Bug#421464: pdfetex: Not embedding Base-14 fonts creates somewhat broken files

[Maik Zumstrull <Maik.Zumstrull@gmx.de>]

Package: texlive-base-bin
Version: 2007-5
Severity: normal

When choosing not to embed the Base 14 fonts (Helvetica, Times, etc.) in a
pdfetex-created PDF document, the resulting files are sometimes displayed wrong
in Adobe Reader. Specifically, a serif font is chosen to display Helvetica
instead of a sans-serif font, which obviously changes the visual impression of
any document significantly. The files are interpreted correctly by evince.
They also work correctly on my (Postscript 3-capable) printer after a PDF->PS
conversion with Ghostscript.

Note that PDFs without embedded fonts are, while "not recommended", perfectly
valid, especially when the Base 14 fonts are concerned, which any PDF viewer
is supposed to provide correct versions of anyway.

I cannot guarantee that this behaviour is formally a bug in pdfetex instead of
a weird anomaly of Adobe Reader. However: Since Adobe Reader is *the*
multi-platform standard for displaying PDF files whether we like it or not, it
would be good to create files that work correctly in it. Also, even if the
problem would technically lie with Adobe Reader, just implementing a workaround
in pdfetex would probably be simpler than getting Adobe to do anything.

Sample input including precompiled PDFs with and without the embedded fonts
can be found at <http://www.stud.uni-karlsruhe.de/~ujaxc/font-embedding-problem/>
for the time being. If you would prefer to include the files in the BTS itself,
feel free to do so.

I wasn't entirely sure which texlive subpackage to submit this to, feel free to
reassign.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (110, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.20-1-686 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages texlive-base-bin depends on:
ii  ed                        0.2-20         The classic unix line editor
ii  libc6                     2.5-4          GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libncurses5               5.5-5          Shared libraries for terminal hand
ii  libpng12-0                1.2.15~beta5-1 PNG library - runtime
ii  libpoppler0c2             0.4.5-5.1      PDF rendering library
ii  libx11-6                  2:1.0.3-7      X11 client-side library
ii  libxaw7                   1:1.0.3-3      X11 Athena Widget library
ii  libxmu6                   1:1.0.3-1      X11 miscellaneous utility library
ii  libxpm4                   1:3.5.6-2      X11 pixmap library
ii  libxt6                    1:1.0.5-2      X11 toolkit intrinsics library
ii  mime-support              3.39-1         MIME files 'mime.types' & 'mailcap
ii  perl                      5.8.8-7        Larry Wall's Practical Extraction 
ii  texlive-common            2007-4         TeX Live: Base component
ii  zlib1g                    1:1.2.3-13     compression library - runtime

Versions of packages texlive-base-bin recommends:
pn  perl-tk                       <none>     (no description available)

Versions of packages tex-common depends on:
ii  debconf                       1.5.13     Debian configuration management sy
ii  ucf                           2.0021     Update Configuration File: preserv

Versions of packages texlive-base-bin is related to:
pn  tetex-base                    <none>     (no description available)
pn  tetex-bin                     <none>     (no description available)
pn  tetex-extra                   <none>     (no description available)

-- debconf information:
  tex-common/check_texmf_wrong:
  tex-common/check_texmf_missing: