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NLAdm
New Participant
November 21, 2017
Answered

Scrambled Text when viewing PDF documents in Acrobat Standard XI [2017]

  • November 21, 2017
  • 26 replies
  • 262600 views

Hi all,

 

We are running into a strange issue with Acrobat Standard XI when viewing PDF documents sent to us by a client.

Some of the text appears to be scrambled and unreadable, yet the document looks fine when opened in any Internet browser and even free version of Adobe Reader.

User is on Windows 10 PRO x64.

 

So far we have tried:

 

- Repairing Acrobat

- Updating Acrobat

- Fully reinstall Acrobat

- Disabling Document Protection

- Adjusting a couple of the options in the the Acrobat PDF printer options

 

Here is a snippet of the problem:

    Correct answer Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com

    When you see scrambled text, dots, odd characters, or white blocks that look like tofu, it means that the PDF doesn't have the original fonts embedded.

     

    Acrobat tries to substitute with a font on your computer system, but when it can't find a valid substitute, it shows "scrambled" text for some or all of the text

     

    3 solutions, take your pick of which one will work for your situation:

     

    1. Install the missing fonts on the computer where you're viewing the PDF. Note, however, that this won't fix the PDF and it will still show the scrambled text on another computer.
    2. Return to the original source document and re-export it correctly with the fonts embedded into the new PDF. If you're in Word, use Adobe's PDF Maker (the Acrobat Ribbon/Tab) and drill down in the preferences until you find the option to embed all fonts.
    3. You can attempt to embed the fonts into the existing PDF with Acrobat's Preflight Tool (but it's available only with the Pro version of Acrobat, not Standard or Reader).

     

    Here are the steps:

     

    1. Open the PDF Standards tool panel (if it's not already in your right-side tool set, then open it via the Tools Tab in the upper left of the Acrobat window). Depending upon which version of Acrobat you have, you can also get to this tool via the Print Production / Preflight tools.
    2. Open the PDF/UA Standards section.
    3. From the Profiles tab, select the blue wrench in the upper menu bar.
    4. Expand the Document section.
    5. Select the Embed fonts utility, and then
    6. Click the FIX button in the lower right (has another blue wrench in the button).

     

     

    Hope this helps.

     

    One more suggestion: take a quick class in how to make PDFs to prevent errors like this, and how to correct errors in PDFs. Don't swear at our software companies; we all have the responsibility of learning how to use the tools. Flying by the seat of your pants doens't work and just gives you a royal PITA (pain in the "anatomy").

    26 replies

    Show previous replies
    ravip68765358
    ravip68765358
    New Participant
    April 10, 2019

    Did Adobe mess this one up BIG TIME!

    What the HECK is up with this scrambled TEXT? I'm seeing the same problem. REboot is temp fix but comes back again.

    Its 2019 and we are still seeing this problem. [Profanity removed by moderator.]

    V
    Vanmar007
    New Participant
    January 24, 2019

    This is the way I resolved this issue:

    Inside the PDF document you are trying to print - click printer icon (or file then print)  > then when the printer menu opens>  click  on "advanced"  this is located beside "printer proprieties" - this opens the "Advance print setup menu".  Once there, you will see language, font resource policy,  some check boxes below  etc.

    In the "Advance Print Setup" menu, do the following steps:

    1, In the "font and resource policy" - change this drop down option to  "Send at Start" ( optional step)

    2, Unchecked the box that says "Download Asian font"

    3, Check the box that says "Print As Image" there is a DPI settings beside that option leave as is. 

            (When you select the "Pint As Image" it will gray out all the other options.)

    4, Click OK,  now you are able to print without any issues your PDF document in the font and layout intended. You will not get any garbled messages.

      vinny_kumar
      vinny_kumar
      New Participant
      November 12, 2018

      Same problem, multiple users, issue is intermittent but a daily thing for lots of folks. They try the same docu again a short time later and it opens fine. Docu can be web based, off a network share, from an email attachment or on the local client.

      Errors similar to below...

      "Cannot find or create the font 'ArialMT'. Some characters may not display or print correctly.

      OS Windows 10 (10.0.17134) 64 bit, occurs with either Adobe Reader DC or Adobe Acrobat XI Pro with both being up to date.

      No resolution found so far despite trying several suggestions off the net.

      C
      chrisv86792078
      New Participant
      June 14, 2018

      This just showed up for me too!

      N
      natalieh70057712
      New Participant
      April 28, 2018

      I am too having the same issues running Windows 10 64bit OS.  Version 18.011.20038.  Not all files but the ones I export from one program come out all scrambled.  Is there a patch for this?

      Thanks

      Natalie

      C
      chrisb1229355
      New Participant
      May 16, 2018

      This issue is back I believe after the April 2018 Windows 10 update.

      P
      paintblljnkie
      New Participant
      May 16, 2018

      This issue started before April for us. Only have one person affected though, which is weird.

      P
      paintblljnkie
      New Participant
      April 26, 2018

      I am having the same issue as jgrichards​. Tried all of the suggestions here. Version is 18.011.20038. Running Windows 10 64-bit OS.

      Only fields that show messed up are fields that are using Ariel font. I have tried in Reader and Acrobat Pro.

      I can email this to another user and they are able to open it without any issues. Arial font works in other programs (Word, Excel, etc). Issue is only on invoices that get sent to the user.

      Any help would be appreciated.

      J
      jgrichards
      New Participant
      April 2, 2018

      I too am experiencing the same issue with the latest version of Adobe. Here's the culprit file:

      Shared Files - Acrobat.com

      I've tried:

      1. Reinstalling Adobe

      2. Updating Adobe

      3. And repairing Adobe

      Still having issues. It's not with every PDF, just certain ones. And if you check the fonts being used they are all basic fonts:

      Arial

      Arial Bold

      Courier New

      Courier New Bold

      Any help or ideas would be appreciated!

      Thanks,

      Jamie

        ChristianG74
        ChristianG74
        New Participant
        November 27, 2017

        We are experiencing the same issue with documents from a number of our suppliers affecting only those using the AXAPTA PDF Creation Component for MICROSOFT DYNAMICS AX where Encoding is Identity-H after performing the latest update to Adobe, in our garbled PDFS there is however a pattern in that the character appears to be an ASCII value lower than it should be ( i.e. A appears as @  0 appears as / q appears as p ).

        On an affected machine Microsoft Windows 7 64 Bit with Adobe Reader DC 2018.009.20044

        I have renamed the following files to .OLD and it appears to have so far resolved the issue, the machine has been rebooted several times and the issue has so far not returned.

        The files that were renamed to .OLD were:

        Original

        C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Adobe\Acrobat\DC\AdobeSysFnt18.lst

        C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Adobe\Acrobat\DC\AdobeCMapFnt18.lst

        C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Adobe\Acrobat\DC\UserCache.bin

        C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Adobe\Acrobat\DC\Cache\AcroFnt18.lst

        Renamed

        C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Adobe\Acrobat\DC\AdobeSysFnt18.lst.OLD

        C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Adobe\Acrobat\DC\AdobeCMapFnt18.lst.OLD

        C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Adobe\Acrobat\DC\UserCache.bin.OLD

        C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Adobe\Acrobat\DC\Cache\AcroFnt18.lst.OLD

        Where %USERNAME% is your username.

        I assume no responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions in the content of this advice. The information contained herein this reply is provided on an “as is” basis with no guarantees of completeness, accuracy, usefulness or timeliness. Perform at your own risk.

          K
          kfa-tpa
          New Participant
          November 27, 2017

          Excellent.  I will be testing this fix in the next few days.  Thank you for taking the time to share!

          A
          Anthony Soons
          New Participant
          November 23, 2017

          We are using AX 2009 and since the last update to Adobe Reader 2018.009.2004 around a week ago we are now also experiencing the same garbled text in PDFs generated by AX. The same PDF can be viewed in Foxit PDF without any issue.

          We have found that if you create PDFs from AX using the "embedded fonts" option the PDF can be viewed fine.

          This is a large problem for us as many of our customers use Adobe Reader also and are unable to view our Invoices or statements!

          Adobe please advise?

          V
          Adobe Employee
          vdobhal
          Adobe Employee
          November 24, 2017

          Hi all,

          To help us debug this issue, please share the following files from your machines:

          C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Local\Adobe\Acrobat\DC\AdobeSysFnt18.lst

          C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Local\Adobe\Acrobat\DC\AdobeCMapFnt18.lst

          C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Local\Adobe\Acrobat\DC\UserCache.bin

          C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Local\Adobe\Acrobat\DC\Cache\AcroFnt18.lst

          You can send it via direct message using Send & Track.

          Thanks,

          Vinod

          henkvanvliet
          henkvanvliet
          New Participant
          November 24, 2017

          Goodmorning Vinod,

          here they are, good luck!

          kind regards,

          Met vriendelijke groet,

          Henk van Vliet

          Gebr. Bodegraven BV.

          Van: vdobhal

          Verzonden: vrijdag 24 november 2017 6:58

          Aan: Henk van Vliet

          Onderwerp: Scrambled Text when viewing PDF documents in Acrobat Standard XI

          Scrambled Text when viewing PDF documents in Acrobat Standard XI

          created by vdobhal<https://forums.adobe.com/people/vdobhal> in Acrobat General Troubleshooting - View the full discussion<https://forums.adobe.com/message/9994089#9994089>

          _NicOl_
          _NicOl_
          New Participant
          November 23, 2017

          PDFs that are not readable, do you know if they are all for origin "Microsoft Dynamics AX" ?

          or have you encountered similar cases with PDFs generated by other tools?

          About me, MS Dynamics AX4.

          Thx

          G
          gerrith98526093
          New Participant
          November 23, 2017

          So far I was only able to find this post. But I have three Ax-customers all having the same problems (Ax 4.0 and Ax 2009). All sinds last week. Using other tools I was able to generate 1.3 version PDF files, no problems.

          If you validate an Ax generated PDF file online, there are total of 4 errors;

          One is a missing endobj tag, which is missing endobj tag. See class PDFViewer, writePDFInfoObject method, before the return add "this.appendTextToBuffer('endobj\n');"

          The other errors are a bit more difficult. Unicode related, see below. I have given it a try, but have not yetbeen able to solve it. I am hoping the cause (being it a windows update, adobe update or other) will resolve this.

          The key Encoding has a value Identity-H which is prohibited.

          The document does not conform to the requested standard.

          The document contains fonts without embedded font programs or encoding information (CMAPs).

          The document does not conform to the PDF 1.3 standard.

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