PDF/UA-1 · CLAUSE 7.21.4.1

Font is not embedded

A font used to render text in the document is not embedded in the file.

Rule 7.21.4.1-1 ISO 14289-1 Object: PDFont

Why it matters

The reader substitutes a different font, which can change layout and, worse, break text extraction so screen readers announce the wrong characters.

How to fix it

  • Enable font embedding in the PDF export settings of the source application.
  • Check licensing: some fonts forbid embedding, in which case replace the font.
  • Verify with File > Properties > Fonts that every listed font says 'Embedded' or 'Embedded Subset'.

What the standard says

The font programs for all fonts used for rendering within a conforming file shall be embedded within that file, as defined in ISO 32000-1:2008, 9.9

Check your own PDF

Validate a file against PDF/UA-1 and see whether this rule fails in your document.

curl -sS -X POST "https://api.ua1.dev/api/validate?format=compact&profile=ua1" \
  -F "file=@document.pdf"