Participant

Question

One PDF gives "Cannot find or create the font 'Arial,Bold'.... when opened

Forum|Forum|8 days ago
January 28, 2026
4 replies
733 views

One PDF gives "Cannot find or create the font 'Arial,Bold'.... when opened, and the formatting is gone and nothing is on the PDF word wise. Opening the PDF in Edge works fine. Opening the PDF yesterday was fine. Another employee was able to open the same PDF (on a shared drive) just fine and had no errors.

I restarted the computer, repaired Adobe, ensured the font was installed on the computer, uninstalled Adobe Acrobat - restarted again - and then installed it fully - and restarted yet again - and it still gives this error for the PDF.

I opened the PDF in Edge and it was fine, then printed as PDF again (renaming the file), but the error shows on the new PDF as well.

Other PDFs appear fine. The original PDF opens fine, so I had the user duplicate the work and save it and THAT PDF opens fine.

Is there any known fixed? Its not a work stopper and we found we can work around it since another staff can open it, or the user can open via Edge, but the concern is this continually happening on the user’s computer.

Adobe Acrobat 25.001.21111, 64-Bit, Windows 11 Pro

SniderIT

Participant

I am still having this issue with 3 different clients now. I have cleared the Adobe appdata folders and used things like AcroCleaner, Creative Cloud Cleanup, and uninstalled/re-installed Adobe. The issue seems to be “fixed” for a few days and then comes back.

JeepD

Participating Frequently

Have you tried just have them open the client Adobe before opening a PDF or simply open their PDF through the client instead of opening them directly? This have been mostly fixing any font synch issues on opening documents with eh recent updates.

Did they break Adobe Reader? (In the latest update) : r/Adobe

Jennifer36081859

Participant

I am also having this issue.

The weird thing is, it is intermittent. It will give me the error message and I cannot properly use the form, then two or five minutes later, it opens like normal. Then later, it gives me the error again.

JeepD

Participating Frequently

Try opening Adobe client, minimize it and leave it open.

Then open any PDF with the issue, they should open fine. Seems like having the app open helps with the font synchronization, without this they can effectively stop working properly.

Jennifer36081859

Participant

@JeepD Thanks! I contacted my company’s IT, they recommended using the repair function on our Software Center app, and that seems to have fixed the issue? Have not had the error pop up since.

Not sure if that that is the same as the “Repair installation” feature.

Wanted to add in case it helped anyone else.

JeepD

Participating Frequently

Tl;DR ; Was able to fix the issue for now with Helvetica font download from the web and install them. Arial-BoldMT and ArialMT appeared to be under that font package.

JeepD

Participating Frequently

Found more information on Reddit, seems like clearing appdata folder once in a while or trying to embed the fonts with pre-flight pdf might be the temporary solution. Another suggestion was when you manage to have a PDF that works with the font causing the issue, keep it open and succedent PDF files might open properly.

updatesproblems

Participant

I’ve got the same issue.
Is there anyone else having a similar issue ?

magnetic_motivation7284Author

Participant

Interestingly, the issue disappeared today and the user can now open the PDF like normal without any errors or formatting issues. Very odd. Is your issue resolved yet?

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