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A
Adam Brownie
Participant
July 11, 2023
Question

Text getting jumbled when editing PDFs

  • July 11, 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 7072 views

Hi,

 

I have been using Adobe Acrobat Pro to edit PDf reports that I generate through Fastfield and it has been working fine up until recently. I have attached screenshots of my issue. The text gets jumbled up when I go and edit, but sometimes it doesn't jumble the words if I open and close the file a few times or do some other random things. It has been working fine up until now and I cannot find a fix for it. Some of the text is also running outside of the PDF and cannot be seen unless I copy and paste the box back into the form.

 

The text generated is Arial but Adobe is reading it as Liberation Sans - I am wondering if this is contributing to the issue.

 

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    2 replies

    Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
    Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
    Legend
    July 31, 2023

    Hi @Adam Brownie,

    This is common when the font wasn't embedded into the PDF when it was exported from the source document.

     

    2 possible solutions:

     

    1. Return to the original source file (such as MS Word or Adobe InDesign) and re-export the PDF with settings to embed all fonts. Refer to this blog for directions: https://www.pubcom.com/blog/tutorials/ms-office/export-pdf/index.shtml  There are 3 different methods of exporting PDFs from MS Office.
       
    2. Before you begin to edit the PDF, embed the fonts using Acrobat's built-in Preflight tool for this. Instructions on how to do this are at the green Correct Answer (Oct 5, 2019) in this post https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/scrambled-text-when-viewing-pdf-documents-in-acrobat-standard-xi/m-p/13955817/

     

    Let us know if this helps.

     

     

    |    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |
    Amal.
    Community Manager
    Amal.Community Manager
    Community Manager
    July 11, 2023

    Hi @Adam Brownie 

     

    Hope you are doing well and thanks for reaching out.

     

    It looks like a font issue, as if the font is not properly embedded, or not present on your computer, or may not have the necessary permissions to use the font.

     

    Please go to Edit > Preferences > Page Display> Under Rendering, Select 'Use Local Font' > Click OK and reboot the application and check if that works.

     

    You may also go through the help page https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/pdf-fonts.html for more information about font embedding.

     

    Regards

    Amal

    A
    Adam BrownieAuthor
    Participant
    July 19, 2023

    That did not work, unfortunately. It does fix it if I copy the current text and paste it back into the box, which makes the issue manageable but not ideal when you have to do it a hundred times a day.

     

    Amal.
    Community Manager
    Amal.Community Manager
    Community Manager
    July 31, 2023

    Hi there

     

    What is the version of the Acrobat DC you are using? To check the version go to Help > About Acrobat and make sure you have the recent version 23.03.20244 installed. Go to Help > Check for updates and reboot the computer once.

    Also try to repair the installation from the help menu (Win Only) and see if that works.

    Please try to reset the Acrobat preferences as described here https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/how-to-reset-acrobat-preference-settings-to-default/td-p/4792082 and see if that works.

     

    Regards

    Amal

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