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Character Encoding Failed

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I am trying to make and accessible PDF and when I ran the full check, the message "character encoding failed" came up. When I clicked on it, it showed "word" a bunch of times. Can anyone tell me how to fix this?

AnandSriCorrect answer

Legend

Hello!

I hope you are doing well, and we apologize for the delayed response.

If you're encountering a "Character Encoding Failed" error during an accessibility check in Adobe Acrobat, this typically indicates that certain text elements in your PDF cannot be correctly mapped to Unicode. This issue can hinder assistive technologies from interpreting the content accurately.

Review and Replace Non-Unicode Fonts: Ensure that all fonts used in your document are Unicode-compliant. Non-Unicode fonts, especially older TrueType or PostScript Type 1 fonts, can cause encoding issues.

Avoid Special Characters from Symbol Fonts: Using special characters (like bullets) in symbol fonts can cause encoding problems. Replace such characters with their Unicode equivalents. For instance, use the Unicode bullet character (U+2022) instead of a symbol font bullet.

Check for Ligatures and Special Glyphs: Ligatures and certain glyphs can sometimes cause encoding errors. In design applications like Adobe InDesign or Illustrator, disable ligatures for text elements that are causing issues.

Use the 'Edit PDF' Tool in Acrobat. If the source document isn't accessible, Open the PDF in Acrobat, navigate to Tools > Edit PDF, and manually correct or replace problematic text elements.

Recreate the PDF from the Source Document: If possible, regenerate the PDF from the original source file after making the necessary font and character adjustments. Use Acrobat's PDF creation tools or export functions from your source application to produce a new, clean PDF.

See these articles for more information: https://adobe.ly/42dueGj, and https://adobe.ly/43T3vQr

I hope this helps.

Thanks,

Anand Sri.

JR Boulay

Community Expert

[MOVED TO THE ACROBAT DISCUSSIONS]

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Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe

B

Beatriz36939334hrrk

Participant

Edit the document using the Edit feature in Adobe
Highlight the list, including the bullets.
Select the option to bullet the list.
Exit Edit.
Run the Accessibility Check again.

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F

Felicity35766470jgez

Participating Frequently

What if it isn't a list? There are four gaps inbetween the brackets (so between open bracket/formular and formula/close bracket) - only one is highlighted in the snip below. Any ideas on this one?

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AnandSriCorrect answer

Legend

Hello!

I hope you are doing well, and we apologize for the delayed response.

If you're encountering a "Character Encoding Failed" error during an accessibility check in Adobe Acrobat, this typically indicates that certain text elements in your PDF cannot be correctly mapped to Unicode. This issue can hinder assistive technologies from interpreting the content accurately.

Review and Replace Non-Unicode Fonts: Ensure that all fonts used in your document are Unicode-compliant. Non-Unicode fonts, especially older TrueType or PostScript Type 1 fonts, can cause encoding issues.

Avoid Special Characters from Symbol Fonts: Using special characters (like bullets) in symbol fonts can cause encoding problems. Replace such characters with their Unicode equivalents. For instance, use the Unicode bullet character (U+2022) instead of a symbol font bullet.

Check for Ligatures and Special Glyphs: Ligatures and certain glyphs can sometimes cause encoding errors. In design applications like Adobe InDesign or Illustrator, disable ligatures for text elements that are causing issues.

Use the 'Edit PDF' Tool in Acrobat. If the source document isn't accessible, Open the PDF in Acrobat, navigate to Tools > Edit PDF, and manually correct or replace problematic text elements.

Recreate the PDF from the Source Document: If possible, regenerate the PDF from the original source file after making the necessary font and character adjustments. Use Acrobat's PDF creation tools or export functions from your source application to produce a new, clean PDF.

See these articles for more information: https://adobe.ly/42dueGj, and https://adobe.ly/43T3vQr

I hope this helps.

Thanks,

Anand Sri.

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R

ram29816201w81l

Participant

Around 4 fields

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a_C_student16379412

Inspiring

Hi Sheilah, sorry I do not know of a way to fix this problem in a PDF. Best bet - if you have access to the source document - is to recreate the PDF. Desperate last resorts you might try include converting the PDF to Word then back to PDF or (cringe) refrying - that is printing the PDF to PDF.

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A

angelovs

Participant

I just had the same problem, and it was suggested to replace the characters in Acrobat through Edit PDF (which is not the solution if fonts are missing), or to add Actual Text in the <P> tag, which is good for the readers, but will not pass the PAC 3 checker or CommonLook. So - original file fix is still the best.

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Review and Replace Non-Unicode Fonts: Ensure that all fonts used in your document are Unicode-compliant. Non-Unicode fonts, especially older TrueType or PostScript Type 1 fonts, can cause encoding issues.

Avoid Special Characters from Symbol Fonts: Using special characters (like bullets) in symbol fonts can cause encoding problems. Replace such characters with their Unicode equivalents. For instance, use the Unicode bullet character (U+2022) instead of a symbol font bullet.

Review and Replace Non-Unicode Fonts: Ensure that all fonts used in your document are Unicode-compliant. Non-Unicode fonts, especially older TrueType or PostScript Type 1 fonts, can cause encoding issues.

Avoid Special Characters from Symbol Fonts: Using special characters (like bullets) in symbol fonts can cause encoding problems. Replace such characters with their Unicode equivalents. For instance, use the Unicode bullet character (U+2022) instead of a symbol font bullet.

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