Troubleshooting
Embedded-font problems
How you'd notice this
Text that looked correct on your computer displays in a different, generic font (often a plain serif or sans-serif substitute) when opened elsewhere, or KDP/IngramSpark rejects the PDF citing a font issue.
Why it happens
A PDF only displays your chosen fonts correctly everywhere if those fonts are embedded (packaged) inside the file itself. If a font isn't embedded (often because a "web-safe" or online-only PDF export setting was used instead of a print-quality one), any computer that doesn't already have that exact font installed silently substitutes a different one.
How to fix it
You haven't picked a formatting program yet, so every program's steps are shown below, pick a tab for the one you're using.
- When exporting, use File > Save a Copy / Export > Create PDF (not a "print to PDF" virtual printer), click "More options," and make sure the export is set for print quality, not "Minimum size (online)."
- After exporting, re-open the PDF and check your PDF viewer's Document Properties > Fonts panel, every font should say "Embedded" or "Embedded Subset," not just be listed by name.
- Docs always embeds the fonts it uses when you export via File > Download > PDF Document, there's no separate embedding setting to miss.
- Still, re-open the exported PDF and check its Fonts properties to confirm, since Docs gives you no export dialog to double-check beforehand.
- Atticus's built-in export handles font embedding automatically as part of generating your print file, there's no separate toggle.
- If you're troubleshooting a file made elsewhere and it lacks embedded fonts, re-export it through Atticus rather than trying to patch the existing PDF.
- When exporting via File > Export > Adobe PDF (Print), use the "Press Quality" or "High Quality Print" preset, which embeds fonts by default.
- In the export dialog's Fonts section (under Advanced/Compression, depending on version), keep the "subset embedded fonts" threshold at 100% so all glyphs, not just some, embed.
- Confirm embedding afterward the same way, open the exported PDF and check the Fonts panel in your PDF viewer.
- Don't submit a Scrivener-compiled PDF directly, compile to Word (.docx) and finish font embedding in Word, Atticus, or Vellum, following that program's own export instructions.
- Pages always embeds the fonts it uses when you export via File > Export To > PDF, there's no separate embedding setting to miss.
- Still, re-open the exported PDF and check its Fonts properties to confirm, since Pages gives no export dialog to double-check beforehand.
- Reedsy Studio's export handles font embedding automatically as part of generating your typeset file, there's no separate toggle since there's no manual font selection either.
- If you're troubleshooting a file made elsewhere, re-export it through Reedsy Studio rather than trying to patch the existing PDF.
- Vellum's export handles font embedding automatically as part of generating your print PDF, there's no separate toggle to check.
- If you're troubleshooting a file made elsewhere, re-export it through Vellum rather than trying to patch the existing PDF.
- When exporting via File > Export As > Export as PDF, confirm font embedding is enabled in the PDF Options General tab and uncheck "Export only used characters" so full font data embeds.
- After exporting, re-open the PDF and check your PDF viewer's Document Properties > Fonts panel to confirm every font shows "Embedded" or "Embedded Subset."