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ivannas10113699
Participant
August 12, 2018
Question

Spacing/kerning incorrect in PDF created from Word (screenshots)

  • August 12, 2018
  • 1 reply
  • 12700 views

Hi everyone, last week I created a PDF of a document from the ribbon in Word 2016, and all was well.

This week, I repeated the process from the same .docx file, but the spacing/kerning is incorrect in the PDF. Nothing has changed between last week and this week, to my knowledge. I've also tried the 'export to PDF' and 'save as PDF' methods, but they are giving the same results.

I'm using MS Office Professional Plus Word 2016 Version 1807 (build 10325.20082) with Windows 7.

I'm attaching some screenshots of the correct and incorrect versions of the PDF output for comparison. In the 'incorrect' version, I've underlined some of the problem areas (the same effect occurs throughout the entire document). You can also see in the image that not only are some of the letters spaced too closely or too far apart, but the spacing between words in general is incorrect (too wide). I've also attached the PDFMaker settings that I used as well and the Distiller settings.

Really hoping someone can point me in the right direction, this is driving me crazy! Thanks everyone.

Incorrect spacing:

Correct spacing:

Edited to add that fonts do seem to be embedded correctly in (this snip is from the incorrectly spaced version):

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

Dov Isaacs
Dov Isaacs
Legend
August 13, 2018

It doesn't look like you are doing anything wrong. And the fact that you get the same problem when you use Microsoft's save as PDF as you do when you use Acrobat's PDFMaker is indicative of a problem with the stream of text and spacing information passed by Word to either PDFMaker or Microsoft's own PDF creation capability. Both work off the same stream of EMF data. This points to a likely problem within Word itself.

Is the same thing happening with other documents, using this Junicode font family? How about documents using other font families?

What happens if you try printing to the Adobe PDF PostScript printer driver instance to create PDF via distillation of PostScript? Same problem?

Is it possible for you to post (Acrobat's Send-&-Track facility, DropBox, or similar) both PDF files - the one from PDFMaker and the other from save as PDF such that we can examine the files? Also the source Word file? Since we are not aware of this issue, we need an example to reproduce the symptoms. (The font is publicly available for us to get

Also be aware that typically, Microsoft Office 2016 self-updates often without any notification to the end user. That could account for the fact that something that worked last week suddenly is funky this week. (The version of Word you specified is indeed the most recent update automatically provided by Microsoft!)

If you can pass along the files, we might be able to better assist you (and us) track down what is going on.

          - Dov

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
    I
    ivannas10113699Author
    Participant
    August 14, 2018

    Hello Dov,

    Thank you for your reply, it's much appreciated. I seem to have resolved the issue for now. I used the Acrobat 'repair installation' function, but unfortunately, before I could test the result by making a new pdf, my husband 'helpfully' ran a Windows disk cleanup for system files (apparently eliminating obsolete Word updates -- I'm not too clear on this). He also ran software called 'CC Cleaner'. One of these three processes seems to have had the effect of allowing Word to 'remember' a pdf printer driver (Bullzip) that I occasionally use, and restore it to the list of available printers in Word. I say 'remember' because in the past, I have noticed that Word would after a few days 'forget' or 'lose' the driver and it would disappear from the Print page (I have no other print drivers installed) until reinstalled. I feel that this behaviour is somehow relevant to the problem with Acrobat I experienced -- but it seems like maybe more of a problem for MS!

    Anyway, unfortunately I can't tell whether it was the repair of Acrobat or the disk cleanup (and/or 'remembering' of the print driver) that resolved the problem. But I suspect based on the past behaviour of Word, that it will in few days 'forget' the Bullzip driver again. I have a funny feeling that when that happens, I'll experience the same spacing problems in pdfs created from Word. On the other hand, the Bullzip driver was 'forgotten' or not available in Word's printers when I made the initial, successful pdfs before the problem began.

    I hope this information is helpful. If it's possible to leave this thread open, I'll update with any relevant information if and when the problem recurs (with more careful testing next time so I can be more sure what process led to the resolution of the problem). Again, based on past behaviour of Word, I expect that three or four days should do the trick.

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