tweaks).

This would, I assume, be the "pay for" Acrobat?

Thanks,

PhilD

 

[JE McGimpsey]

This would, I assume, be the "pay for" Acrobat?

Yes, not the free Acrobat Reader.

 

[Albert Koning]

And Clive your excellent article ³Bend Word to your will" also states that
sending out Word documents has plenty of options not to display exactly the
same across versions or indeed different computers.

Huggan at (e-mail address removed) wrote on 13/12/05
20:14:

I agree: Mac Word won't embed fonts.

Just to add to what Albert is saying, Phil ­ although OS 10.4 has a
convenient way of making PDFs, it produces a very simple version of PDF. It
seems to me that if there are many graphics in the Word document, it isn't
an efficient way to go. For example, a graphics-rich document I produced
recently in Word and used OS 10.4.3 to convert to PDF took 2 minutes per
page to print. Using Acrobat Distiller 7 (in Word, Print => PDF => Save PDF
as Postscript, then produce the PDF in Distiller) the file was much smaller
and printed at the printer's normal speed. Specifying the more recent
versions of Acrobat for compatibility produces smaller file sizes, and of
course you can reduce the file size further from within Acrobat (from File
menu or other tweaks).

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is at least 5 hours different from the US and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
============================================================
* A SUGGESTION -- WAIT FOR CONSIDERED ADVICE: If you post a question, keep
re-visiting the newsgroup for several days after the first response comes
in. Sometimes it takes a few responses before the best or complete solution
is proposed; sometimes you'll be asked for further information so that a
better answer can be provided. Good tips about getting the best out of
posting are at http://word.mvps.org/FindHelp/Posting.htm (if you use Safari
you may see a blank page and have to hit the circular arrow icon -- "Reload
the current page" -- a few times).

============================================================

 

[WJ Shack]

Creating pdfs is easy in OS X, but the native pdfs are very large since the
graphic files are included as full bit maps rather than in a compressed
format. Ever since 10.2, there have been ways to compress the pdfs built
into the system, but they haven't worked quite right and by default they
give very compact but low quality pdf files. There are more flexible methods
which give you more control over pdf size and quality.

Method 1 (requires more effort to setup but easiest to use in long run)

1. Open ColorSync Utility (Applications/Utilities) 2. Click Filters 3. Click
+ button in lower left 4. Name Filter (PDF Hi Q) 5. Click down triangle in
circle on right. From popup menu choose "Add Image Effects Component/Image
Compression" 6. Click mode popup and choose JPEG. Set Quality slider to
3/4 for Hi Q (1/2 for med, and 1/4 for low) 7. Create filters for medium &
and low quality similarly if you want 8. Quit ColorSync Utility


In any application, create or open something to print. This can be just a
junk file. Choose Print.

1. In Print dialog click popup menu that comes up "Copies & Pages" by
default. Choose "ColorSync".

2. From Quartz filter popup in next dialog choose "PDF Hi Q" 3. From Preset
popup menu (that probably comes up Standard) choose "Save As". Give it a
name like "PDF Hi Q". 4. From the PDF popup menu save a PDF ( this is just a
junk file).

Your print dialog will come up with "PDF Hi Q" as the default print set. You
can use it for any printing job, not just pdfs, because the filter affects
only pdfs.

Unfortunately this isn't quite good enough. You must click on the Copies and
Pages popup and choose "ColorSync". The default "PDF Hi Q" will be
selected so you don't have to do anything else, BUT YOU MUST JOG THE MEMORY
BY DOING THIS STEP EACH TIME YOU WANT TO PRINT A PDF.

Choose "Save as PDF" from the pdf popup menu. Your pdf will be automatically
compressed as it is created. By using other filters you could obviously
create different quality pdfs.


Method 2 for Tiger 10.4 (less setup but requires you to rename file)

10.4 includes a "Compress PDF" item which you will see when you click the
PDF popup button in the Print dialog menu. This works fine, but again it is
set for the greatest compression and lowest quality. This is an Automator
workflow.

You easily create new Automator workflows that give you a high quality
compression or the option of setting the compression on the fly. Put your
new workflows into ~/user_name/Library/PDF Services (if you don't have a PDF
Services folder just create a new folder in the Library folder named PDF
Services, and you will see two additional items in the PDF popup. The only
problem with using these is that you have to rename the file manually. Thus
I find it easier to use Method 1 where I just have to select from a popup
menu.

Creating workflows is pretty easy if you just open Automator and play a bit,
but if anyone is interested write me offline and will send workflows for
high quality compression and on the fly compression/quality choice.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Thanks for posting this very handy information--it's been on my list of
things to track down for a while.