Font to Outline
Turn the letters of a PDF into outlines: every letter is drawn as a shape and the fonts are taken out, so the file prints the same anywhere. The text can no longer be selected.
About This Tool
Font to Outline writes a PDF again with every letter drawn as the shape it has, the way a designer creates outlines before sending a file to print. The fonts are taken out of the file, so it shows and prints the same on any system, and the letters stay as sharp as they were at any size: they are shapes, not pictures.
What changes: the words can no longer be selected, searched, corrected or read aloud, and a form that could be filled in becomes a drawing of itself. Pictures, links, bookmarks and the title of the document stay as they are, and lines and drawings stay as sharp as they were. The file is usually larger, because the shape of a letter is stored each time it appears, where a font stored it once.
You can add up to 10 PDFs at once and download the results one by one or as a ZIP. All processing happens locally in your browser; the engine that does it (Ghostscript, about 16 MB) is downloaded the first time the tool is opened.
How to Use
Upload Your PDF
Upload the PDF containing fonts you want to remove.
Read What Changes
There is nothing to set. The note on the screen says what becomes of the document: its words can no longer be selected or searched, so keep the original.
Convert and Download
Click "Convert Fonts to Outlines", then download each file, or click "Download All as ZIP" when there are several.
Use Cases
Print Preparation
Give a print shop a file that cannot have missing or substituted fonts: every letter is a shape, as sharp as in the original.
Cross-Platform Sharing
Share documents that look identical on any device, regardless of installed fonts.
Font Licensing
Send a document without sending its fonts: the font files are not in the result, only the shapes of the letters that were used. Whether your font licence allows that is for the licence to say.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does this work?
The document is written again by Ghostscript with every letter drawn as the shape its font gave it. No fonts are left in the file, and the page is not turned into a picture: letters, lines and drawings stay sharp at any size.
Can I still select text after conversion?
No. A letter drawn as a shape is no longer text: it cannot be selected, searched, copied or read by a screen reader. Keep the original for that. To put searchable text back into an outlined file, run it through OCR PDF.
Is there a quality setting?
No, and none is needed. Nothing is turned into a picture, so there is no resolution to choose: the outlines are exact at every size. Pictures already in the document are left as they are.
Will file size increase?
Usually, yes: the shape of a letter is stored each time it appears, where a font stored it once. A page of plain text can come out several times larger; a document that is mostly pictures hardly changes.
Is this reversible?
No, font data is permanently removed. Keep a backup of the original if you need editable text with the original fonts.
What about vector graphics?
They stay as they are: lines, shapes and drawings are not turned into pictures. Only the letters change, from text set in a font into shapes.