Which font does my PDF use? How to see every font in it

Every PDF lists the fonts it draws with. The analyser above reads that list and tells you, for each font, whether it is embedded, what kind of font it is, and whether text set in it can be copied out correctly, which is the part a plain font list leaves out.

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What have you got, and what will break? Upload a batch of PDFs, DOCX files and scans: each is checked for legacy fonts, a text layer, scan resolution, signatures, protection and invalid sign sequences, and pointed at the tool it needs.

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Used when a scan is opened in Correct.

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Where the font names come from

A PDF names each font it uses, in the form the program that made the file chose. When a whole font is not needed, only the letters the document uses are embedded. That is a subset, marked by six capital letters and a plus sign in front of the name, as in ABCDEF+NotoSansTelugu. The analyser shows the name without the prefix and notes that it was subset. A font that is not embedded at all is drawn by the reader with the closest font it has, which can change how the page looks; that is normal for the standard fonts such as Helvetica and Times, which every reader carries.

When the name means nothing

Names are whatever the software wrote, not always the font’s real name. A 154-page Telugu novel names several of its fonts TT1D00O00, TT1D39O00 and TTE2371118O00, and nothing in those names says they are Anu legacy fonts. The analyser identifies them from the codes they draw instead. It also compares names with spacing and punctuation ignored, because one font can be written two ways inside the same file.

Type, encoding and the map that matters

Type1 is the older PostScript kind and includes the standard fonts. TrueType is the common desktop kind. Type0 is a composite font addressed by glyph number, which is how Unicode fonts for Indian scripts and for Chinese, Japanese and Korean are commonly embedded. Type3 fonts are drawn as small pictures.

The encoding says how the codes in the file relate to letters. WinAnsiEncoding is the standard Western set, and needs nothing more to be copied correctly. Identity-H means glyph numbers, and without a ToUnicode map there is no way back to letters. A predefined Unicode CMap, such as those used for Chinese, carries the letters itself. A legacy font has a map that gives the wrong letters. The analyser’s Unicode mapping column says which of these each font has.

Other ways to see the font list

Adobe Acrobat Reader lists fonts under File › Properties › Fonts, marking each as embedded or embedded subset. The pdffonts command from Poppler prints the name, type and encoding with yes-or-no columns for embedded, subset and a ToUnicode map. Neither tells you whether that map is right, which for an Indian-language PDF is the question that matters. The PDF viewer built into most browsers does not list fonts at all.

What the analyser tells you

Font
The name without its subset prefix, marked (subset) when only the letters used were embedded.
Embedded: No
The reader draws it with a font of its own. Harmless for Helvetica and Times; can change the look of anything else.
Unicode mapping: ToUnicode map, Standard encoding or Predefined CMap
Text in this font copies out as the letters on the page.
Unicode mapping: None
Text in this font cannot be copied reliably. The font is named in the extraction warning.
Legacy: Anu Telugu
A legacy font, identified by family. Its copied text is the font’s codes.

Frequently asked questions

Can I find the font used in a scanned PDF?

Not from the file. A scan has no fonts, only pictures of pages, so the fonts table is empty and the analyser reports the pages as scans. Identifying a typeface from a picture is a different job.

Why does the list show fonts I cannot see on the page?

A PDF can carry a font used for a single page number or symbol, or for text hidden behind a scanned image, such as the invisible layer an OCR program adds. All of them are listed.

Why is the same font listed only once when the PDF has several copies?

Programs often embed a separate subset of one font for different groups of pages. The analyser shows one row per font rather than one per copy, as long as the copies agree on type, encoding and mapping.

Can I download the fonts from my PDF?

The analyser does not extract fonts. Embedded fonts are usually subsets holding only the letters the document used, and most are licensed, so a font taken from a PDF is rarely usable or yours to use.

Does a font list tell me whether the text can be copied?

Only partly. It says whether a map exists, not whether the map is right, and legacy Indian-language fonts have maps that are wrong. The analyser checks what the text actually reads as.

Does the analyser keep my PDF?

Not for long. The PDF is stored encrypted while the report is built, and it is kept afterwards only so you can open it in Correct from the report without uploading it again. The same cleanup that clears every conversion removes it, so nothing is kept longer than 4 hours after upload. Files up to 25 MB, no account needed.

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