find PDF font info with PyPDF2, example code

gistfile1.txt

from PyPDF2 import PdfFileReader
from pprint import pprint

def walk(obj, fnt, emb):
    '''
    If there is a key called 'BaseFont', that is a font that is used in the document.
    If there is a key called 'FontName' and another key in the same dictionary object
    that is called 'FontFilex' (where x is null, 2, or 3), then that fontname is 
    embedded.
    
    We create and add to two sets, fnt = fonts used and emb = fonts embedded.
    '''
    if not hasattr(obj, 'keys'):
        return None, None
    fontkeys = set(['/FontFile', '/FontFile2', '/FontFile3'])
    if '/BaseFont' in obj:
        fnt.add(obj['/BaseFont'])
    if '/FontName' in obj:
        if [x for x in fontkeys if x in obj]:# test to see if there is FontFile
            emb.add(obj['/FontName'])

    for k in obj.keys():
        walk(obj[k], fnt, emb)

    return fnt, emb# return the sets for each page

if __name__ == '__main__':
    fname = 'myfile.pdf'
    pdf = PdfFileReader(fname)
    fonts = set()
    embedded = set()
    for page in pdf.pages:
        obj = page.getObject()
        # updated via this answer:
        # https://stackoverflow.com/questions/60876103/use-pypdf2-to-detect-non-embedded-fonts-in-pdf-file-generated-by-google-docs/60895334#60895334 
        # in order to handle lists inside objects. Thanks misingnoglic !
        # untested code since I don't have such a PDF to play with.
        if type(obj) == PyPDF2.generic.ArrayObject:  # You can also do ducktyping here
            for i in obj:
                if hasattr(i, 'keys'):
                    f, e = walk(i, fonts, embedded_fonts)
                    fonts = fonts.union(f)
                    embedded = embedded.union(e)
        else:
            f, e = walk(obj['/Resources'], fonts, embedded)
            fonts = fonts.union(f)
            embedded = embedded.union(e)

    unembedded = fonts - embedded
    print 'Font List'
    pprint(sorted(list(fonts)))
    if unembedded:
        print '\nUnembedded Fonts'
        pprint(unembedded)

Thank you very much for the script - used it to get the fonts of a pdf that I couldn't extract by other means!

That's a very handy! Is it also possuble to get a text wich is written bold?

First, install the two packages:

pip install PyPDF2
pip install pprint

Next, if using Python3, edit the following lines:

print('Font List')
pprint(sorted(list(fonts)))
…
print('\nUnembedded Fonts')
pprint(unembedded)

Hi - FYI I tried to use this script to find unembedded fonts in PDFs. I downloaded a PDF from Google docs with just Arial, and Adobe Reader says the font is embedded, but this script says it's not.

thanks for the info. This works for the PDFs I've come across, but there are so many different structures possible inside a PDF. I would definitely believe Adobe. If you want further confirmation, pdffonts is a command line tool you might be interested in. https://www.xpdfreader.com/pdffonts-man.html

Thanks - I'll try to reverse engineer what they have done. In the meantime I've asked on Stack Overflow: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/60876103/use-pypdf2-to-detect-non-embedded-fonts-in-pdf-file-generated-by-google-docs

Figured it out! You need to modify the script to handle lists as well. I put an example in the stackoverflow answer:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/60876103/use-pypdf2-to-detect-non-embedded-fonts-in-pdf-file-generated-by-google-docs/60895334#60895334

I updated the code as best I could. Untested though. Thanks for the info!

That's a very handy! Is it also possuble to get a text wich is written bold?

@tiarno any way we can do this as well

hi, can someone help a rookie out... this is a function that will return the names of the various fonts within a pdf... correct?
so i should feed it a pdf ( i assume this is the object param of the function) but what are the other 2 params? it seems like its asking me for 2 fonts..

quick explain... thanks

That's a very handy! Is it also possuble to get a text wich is written bold?

@tiarno any way we can do this as well

Indeed this would be really useful!

We've been using this code for quite a while to detect unembedded fonts.

I made a change recently to support composite (Type 0) fonts: alphagov/notifications-template-preview@83c137b

We've been using this code for quite a while to detect unembedded fonts.

I made a change recently to support composite (Type 0) fonts: alphagov/notifications-template-preview@83c137b

Very nice, I didn't even know about Type0 fonts. Thanks for the comment.

Thank you for this! It helped me out. I've gotten outputs for PDFs I've tested as follows:

{'SymbolMT', 'ArialMT', 'BCDEEE', 'BCDGEE', 'BCDFEE'}

Is there a reason why it shows 'ArialMT' instead of just 'Arial' and what exactly is the 'BCDGEE'? Is there a way to get rid of the 'MT' in 'ArialMT' and the 'BCDGEE'?

I would love this in python 3.

@mteam88 here:

from PyPDF2 import PdfReader
from pprint import pprint
import PyPDF2

def walk(obj, fnt, emb):
    '''
    If there is a key called 'BaseFont', that is a font that is used in the document.
    If there is a key called 'FontName' and another key in the same dictionary object
    that is called 'FontFilex' (where x is null, 2, or 3), then that fontname is 
    embedded.
    
    We create and add to two sets, fnt = fonts used and emb = fonts embedded.
    '''
    if not hasattr(obj, 'keys'):
        return None, None
    fontkeys = set(['/FontFile', '/FontFile2', '/FontFile3'])
    if '/BaseFont' in obj:
        fnt.add(obj['/BaseFont'])
    if '/FontName' in obj:
        if [x for x in fontkeys if x in obj]:# test to see if there is FontFile
            emb.add(obj['/FontName'])

    for k in obj.keys():
        walk(obj[k], fnt, emb)

    return fnt, emb# return the sets for each page

if __name__ == '__main__':
    fname = 'myfile.pdf'
    pdf = PdfReader(fname)
    fonts = set()
    embedded = set()
    for page in pdf.pages:
        obj = page.get_object()
        # updated via this answer:
        # https://stackoverflow.com/questions/60876103/use-pypdf2-to-detect-non-embedded-fonts-in-pdf-file-generated-by-google-docs/60895334#60895334 
        # in order to handle lists inside objects. Thanks misingnoglic !
        # untested code since I don't have such a PDF to play with.
        if type(obj) == PyPDF2.generic.ArrayObject:  # You can also do ducktyping here
            for i in obj:
                if hasattr(i, 'keys'):
                    f, e = walk(i, fonts, embedded_fonts)
                    fonts = fonts.union(f)
                    embedded = embedded.union(e)
        else:
            f, e = walk(obj['/Resources'], fonts, embedded)
            fonts = fonts.union(f)
            embedded = embedded.union(e)

    unembedded = fonts - embedded
    print('Font List')
    pprint(sorted(list(fonts)))
    if unembedded:
        print ('\nUnembedded Fonts')
        pprint(unembedded)

Hi! Is there a way to get bold words or bold phrases inside a page containing information about font used?