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Déborah5ECF
Participant
January 18, 2021
Answered

Adobe reader not recognizing my font (Prime font)

  • January 18, 2021
  • 1 reply
  • 2854 views

Hi everyone,

 

I am having issues with Adobe Reader as it does not recognize my font, which is Prime (light and regular) (https://www.fontfabric.com/fonts/prime/). I use the font on a Word document and then save as PDF, but Adobe Reader does not allow me to select/ copy the text.

 

  1. I tried the ctrl+D > fonts and nothing appears on my document (see image attached to this message).
  2. I also tried the Edit>Preferences>Page Display>Select "Use Local Fonts">Click OK>Close the PDF and Adobe Reader. And it did not work either....

 

Does anyone know how to fix this issue? Thanks in advance!

 

 

 

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Dov Isaacs

Most likely the problem is due to the PDF file being created by Microsoft's own Save as PDF functionality which doesn't properly handle any OpenType CFF fonts (i.e., fonts with the .otf suffix and that have CFF outlines). The text is simply put into the PDF file as low resolution raster images; that is why you cannot select, copy, and/or search such text. (Microsoft is aware of this shortcoming but has refused to fix it for many years!)

 

The workaround is to license Adobe Acrobat and use the Save as Adobe PDF PDFMaker functionality that Acrobat adds to the Microsoft Office applications.

 

1 reply

Dov Isaacs
Dov IsaacsCorrect answer
Legend
January 18, 2021

Most likely the problem is due to the PDF file being created by Microsoft's own Save as PDF functionality which doesn't properly handle any OpenType CFF fonts (i.e., fonts with the .otf suffix and that have CFF outlines). The text is simply put into the PDF file as low resolution raster images; that is why you cannot select, copy, and/or search such text. (Microsoft is aware of this shortcoming but has refused to fix it for many years!)

 

The workaround is to license Adobe Acrobat and use the Save as Adobe PDF PDFMaker functionality that Acrobat adds to the Microsoft Office applications.

 

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
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