Extract embedded PDF fonts to an external ttf file using some utility or script

Question

Is it possible to extract fonts that are embedded in a PDF file to an external ttf file using some utility or script?

1. If the fonts that are embedded (or not

Answer 1

Minor update - some PDFs contain fonts embedded in another unique format, as .CID files. This format is made for fonts that support a lot of characters (ex. Asian language fonts) and don't map the glyphs to letters in a typical way.

You can still get usable fonts out of a .CID file, you just need to add a step to my answer above. Run your PDF through a program called PStill (GPStill). The website is here: http://www.wizards.de/~frank/pstill.html

When choosing your input, change the dropdown from Postscript File to PDF File. Your output PDF will have _new appended to it. If you need to unlock a PDF, you can use Advanced PDF Password Recovery from Elcomsoft.

What this step does is convert the CID fonts embedded in the PDF to PFA type 1 fonts. So after running PDFextract, instead of a bunch of useless .CID files, you have .PFA files that can be imported into Fontlab and possibly Crossfont. Be aware that the letters probably won't be mapped correctly, so you really want something like Fontlab to move them around so that e.g. typing A on your keyboard doesn't result in the letter R.

As always if the font was only embedded as a subset, you won't get the whole font, just a limited set of letters.