This isn't a common problem, but when it comes up it can be a big problem. Here's a recent post I made on the topic. Feel free to add your $0.02.
| I have received a .pdf file from a client and i need to make some changes on the pics, but when I edit the document normaly the illustrator tells me about those missing fonts. I have no posibilty to grab those font`s from the client because he lost them (hmmmm). And i cant find them because those are some special fonts whith diacritics (romanian fonts). |
That's a hard problem. I use an old Acrobat plug-in called PowerUp PDF that allows me to edit PDF text even if I don't have the font. I'm not sure if this plug-in works in Acrobat 6 or greater; the manufacturer no longer supports it (though it appears to be on the market).
Here's another product that might serve your purpose better:
Foxit PDF Editor: "The First REAL Editor for PDF Files"
http://foxitsoftware.com/pdf/pe_intro.php
I haven't tried it, yet. But I plan to.
(Since I posted this, another third-party PDF editing tool has been recommended: CAD-KAS PDF Editor.)
I should have also noted this Acrobat-based workaround. Acrobat has a text edit tool (TouchUp Text), but it does not permit editing text that uses a font you don't have on your machine. The workaround is to select the text using TouchUp Text and change its font to something you do have on your machine (right-click > Properties...). Then proceed with editing.
It is also possible to edit PDF text using Vim + pdftk, though that's pretty hard core. When using this technique, you can find a specific PDF page dictionary by searching for "pdftk_PageNum n", where n is the 1-based number of the page you want to edit. Pdftk adds these entries when using the "uncompress" feature. It removes them when using the "compress" feature.
When editing PDF code directly this way (Vim + pdftk), font encoding issues might arise; the PDF's internal font encoding can be arbitrary. Sometimes it is human-readable, sometimes it isn't. And if the font is subset, it might not have all of the characters you need.