Ren Hollis

IngramSpark: fonts must be embedded — all of them

Short answer: every font in your interior and cover PDFs must be embedded — and unlike some print workflows, IngramSpark gives no exemption for the standard PostScript fonts. One unembedded font anywhere in the file rejects the whole book. Check in Acrobat: File > Properties > Fonts — every entry must read (Embedded) or (Embedded Subset).

The rule is the same sentence as KDP's — every font embedded, interior and cover — but IngramSpark enforces it like a print plant, not a marketplace: the file goes through Lightning Source preflight built for offset-era workflows, where an unembedded font doesn't get substituted and carried on, it stops the job. There is also no standard-fonts exemption: the old PostScript “base 14” fonts (Times, Helvetica, Courier and family) still have to be embedded. If it's named in the file, it must be carried in the file.

How files fail here specifically

  • The one-font ambush. A single unembedded font — one chapter heading, one drop cap, one text element inside a placed image — rejects the whole file. The font list in a real book is always longer than the author expects: templates, pasted elements, and decorative title fonts all check in.
  • Word on a Mac. Word for Windows has an “embed fonts” checkbox; Word for Mac doesn't offer font embedding at all — the most common single cause of this rejection we see. The file looks perfect on the author's Mac, which is the one machine guaranteed to have the fonts.
  • License-flagged fonts. Some fonts forbid embedding in their license bits. Exporters skip them silently — no dialog, no warning — so the author “did everything right” and the font still isn't embedded. The only fix is a different font.
  • Cover files. The cover has its own font list and its own chances to fail. Check it separately from the interior.

Check it yourself

  1. Open the PDF in Acrobat or the free Acrobat Reader (Mac Preview can't show you this).
  2. File > Properties > Fonts tab.
  3. Every font must read (Embedded) or (Embedded Subset). A subset — only the characters used — is a full pass, not a lesser state.
  4. Repeat for the cover PDF. Then repeat after every re-export: the Fonts tab is the verification, not the export dialog's promises.

The checking method is identical on KDP — our fonts-not-embedded guide covers the same ground with more per-tool screenshots-in-words. What differs at Ingram is the strictness, and one reliable escape hatch: a true PDF/X-1a export cannot contain an unembedded font, which is one reason Ingram's checklist points at that standard.

Fonts are one line of the 13-point check we run free on KDP + IngramSpark files — every problem listed in plain English within 48 hours, including the ones a Fonts tab can't show you. Get the free check →

How to fix it — per tool

Word (Windows): File > Options > Save > “Embed fonts in the file,” then Save As PDF. Word (Mac): no embedding exists — open the .docx in free LibreOffice (File > Properties > Font > “Embed fonts in the document,” then Export as PDF) or move the document to Pages. Pages (Mac): embeds in most exports — verify in the Fonts tab anyway, especially with downloaded fonts. Canva: PDF Print embeds its fonts — verify, don't trust. InDesign: a press preset (PDF/X-1a or Press Quality) embeds everything and the export summary warns if a font couldn't be embedded — read that screen.

The honest limit

If a font's license forbids embedding, no setting, converter, or trick overrides it — the font has to be swapped in the source document for an embeddable lookalike, then re-exported. And text baked into a placed image isn't a font at all: it can't be embedded, only outlined in the image tool or replaced. Both fixes live in your source files, which your free check will tell you plainly before you spend anything.

Or send us the files — the check is free

Email your interior and cover PDFs and we'll tell you exactly what's wrong — in plain English, free, within 48 hours. If it does need fixing, the by-hand fix is $19 and we redo it free if IngramSpark rejects it for a formatting issue we were hired to fix. We rebuild files to be compliant with the platform's published spec — that's the promise we can keep.

Prefer the whole library in one file? The KDP Rejection Field Guide (free PDF) collects every guide, table, and the 13-point checklist.

Get my free rejection check

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