Cidfont F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 Install -

Demystifying CIDFonts: How to Install F1, F2, F3, F4, F5, and F6 on Your System

If you’ve ever worked with PostScript files, PDFs from specialized printers, or Asian language documents, you might have run across an error like:
"Cannot find CIDFont /F1" or "Missing font F3".

Then you search for a solution and land on a thread mentioning cidfont f1 f2 f3 f4 f5 f6 install. It looks cryptic — but it’s actually a simple, fixable issue. cidfont f1 f2 f3 f4 f5 f6 install

Let’s break down what CIDFonts are, what F1–F6 refer to, and exactly how to install them. Demystifying CIDFonts: How to Install F1, F2, F3,

Step 4: Test the Installation

gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -o test-output.pdf -f input-with-f1-f2.pdf

No errors about missing CIDFonts means success. No errors about missing CIDFonts means success

Step 3: Manually Create CIDFont Substitutions

Create a custom Ghostscript cidfmap file. This is the most reliable way to handle F1–F6.

Edit (or create) /usr/share/ghostscript/9.xx/Resource/Init/cidfmap or a local ~/.ghostscript/cidfmap:

/CIDFont/F1 << /FileType /TrueType /Path (/usr/share/fonts/opentype/noto/NotoSansCJK-Regular.ttc) /SubfontID 0 /CSI [(Japan1) 2] >> ;
/CIDFont/F2 << /FileType /TrueType /Path (/usr/share/fonts/opentype/noto/NotoSansCJK-Regular.ttc) /SubfontID 1 /CSI [(Korea1) 2] >> ;
/CIDFont/F3 << /FileType /TrueType /Path (/usr/share/fonts/opentype/noto/NotoSansCJK-Regular.ttc) /SubfontID 2 /CSI [(CNS1) 2] >> ;
/CIDFont/F4 << /FileType /TrueType /Path (/usr/share/fonts/opentype/noto/NotoSansCJK-Regular.ttc) /SubfontID 3 /CSI [(GB1) 2] >> ;
/CIDFont/F5 << /FileType /TrueType /Path (/usr/share/fonts/opentype/noto/NotoSansMonoCJK-Regular.ttc) /CSI [(Identity) 0] >> ;
/CIDFont/F6 << /FileType /TrueType /Path (/usr/share/fonts/truetype/dejavu/DejaVuSans.ttf) /CSI [(Identity) 0] >> ;

Note: SubfontID values differ based on the TTC (TrueType Collection). For Noto CJK TTC, order is: 0=Japan, 1=Korea, 2=TC, 3=SC.

Converting Type 1 / Legacy fonts

• Use FontForge to open .pfb/.pfm and export to OpenType/CFF (.otf) for modern OS compatibility.
• For CJK CID-keyed Type 1 sets, conversion is more complex — prefer obtaining vendor-supplied OpenType CFF fonts.