fonts are not embedded in the PDF on Mac, leading to much larger files

Thanks for the guidance about where to post. The OS is Mac Mavericks 10.9.x, and I'm pretty sure that's been the case since before the file size change. I am presently running a MuseScore nightly from about a week ago, but the file sizes have been large in nightlies going back to some time last summer. My recollection is that nightlies from spring 2014 were still producing small pdf's.

Good idea. Here is the example that brought the issue to back to my attention today. Attached are two musescore files, one made 2+ years ago with Musescore 1.2, and one made today by "saving as" in my one-week-old nightly; and the corresponding pdf files. You can tell which from the file name (whether it has 12 or 21 in the file name). The pdf file sizes for 1.2 and 2.1 are respectively 76 KB and 328 KB. In this case the small one was made on an older OS (Mac 10.6.8).

I notice there is also quite a difference in size of the .mscz files, but I guess that is OK as MuseScore 2 stores a much richer set of information.

I had hoped to find an example made with an early musescore 2 beta to illustrate the change, but at some point I went through and updated all such files that I could identify to a later beta (as I had had some issues with files created with one beta not being openable by a later one, and also some issues with text and ornaments moving between beta versions). I first noticed the pdf file size change (but did not report) while doing those updates.

The nightly I used to create the one I uploaded was from May 28. I just tried again with the latest nightly (rev 24f1af0) and I get the same file size. This is using the "export" menu in MuseScore. If instead I use "print" and then "save as pdf" it is even (slightly) larger, 332 KB vs 328. I would guess the latter uses Mac OSX's pdf generator.

Glad to see a better and more descriptive title to this thread. What determines the likelihood of this problem getting addressed?

For what it is worth I went back and tried to save a file (on mac) with musescore 1.3 and it was larger than with 2.02 nightly. So I guess my recollection was wrong and the file size suddenly becoming much larger must have been a coincidence with my going from Mac OS 10.6.8 to 10.9.x (which I did in order to keep using musescore nightlies after 10.6 support was dropped). So is there something about more recent Mac OS's that causes embedding of fonts to fail?

UPDATE -- rather interesting. I started from one musicXML file; imported into musescore 1.3, saved as pdf, got an 809 KB file. I imported into MuseScore 2.02 nightly, exported to pdf, got a 686 KB file. If from MuseScore nightly I choose print, then save as pdf, I get a 659 KB file. But get this: if I choose print, open print in Preview, and from Preview choose Export as PDF (or Export, then pick pdf format) I get a 92 KB file !! Text appears with identical clarity; things that are apparently being drawn (notes, ornaments) appear at slightly lower resolution when the pdf is blown up to maximum magnification, but not noticeable at normal or modest magnification on the screen or when printed on a laser printer.

Would this fix be contained in the latest nightlies for Mac OS X? I downloaded tonight the most recent (MuseScoreNightly-2015-08-11-2003-c2b3bb9.dmg) and I continue to find that files saved using either MuseScore's "export to PDF", or "Print", then "save as PDF". I base my statement on comparing the size of a pdf obtained this way vs. one opened to Mac Preview, then either exported or "Save as"'ed. The files saved directly from MuseScore or saved via "Print/Save as PDF" are approximately the same size as each other, and both are nearly six times bigger than the files save by first opening the pdf in preview then saving. I attach two samples, "Export.pdf", saved via MuseScore's "Export to PDF" menu, and "Preview_export.pdf", saved via going to "print" then "open in Preview then doing "export to PDF" from Preview. Compare the sizes!