Acrobat Crashing when Using Accessibility Tools on text in an Adobe font

[ErinEvergreen]

Hello, I am having issues with Acrobat when I use the Accessibility tools. It seems to be linked to Adobe fonts. Interactive Accesible PDF is what I am trying to create. There is only so much that can be done in InDesign for this project - I need Acrobat to function correctly. 

1st problem: Adobe fonts corrupt when the document is taken into Accessibility edit mode (any accessibiilty tool, also just opening it and reading with a screenreader the font is corrupt). Corrupt meaning that many letters are missing, there are periods where many spaces should be. 

2nd problem: On several files, when I try to reorder the Reading Order or edit tags etc, the app crashes. 

I've been on several hours long support calls and screen shares and also posted about this in the InDesign forum. 

• Acrobat was deleted and reinstalled
• InDesign 2024 was used to create a test version of the files 
• Adobe fonts were replaced in the document and syncing was turned off
• we tried working from a print PDF
• we tried creating the accessible features mostly in InDesign (still need Acrobat)

Nothing seems to fix the issue. The last support call the rep said it is a font issue and Adobe Fonts don't work with all applications, but there is no documentation for this to find out which ones work with which software, and no Adobe reps on a Fonts team for support. Basically sorry and good luck was the end result. No one has an answer for why this issue only began once my user font was replaced by Adobe with their font. 

My suspicion is that Adobe Fonts are protected and using the Accessibility Tools in Acrobat sends a message that someone is trying to edit the font outside of the license. But using a screen reader should not be interpreted as editing a font. And no one on the customer support team is responsible for fixing this or knowing about it or having access to someone at Adobe that can provide a patch for this... so I'm stuck! I think making an interactive PDF accessible is not against a font license. Maybe I'm wrong and this isn't the issue, but after going through so much trial and error and 3 support reps I am left thinking it's an internal licensing coding issue and I'm screwed. 

Any ideas, clues, steps to try? TIA!

[creative explorer]

@ErinEvergreen I feel sorry that you had to go through all that and still the issue is unresolved. I have a work-around, but you probably hate me for this. Use Google Fonts! Download and install them to your computer. Restart InDesign and the Google Fonts will Show up.  Google Fonts are generally open-source and come with very permissive licenses meaning they are designed to be freely used, distributed, and embedded without the kind of complex DRM or anti-embedding mechanisms that might be causing issues with some Adobe Fonts when Acrobat tries to deeply parse them for accessibility. 

[Ravi Gour]

Hi @ErinEvergreen 

Could you please share the Acrobat version you have and if possible share the file to investigate this.

Regards

Ravi

[ErinEvergreen]

Architecture: arm64 Processor: Apple M4 Max Build: 25.1.20566.0 AGM: 7.1.15 CoolType: 10.0.3 JP2K: 4.0.2.54782

Acrobat updated today. We also tried on prior versions. All crashing. Currently, on this version and the last one, the most crashes occur when clicking through the Reading Order just checking it, not even making any edits. I'm happy to share a file with you privately - how can I do that? Thanks! 

[ErinEvergreen]

Every single file crashes when going through the reading order. I'm going insane over here trying to just review the accessibility of each document. 

[Ayush_Jain003]

Hi @ErinEvergreen 

Thank you for reaching out to us.

To investigate further, please share the drive link of the file in which the issue was observed.

Also, please let us know about the page on which the issue is observed.

Regards,

Ayush Jain

[ErinEvergreen]

That isn't private. Do you have a private option? 

[ErinEvergreen]

I guess I could share and the have you request to access - would that work?

[Meenakshi Negi]

Hi ErinEvergreen ,

You may share it in a private message using the envelope icon at the top right corner of this community page.

Let us know if you need any help.

Thanks,

Meenakshi