# Work-around for the inability to embed fonts in Mac PowerPoint? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 12, 2012, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-around-for-the-inability-to-embed-fonts-in-mac-powerpoint/618602 "2012-04-12T20:15:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-around-for-the-inability-to-embed-fonts-in-mac-powerpoint/618602/1 "2012-04-12T20:15:54Z")
My vehement distaste for PowerPoint burns with the heat of a thousand suns, but, alas, it is the tool I am forced to use to create a very straightforward presentation that will run during a banquet. Each slide will have the honoree’s photo and some text. Everything is static – no animations or fancy transitions – and the slides will be advanced by a human being. I will create said PPT on a Mac (running PowerPoint 2008) but it will run on a Windows machine. From what I have found by googling, it appears there is no way to embed fonts in the Mac version to circumvent font issues. Am I asking for trouble if I create the slides in another program (like Quark or InDesign), save them as JPGs and insert them as a picture in PowerPoint? If this method is not a good strategy, is there some other way to go about it? ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-around-for-the-inability-to-embed-fonts-in-mac-powerpoint/618602/2 "2012-04-12T20:40:01Z")
That’s what I would do. ---
**Author:** ![B.Serum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/b.serum/32/14266_2.png) [@B.Serum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B.Serum)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-around-for-the-inability-to-embed-fonts-in-mac-powerpoint/618602/3 "2012-04-12T20:40:21Z")
Dude, if you have InDesign, create a PDF. You can set it to run in Full Screen mode. PM me if you want pointers or troubleshooting. I used to teach InDesign. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-around-for-the-inability-to-embed-fonts-in-mac-powerpoint/618602/4 "2012-04-12T20:44:24Z")
> [@B.Serum](#): > > Dude, if you have InDesign, create a PDF. You can set it to run in Full Screen mode. PM me if you want pointers or troubleshooting. I used to teach InDesign. I’m not a dude (unless it’s “dude” in the sense of “you guys” ;)), but thanks for the offer! I may take you up on it. ---
**Author:** ![B.Serum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/b.serum/32/14266_2.png) [@B.Serum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B.Serum)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-around-for-the-inability-to-embed-fonts-in-mac-powerpoint/618602/5 "2012-04-12T22:10:56Z")
Uh, yes. “Dude” as in an enthusiastic, non-gender-specific term of greeting ala [Rob Schneider](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77v_Q0mhbZU). ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-around-for-the-inability-to-embed-fonts-in-mac-powerpoint/618602/6 "2012-04-12T22:34:48Z")
if it’s a Mac, you can save to PDF natively. ---
**Author:** ![RearEchelon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b4bc9f/32.png) [@RearEchelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RearEchelon)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2012, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-around-for-the-inability-to-embed-fonts-in-mac-powerpoint/618602/7 "2012-04-13T00:53:28Z")
> [@freckafree](#): > > Am I asking for trouble if I create the slides in another program (like Quark or InDesign), save them as JPGs and insert them as a picture in PowerPoint? This is what I was coming into the thread to suggest. I would say it’s the easiest solution if PP is what you must use. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2012, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-around-for-the-inability-to-embed-fonts-in-mac-powerpoint/618602/8 "2012-04-13T01:00:38Z")
I was definitely going to say: don’t save them as JPEGs. PDF would be best, but if you can’t do that, then PNG or GIF would be a lot better than JPEG. Unless you make the JPEGs rather large, the text is going to look kinda fuzzy. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2012, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-around-for-the-inability-to-embed-fonts-in-mac-powerpoint/618602/9 "2012-04-13T01:42:27Z")
PDFs are a piece of cake. I shall go that route. Thanks, one and all, for the advice! ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2012, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-around-for-the-inability-to-embed-fonts-in-mac-powerpoint/618602/10 "2012-04-13T04:39:25Z")
I solved this problem by making my labels in PowerPoint, selecting them, right-clicking, and Save as Picture-ing them as PNGs to temporary files. Then I bring the PNGs back into PowerPoint in the place of the original labels (once they’re in the PPT, just throw away the temporary files). That way, as noted, my presentations can travel on a thumb drive without caring what computer or version of PowerPoint they’re running on. Downside: I can’t correct a typo or make other minor changes without repeating the process. **BigT** : few computer projectors can project an image more than 1200 pixels wide, so fuzziness with JPGs is not the same issue as with the Web or print. PowerPoint does _not_ work well with PDFs; it just uses a low-res preview image rather than rasterizing the PDF.