Microsoft Word 2003 Fonts – Save Space Embedding TrueType Fonts

If your Word 2003 document contains fonts others do not have, you can embed fonts into your documents so others can see your work as you intended.

However, embedding TrueType fonts comes at a cost of increased file sizes. If you are distributing documents for viewing and not for comments or modifications, there are a couple of tweaks you can perform to slightly decrease the document file size.

1. Click “Tools” – “Options”.

2. When the “Options” multi-tabbed dialog box appears, click the “Save” tab.

3. Make sure “Embed TrueType fonts” is checked.

4. Check “Embed characters in use only”. Now, if you only use 32 or less characters of a particular font, only those characters, and not the entire font, will be embedded.

This saves space, but if someone needs to modify your document, if they use characters not embedded, their modified text will not use the chosen font.

5. Consider checking “Do not embed common system fonts”. Now, Word 2003 will not embed fonts that it thinks most people have.

If you are transferring documents to other Windows users, you should be ok clicking this. However, if you plan on Macintosh or other computer users viewing your documents, leave this unchecked, as Macintosh standard system fonts differ from Windows’.

6. Click “OK” to close the dialog box.