7 Replies Latest reply: Jun 21, 2011 2:48 PM by Bill@VT RSS

    How to make greek letters copiable in pdf files?

    asdfabcedasf Community Member

      Ctrl-C will not copy the greek letters in the following pdf file. For example, if I select Lambda, then type ctrl-C, and ctrl-V to somewhere, I will get nothing pasted. Is there a way to modify the pdf so that greek letters can be copied? Thanks.

       

      https://rapidshare.com/files/3819691282/acrobat_change_font.pdf

        • 1. Re: How to make greek letters copiable in pdf files?
          Bill@VT CommunityMVP

          The font for the \theta as an example is MTMI. I copied it into WORD 2007 and it worked fine. The problem is likely that you do not have that font on your system. Actually, I can not find it on my system either. It is not in the WORD font list. However, it does copy just fine. In my other word processor, it does not copy correctly. I suspect that it may be a font related to OFFICE 2007/2010, but am not sure. In any case, it is just that your system is not recognizing the font that is embedded in the PDF (it is an Open Type font). This site might help explain the fonts you are looking at a bit http://www.math.utah.edu/~beebe/fonts/y-and-y-fontnames.html. It appears they are related to TeX. It may be that they show up because I have LaTeX installed on my machine.

          • 2. Re: How to make greek letters copiable in pdf files?
            asdfabcedasf Community Member

            Bill@VT wrote:

             

            The font for the \theta as an example is MTMI. I copied it into WORD 2007 and it worked fine. The problem is likely that you do not have that font on your system. Actually, I can not find it on my system either. It is not in the WORD font list. However, it does copy just fine. In my other word processor, it does not copy correctly. I suspect that it may be a font related to OFFICE 2007/2010, but am not sure. In any case, it is just that your system is not recognizing the font that is embedded in the PDF (it is an Open Type font). This site might help explain the fonts you are looking at a bit http://www.math.utah.edu/~beebe/fonts/y-and-y-fontnames.html. It appears they are related to TeX. It may be that they show up because I have LaTeX installed on my machine.

             

            Please try to copy \Lambda instead of \theta. You will see the problem.

            • 3. Re: How to make greek letters copiable in pdf files?
              Bill@VT CommunityMVP

              Yep, that one failed. However, it all comes back to you not having the font one your system. You might check to see if you can download a copy of the MTMI font. You get a different strange result if you save to DOC.

              • 4. Re: How to make greek letters copiable in pdf files?
                asdfabcedasf Community Member

                Bill@VT wrote:

                 

                Yep, that one failed. However, it all comes back to you not having the font one your system. You might check to see if you can download a copy of the MTMI font. You get a different strange result if you save to DOC.

                It seems that this font can be downloaded here. Do you know how to install it? Also, once this font is available in my system, is it possible to embedded in the pdf file so that there will be no such problem on other machine where this font is not availble?

                 

                  http://ctan.binkerton.com/ctan.readme.php?filename=fonts/mt11p/tfm/mtmi.tfm

                • 5. Re: How to make greek letters copiable in pdf files?
                  Bill@VT CommunityMVP

                  For normal windows fonts you right click on the font file and there should be an option to install it. I am not sure if it copies the font to the font folder or it is best to move it there first. As far as embedding so it can be copied, that will not help. The MTMI font is embedded in your PDF. The Times New Roman fonts are not. I embed all fonts used as subsets. However, to copy the font to WORD or such and make it useful, you have to have the font on your system, not just embedded.

                   

                  From the instructions I read, you have to have more than the tfm file. I think the vf file is the font file. That is not the actual font file. There are some instructions at the site I already pointed to. I would check at the site where you are getting the font. I would just have to search to find the instructions for the file. They would help you for working with the font on your system, but would not do the other aspect you wanted of helping others. As I indicated, the font has to be installed locally to enable proper copying. The fonts files are not copied from the PDF.

                  • 6. Re: How to make greek letters copiable in pdf files?
                    asdfabcedasf Community Member

                    Bill@VT wrote:

                     

                    For normal windows fonts you right click on the font file and there should be an option to install it. I am not sure if it copies the font to the font folder or it is best to move it there first. As far as embedding so it can be copied, that will not help. The MTMI font is embedded in your PDF. The Times New Roman fonts are not. I embed all fonts used as subsets. However, to copy the font to WORD or such and make it useful, you have to have the font on your system, not just embedded.

                     

                    From the instructions I read, you have to have more than the tfm file. I think the vf file is the font file. That is not the actual font file. There are some instructions at the site I already pointed to. I would check at the site where you are getting the font. I would just have to search to find the instructions for the file. They would help you for working with the font on your system, but would not do the other aspect you wanted of helping others. As I indicated, the font has to be installed locally to enable proper copying. The fonts files are not copied from the PDF.

                     

                    Since my original question can not be solved unless I get the font installed in my system (but I can't). Let me change my question a bit.

                     

                    How to search for such a greek letter \Lambda in this pdf file? Is there a walkaround? Is there a tool can help replace the font of \Lambda by something available in my system?

                    • 7. Re: How to make greek letters copiable in pdf files?
                      Bill@VT CommunityMVP

                      I tried to change it with the text touchup tool. However, the change was not allowed to Symbol because the font encodings are different. I really do not have a good solution for you, or a workaround.