Welcome! We created these instructions to help you overcome some common challenges often faced in PowerPoint and Word with fonts. If you are working in PowerPoint then I'd also urge you to take a look at our Slidewise PowerPoint add-in that makes it really easy to view, replace, remove and embed fonts in PowerPoint.

Please read on and use these links to jump to the section you are most interested in:

• How to embed fonts in PowerPoint or Word
• How to subset, remove or unembed fonts in PowerPoint or Word
• How to check if fonts are embedded in your document
• Warning: Some of your fonts cannot be saved with the presentation

How to embed fonts in PowerPoint or Word

When you share your document or presentation with others there’s a chance that text may appear differently on their computers, if they don’t have access to the same fonts as you. This becomes more likely if you use less-common fonts.

If you want to save your presentation without changing or losing the fonts, then you should consider embedding the fonts in your file. Embedding the font means including a copy of the font file within your document, so that other people who open the file can use the font, even if they didn't have it themselves. This will increase the file size but ensures that any recipient can open the document on their computer and see/edit it as you intended.

To embed fonts on Windows follow these steps:

1. Click the File tab in the ribbon and then select Options.
2. In the Options dialog, select Save.
3. At the bottom of the right panel, select the Embed fonts in the file check box.
   
4. Choose either Embed only the characters used in the presentation (Subset) or Embed all characters.
   If you choose to Subset then users without the font will not be able to properly edit the text as they don’t have the full font embedded.
   In Word the options are slightly different with a third option of Do not embed common system fonts, which PowerPoint does by default. This ensures fonts like Arial will not be embedded, even if they are used, as they are commonly available on most computers.
   

To embed fonts on Mac follow these steps:

1. Click PowerPoint in the menu bar and select Preferences (or alternatively hold ⌘ + ,).
2. Click Save, in the middle-left.
   
3. Under the Font Embedding heading, check Embed fonts in the file.
   

Some additional things to consider before embedding fonts:

1. Embedding fonts will ensure your file looks the same when it is viewed or edited by others but it will also make your presentation or document larger, in some cases by a lot!
2. Check how common your fonts are. If it is likely that the people you share your presentation/document with already have the fonts on their system then it is probably not worth increasing your file size by embedding them.
3. If you don’t embed fonts and someone opens the presentation without having the font, PowerPoint will just automatically select a similar font to display the text, so it will look different for them. However, it will not change which font is referenced, so they will be able to edit the file and send it back. When you open it back on your computer with the font available it will display correctly including the new edits.

How to subset, remove or unembed fonts in PowerPoint or Word

If your file size gets too large after embedding fonts in Office files, or you are using a template that came with embedded fonts that you don’t want, you might want to consider removing them to reduce size.

You have a few options here for removing/reducing the size of fonts:

1. Stop embedding fonts - but leave the existing font selection in place, which will reduce the size of your file but when you share it with others you risk having the layout change when PowerPoint substitutes certain fonts.
2. Change the embed settings to only include characters used in the file. This is called subsetting and it ensures that any parts of a font that aren’t in use can be left out. This can make a big difference to the size but it gets in the way of other people making extensive edits to the text as they are potentially missing parts of the font that they need.
3. Replace the font(s) you want to stop embedding in every object, template or theme - choose commonly available fonts, or alternative/smaller fonts that you are happy to embed. This way you can reduce file size but at the same time be confident that your file will appear the same on other computers.

Please note as soon as you remove all references to a font it will cease to be embedded in the file.

How to stop embedding fonts in PowerPoint or Word

Remove embedded fonts in PowerPoint on Windows:

1. In PowerPoint (or Word) click on the File tab and select Options.
2. Click on the Save option on the left-hand side
   
3. In the Preserve fidelity when sharing this presentation section disable the Embed fonts in the file check box.
   
4. Click OK and then save your file, which will immediately remove the fonts from your presentation.

Please note that this will not update/change the fonts used in objects, notes or themes within your presentation; it will just stop including the font files with your presentation/document.

Remove embedded fonts in PowerPoint on Mac:

1. Click PowerPoint in the menu bar and select Preferences (or alternatively hold ⌘ + ,).
2. Click Save, in the middle-left.
   
3. Below the Font Embedding heading, make sure that Embed fonts in the file is unchecked.
   

How to stop embedding all characters in a font

To subset or only include required characters in embedded fonts follow these steps:

1. As above, except in step 3, make sure that you enable Embed fonts in the file and choose Embed only the characters used in the presentation.
   

How to replace fonts to force them to unembed

If you replace all references to an embedded font it will drop out of the file. Follow these steps to replace fonts in use in your presentation:

1. Click Home tab and then select the down arrow alongside the Replace button at the end of the ribbon.
2. Choose Replace Fonts…
   
3. From this dialog you can choose the fonts you no longer want to use in your presentation and replace them with others. Select the font you want to replace in the top dropdown and then the font you’d like to replace it with in the second dropdown list.
   
4. Then click Replace and PowerPoint will change all of the objects using the font.
5. Click Close
6. Save your file and the font that was previously in use and embedded will now be removed from your document.

How to check if fonts are embedded in your document

For the easiest way to check and manage the fonts in your PowerPoint decks, use the Slidewise Add-in for PowerPoint. It shows you all the fonts used in your file, where exactly they are used, and it gives you complete control over replacing and removing them. It also helpfully shows you all the other media in your file too.

If you can't use Slidewise, then you can still find out if fonts are embedded, which fonts and also how large they are - you'll just need to jump through a few more hoops.

Are fonts embedded?

To check this follow the instructions above for embedding or removing embedded fonts and just look at the Embed fonts in the file setting to see if it is enabled or disabled.

Which fonts are embedded?

To see which fonts are included in your file, you can use the Replace Fonts… feature to get a list.

Windows

1. Click Home tab and then select the down arrow alongside the Replace button at the end of the ribbon.
2. Choose Replace Fonts…
   
3. All of the fonts in use in your presentation will appear in the top dropdown.
   

Mac

1. Click the Format menu, then Replace Fonts...
   
2. On the Replace Font dialog, click the Replace dropdown to see a list of all the fonts currently in use within your presentation.
   

How large are the embedded fonts?

To see how large the fonts are inside your file we recommend using a free zip utility to look inside the PPTX/DOCX files because you will be able to see them in the \ppt\fonts or \word\fonts sub folders. These instructions show you how to look inside Office files on Windows, or you can follow these instructions instead if you are on Mac.

On Windows, simply right-click on the PPTX file and choose 7-Zip > Open archive:

If you have fonts embedded in your file then when you go into the ppt folder you will see a fonts subfolder. This tells you that fonts are embedded, and if you browse into the fonts folder you can also see exactly how large they are - see this example below using 7-Zip that has over 8mb of fonts embedded:

Warning: Some of your fonts cannot be saved with the presentation

Embedding fonts is only possible with TrueType fonts (TTF) and OpenType fonts (OTF). They also have to allow embedding within the terms of their license.

If you try to embed a font with license restrictions you will encounter a save with fonts error telling you that Some of your fonts cannot be saved with the presentation.

If you see this warning the font in question will not be embedded within the file. You will also see this warning every time you save the file as long as you leave Embed fonts in the file enabled and you continue to use this font.

Any objects, notes or themes that you have configured to use this font will continue to do so. However, if you share the file with someone else who doesn’t have the font, those objects will have their font substituted. The other person will also see the warning that fonts cannot be saved whenever saving the file as well.

To stop this warning from appearing you have a couple of options:

1. Use the Replace Fonts... feature to change the font that is triggering the warning in all objects, notes and themes that make use of it.
2. You can disable font embedding completely as described above.