Fix Missing Fonts in a PDF (Khmer, Thai & More)

Overview

Some apps save PDFs without the fonts they used. The file looks fine on the computer that made it, then shows boxes, broken shaping, or the wrong typeface everywhere else. It happens most with Khmer, Thai, and Indic text from Illustrator or Word.

PDFTape for Mac fixes this by copying the missing fonts into a new copy of the PDF, on your Mac. It's free — no Pro needed — and available in PDFTape for Mac 1.4 and later.

1. 1

   Install the font

   PDFTape embeds fonts from your Mac, so the font the document was made with needs to be installed — the same version the author used. If you received the PDF from someone else, ask them which font they used.

2. 2

   Save a clean copy

   Open the PDF in PDFTape and choose Save a clean copy (Save a new PDF with missing fonts embedded). The repair also runs when you merge, split, or compress a single PDF, so any export gives you a fixed file. Your original is never changed.

   Step 2

3. 3

   Check the result

   The saved message tells you exactly what happened — for example Added Khmer OS Battambang, which the original was missing, so it looks right on other devices. If a font couldn't be added, you'll see why: it isn't installed, the installed version doesn't match, or the font can't be copied into the file. Install the right font and save again.

Good to know

• The installed font must match the version the PDF was made with; PDFTape never swaps in a different one.
• The font's license has to allow embedding.
• Fonts with TrueType outlines are supported; CFF-based OpenType fonts can't be embedded.
• Common fonts such as Arial are skipped — every PDF viewer already handles them.
• Password-protected PDFs are left as they are.