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Participant
August 18, 2022
Answered

Missing characters after editing, saving and reopening a PDF in Adobe Acrobat.

  • August 18, 2022
  • 3 replies
  • 3501 views

Im trying to edit a PDF with Adobe Acrobat but when I insert a page, or edit the text, or save it, it suddenly shows missing characters all over the document.

 

I have read that this issue could arise because the fonts are not embedded correctly in the original PDF, but this is not my case, since I created the original PDF in Adobe Illustrator, and I also have read that Illustrator embeds the fonts automatically. Also, when I do the Preflight all the fonts appears embedded.

The only solution that I could find that worked, is changing the font for any font, and then switch it back to the font that I want. But this is very time consuming since my PDF has 35 pages and I cannot afford changing all the fonts everytime they mess up.

Do you know any permanent solution for this issue? I have read in this forum that many users are experiencing the same, so Im wondering if Adobe could fix this bug or whatever it is. Or if there's a way to export the pdf from Illustrator, in order to not have missing characters when Im editing it in Adobe Acrobat. 

 

Any suggestion will be greatly appreciate it.

Correct answer Robert Merril36256662eq60

Happens to me more than I care to say.. .the fastest fix is a Ctrl-A and when 'all' is selected change the color or the font or the size and it seems to reset it..   I have done this on both Windows 11 and 10... and it is aggravating as hell.

 

3 replies

Participant
December 6, 2024

Happens to me more than I care to say.. .the fastest fix is a Ctrl-A and when 'all' is selected change the color or the font or the size and it seems to reset it..   I have done this on both Windows 11 and 10... and it is aggravating as hell.

 

S_S
Community Manager
Community Manager
February 26, 2025

Hi @Robert Merril36256662eq60,

 

Hope you are doing well. 

 

Thanks for writing about what worked for you.

Marking this as a correct answer for future users to use as reference.


-Souvik

JR Boulay
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 19, 2022

A file made with Illustrator should be edited with Illustrator, it's always easier than editing with Acrobat Pro.

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe
Meenakshi Negi
Community Manager
Community Manager
August 19, 2022

Hi Carlaa,

 

Thank you for reaching out and reporting this.

 

Would you mind sharing more details on this?

- Please share the sample PDF on which the issue occurs. It will be helpful if you share both the edited and initial PDF.

- Share the Acrobat and OS version you are using

- Step-by-step workflow that results in the issue. It will help us to replicate the behavior.

- Also, share the step by steps workflow for the workaround you are using.

 

Thanks,

Meenakshi

Participant
April 6, 2023

I have the same issue.  I have a document created in PRO.  Edited in PRO and now Q R W characters are missing throughout this document.  

Meenakshi Negi
Community Manager
Community Manager
April 7, 2023

Hi Sheryl29282832lf44,

 

Thank you for reaching out.

 

Please confirm what you mean by missing characters. Does the PDF replace the text with other text or show the blank space? 

Would you mind sharing the PDF with us so we can look at it?

Did you check if this happens with a particular PDF?

Share the Acrobat and OS version numbers.

 

Thanks,

Meenakshi