what is font subsetting?

About this post

       Hi ...This is ravi....... I came to know about this topic when i was trying to convert a pdf file (Portable Document Format) to doc file(Microsoft Word Document) , I downloaded many converters like (pdf to doc converter) but i was not sucessfull, After that i downloaded some pdf editors like (Foxit pdf Editor) to do some changes...i was sucessful in editing the pdf file but i was not able to convert it sucessfully, When i tired to convert i  was getting some weird font in my Microsoft Word document .

    After all this effort i came to conclusion that i should figure out  the reason for my failure...then while editing in (Nitro pdf professional) i came to know that there will be a option while creating a pdf that option is called (FONT SUBSETTING) this option is provided by the Adobe acrobat distiller while making a normal document in to a pdf..

EMBEDDING AND SUBSETTING THE FONTS

Subsetting Fonts:If you subset the font, the person who receives your PDF would need to have your same font in order to make changes to your PDF. The file size of the PDF would also be smaller because you are embedding only part of a font. When you subset a font you usually just embed the characters you are using (obviously it depends on how you are subsetting your font).That's why somebody on another computer would have your same font in order to make changes.

Embedding Fonts: If you embed the whole font in the PDF, the person on the other end can make changes to it even if he didn't have your font, if he has the full version of acrobat or another program with the capability of modifying PDFs. The file size of the PDF would also be bigger because you are embedding the entire font

M0dification  Vs  View/Print:  There is  big difference between modification and view/print

the above topics will come to play when the context is modification. we can not change a PDF with font subsetting, but we can view them.If you embed your fonts properly and your fonts are not corrupted, then whether you subset the font or not will not affect the way somebody else can view or print your PDF.

Quick Reference:

--> Full Font Embedding = Larger file size

       Recipient doesn't needs the same font to view or edit the file

-->subset Font Embedding  = smaller file size

      Recipient doesn't need the same font to view but does need the same font installed in order to edit the file

-->No Font Embedding  = Small file size

      Recipient need to have same fonts installed