Do the “Print to PDF” / “Save to PDF” options embed fonts in the PDF file? Specifically:


When doing this within the MS Office suite (Powerpoint, Word etc.), does the font get embedded within the PDF?
Does Preview.app embed fonts when “Saving as PDF”?
If I’m generating the PDF on a Mac, when I view it on other Macs and PCs, would the fonts be embedded?
Yes to all your questions. OS X’ Quartz PDFContext generator embeds fonts (unless the font forbids it, it seems). I couldn’t find any document that expressly states this (it’s implied in this bit of Pages help, for instance) but I have been sending out PDF proofs with fonts not installed on the recipient’s computer long enough to know it does.

As long as you use the OS X routines for PDF generation, i.e. go through either the “Save as PDF” dialog or an option upstream of that, like Pages’ “Export” dialog, your fonts will be embedded – Microsoft’s Office suite is no exception. Anything that uses its own PDF generation routines (like OpenOffice/LibreOffice/NeoOffice do with their “Export” option), however, might or might not embed fonts, depending on its settings.

Finally, as already stated, “embedded” means “contained in the file”, which in turn means “viewable on other computers without the font installed”.