When a PDF or PostScript file is created, font resources are often renamed to short, unique names to save space. are font aliases —temporary names assigned by the PDF generator (e.g., Adobe Acrobat Distiller, Ghostscript, or a CAD program).
A CIDFont (Character Identifier Font) is a format used primarily for rendering large character sets (like Chinese, Japanese, Korean) or complex scripts. However, in the context of F1-F7, it is often a "False" CIDFont used to reference simple Latin fonts.
Many open-source CAD fonts (SHX replacements) are hosted on GitHub by the developer community. Summary: Avoid "Free Download" Scams
gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite \ -dSubsetFonts=false \ -dEmbedAllFonts=true \ -sFONTPATH=/usr/share/fonts/noto \ -c ".cidfmap /F1 /NotoSansCJK-JP-Regular ; /F2 /NotoSerifCJK-JP-Reginal ; bind def" \ -f input.pdf -o output_fixed.pdf cid font f1 f2 f3 f4 f5 f6 f7 fonts free download link
: If you see an error about these fonts, it means the PDF was saved without the full font file included, and your system doesn't know which real font to use as a replacement. Google Groups Common Substitutions
This repository includes surrogate fonts that respond to the names F1 through F7 when used with Ghostscript or Acrobat.
📥 (via OSDN): → https://osdn.net/projects/wadalab/ When a PDF or PostScript file is created,
"When I looked at the metadata for PDF normalization, I saw something shocking: the font was CID-Font F1 F2 F3 F4 F5—a font I've never even heard of"
If you’ve ever worked with , PDFs , or high-end publishing systems , you’ve probably stumbled across a cryptic term: CID fonts . Even more puzzling are labels like F1, F2, F3, F4, F5, F6, F7 inside font files or PDF resources. What are they? Where can you download them legally? And why does this matter for designers, developers, and archivists?
If you have ever opened a complex PDF from a CAD software or a technical manual only to see warning messages like "Cannot find CID font ‘F1’" , you know the frustration. These fonts are not "stylish" in the traditional sense—they are functional, data-driven, and essential for rendering glyphs correctly in East Asian languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) and specialized symbol sets. However, in the context of F1-F7, it is
| Label | Typical Font Family | Script | Common Use Case | |-------|---------------------|--------|------------------| | | HeiseiKakuGo-W5 (Japanese Gothic) | Japanese | Headlines, UI text | | F2 | HeiseiMin-W3 (Japanese Serif) | Japanese | Body text, novels | | F3 | KozGoPro-Regular | Japanese | Modern Gothic | | F4 | Ryumin-Light | Japanese | Traditional serif | | F5 | MS Gothic (or similar) | Japanese | Monospaced | | F6 | Adobe Ming Std L | Chinese | Serif body text | | F7 | Adobe Song Std L | Chinese | Song style serif |
The safest place for high-quality, free-to-use fonts that often replace missing CID fonts perfectly.
Right-click your PDF file, select Open With , and choose Google Chrome , Microsoft Edge , or Mozilla Firefox . Modern browsers have excellent built-in PDF rendering engines that automatically substitute missing CID fonts with clean system fonts.