PDF Font Finder

PDF font finder — free online font identifier

Need to know what fonts are inside a PDF? Our free PDF font finder reads every font referenced in your file and shows its name, style, whether it is embedded in the PDF itself, whether that embedded copy is a subset, and which pages it appears on — right in your browser. There is nothing to install and no account to create.

What information does a PDF font finder show?

Each row in the results table covers five things about a font. Font is the font's name as it is recorded in the PDF, with any subsetting prefix removed. Style shows whether that instance of the font is Regular, Bold, Italic, or Bold Italic, read from how the PDF names it. Embedded shows whether the font's actual program is stored inside the PDF file itself, rather than expected to already be installed on the device viewing it. Subset shows whether only the specific characters the document uses were embedded, rather than the whole typeface. Pages lists every page the font appears on, so you can tell whether it is used throughout the document or in just one place. For the rest of a PDF's document properties — title, author, page count, and more — see our PDF metadata tool.

What does embedded mean in a PDF?

A PDF can carry a font in one of three ways. A fully embedded font has its complete font program saved inside the file, so every character displays correctly on any device, even one that does not have that font installed. A subset-embedded font is still stored inside the file, but includes only the characters the document actually uses — common in PDFs exported from word processors and design tools, and not a sign of a problem. A non-embedded font is not stored in the file at all; the PDF just names it and relies on the viewer's own device to supply a matching font, which can change how the text looks if that exact font is not installed there.

Why find fonts in a PDF?

Knowing what fonts a PDF actually uses comes up in a few common situations: identifying a font so you can track it down or install it elsewhere, matching a document's typography when recreating it in another file, troubleshooting text that renders oddly or falls back to a substitute font, checking whether a PDF's fonts are embedded before sending it somewhere the recipient's device might not have them, and figuring out what was used in an older PDF whose original source file is long gone. If the text itself needs editing rather than just identifying, our Edit PDF and PDF to Word tools pick up from here.