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PDF Font Inspector

See exactly which fonts a PDF uses and whether they travel with the file. The inspector lists every font with its type, whether it is embedded fully or as a subset, its encoding, whether text in it can be copied and searched reliably, and the pages it appears on, and warns when a font is missing – the classic cause of changed layouts and rejected print jobs.

  • Files stay on your device
  • No sign-up
  • Free to use

How to use PDF Font Inspector

  1. Drop a PDF onto the page.
  2. Click “Inspect fonts”.
  3. Read the checks and the font list.
  4. Fix missing fonts in the source document if needed.

PDF Font Inspector features

Embedding check

Embedded, subset, or relying on the reader.

Font types

Type 1, TrueType, CFF/OpenType, Type 0 (CID) and Type 3.

Unicode map

Shows whether copying text will give correct characters.

Page usage

Which pages use each font.

Standard 14

Recognises the fonts every reader provides.

Private

Analysed in your browser.

When to use PDF Font Inspector

  • Preflight before sending a file to a print shop.
  • Checking PDF/A or e-filing requirements.
  • Finding why text looks different on another computer.
  • Investigating garbled text when copying from a PDF.

PDF Font Inspector FAQ

Why should fonts be embedded?

A PDF that only names a font relies on the reader having it. If it does not, a substitute is used, which can change spacing, line breaks and special characters. Printers and archives therefore require embedding.

What is a subset?

A subset contains only the characters the document uses, shown by a prefix like ABCDEF+ before the name. It keeps files small; editing text with new characters is not possible.

Are the standard 14 fonts a problem?

Readers provide Helvetica, Times, Courier, Symbol and ZapfDingbats, so display is fine. Archival standards like PDF/A still require them to be embedded.

What does “Unicode map” mean?

A ToUnicode table tells readers which character each glyph represents. Without it, copying or searching text in some fonts produces wrong characters.

Why does a font show “inside graphics”?

It is used in a form object or pattern rather than directly in a page’s resources.

Is my PDF uploaded?

No. The structure is read in your browser with qpdf.

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Fonts in PDF documents

Each piece of text in a PDF refers to a font resource. The resource names the font and, ideally, contains the font program itself, so the document looks the same everywhere. When the program is missing, readers fall back to a similar font, and print workflows usually refuse the file.

The inspector reads the document structure with qpdf and walks through every font dictionary. Composite Type 0 fonts, used for large character sets such as CJK scripts, are reported together with their descendant CID font. The descriptor reveals whether a Type 1, TrueType or CFF program is embedded.

Text extraction depends on more than embedding. Fonts with custom encodings need a Unicode map so that copy, search and screen readers get the right characters. The inspector flags fonts that use identity encodings without such a map.

If fonts are missing, the fix belongs in the source: export again with font embedding enabled, or print to PDF with a profile such as PDF/X or PDF/A that requires it.

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