Why does my document look different on their computer?

You send a CV, a poster or a report, and the reply says the headings are in Times, the lines wrap differently and page 2 has a half-empty page. Nearly always, the font you used isn’t on their computer and wasn’t carried in the file, so their app swapped in another one with different letter widths. These tools find out which fonts are involved and whether they can travel with the file.

1. For a PDF: is every font embedded?

A PDF should carry its fonts, and then it looks the same everywhere. Open it in PDF Info & Clean: the Fonts table lists every font it uses and whether it’s embedded, whole or as a subset (just the characters used, which is normal). A warning names any font that isn’t embedded: that’s the one being replaced on other computers. The 14 standard PDF fonts (Times, Helvetica, Courier, Symbol and ZapfDingbats) are fine unembedded, as every reader has them.

To fix it, export the PDF again from the original app with font embedding on: in Word, Options when saving as PDF and tick ISO 19005-1 compliant (PDF/A), or in the app’s PDF settings choose embedding all fonts. Print to PDF also embeds them.

2. Did the words change, or only the look?

When a reply says “this isn’t what I sent”, find out whether the text really differs. Choose your PDF in the first box of Compare PDF and the one they sent back, or their printout saved as a PDF, in the second. It lists only the changed pages, with removed paragraphs in red, added ones in green and moved ones marked “(moved)”. If nothing is listed, the words are the same and the difference is only fonts and layout, so go on to the next steps. It compares text only, so a changed logo, colour or picture won’t show, and a scanned page has no text to compare.

To see how the text reads from the PDF itself, open it in PDF Text. If the words come out as the right words, the fonts carry their text properly. If they come out as odd symbols or the wrong letters, it is usually a sign that the font was swapped or converted, and that people searching or copying from the PDF will see the same mess. Export it again with fonts embedded (step 1).

3. Is the font allowed to be embedded?

If an app refuses to embed a font, or embeds it as an image, the font’s own embedding rights may forbid it. Open the font file in the Font Inspector and read Embedding. Installed fonts are in C:\Windows\Fonts on Windows; on a Mac, find the font in Font Book and choose Show in Finder.

• Installable or Editable: it can travel inside documents, including ones others edit.
• Preview and print: it can be embedded for viewing and printing, which suits PDFs, but Word and PowerPoint files with it open read-only elsewhere.
• Restricted: it can’t be embedded without the maker’s permission. Use another font for documents you send.

Licence and Licence URL say what the licence itself allows, which is what counts.

4. For Word and PowerPoint files: choose a font that survives

Office files usually travel without their fonts. The safe choices are fonts that come with both Windows and macOS (Arial, Calibri and Cambria come with Office; Georgia, Verdana and Times New Roman with both systems), or turning on Embed fonts in the file in Word’s or PowerPoint’s options, which works only for fonts that allow it (step 3).

If the look matters more than the other person being able to edit it, send a PDF instead (step 1). If they must edit it in a brand font they don’t have, ask whoever manages the brand whether the font may be shared with them, rather than sending the font file yourself.