Known Participant

Question

Adobe PDF print driver converting my text to bitmaps

Forum|Forum|10 months ago
March 23, 2025
4 replies
1477 views

I'm using Acrobat Pro 2020, Windows 10 and Photoshop CS6.

I have saved a copy of a Photoshop PDF without layers and without preserving the Photoshop editing capability, and the text is still text when I open it in Acrobat, i.e. I can select the text in Acrobat and it's pin-sharp.

But the resulting file size is too large (I need to create a screen res version for the web). So I opened the PDF in Acrobat and printed it using the Adobe PDF print driver - and it got the file size down to the right sort of level, but it converted the text to bitmaps. I don't understand why. The font in question is Sofia Pro, which is installed on my computer. It's clearly embedded in the Photoshop PDF, because if I view that on a device that doesn't have Sofia Pro installed, it displays correctly.

But it isn't being embedded in the PDF created using the Adobe Print driver, even though "Rely on system fonts" is turned off, and "embed all fonts" is turned on. The graphics in the resulting PDF look great but the text looks bitmappy.

What could be causing this and is there any way of printing the Photoshop PDF using the Adobe PDF Print driver so that the fonts are embedded and the text remains text?

Many thanks for your help.

Dave

D

DaveRadoAuthor

Known Participant

Ignore this post - I thought I'd solved it but I hadn't.

JR Boulay

Community Expert

Obviously, if you use a process that deletes the text (and other elements), the weight of the final file is inevitably lighter than if you keep it.

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe

D

DaveRadoAuthor

Known Participant

Hi @JR Boulay

The opposite is true. Bitmaps files are much larger than text files.

If I create a PDF from a Word document containing nothing but text, using the Adobe PDF print driver, the text is still text in the resulting PDF file - and for an A4 page of Lorem Ipsum text the file size of the PDF file is typically around 40k (even if I use an unusual font so that the PDF contains the embedded font). If I then print that PDF from within Acrobat, using the Adobe PDF print driver, it converts the text to bitmaps and the file size of the resulting PDF is typically around 470k (or larger, depending on the settings) - a more than 10-fold increase.

But I've printed PDFs using the Adobe PDF print driver from within Acrobat for many years and it didn't start converting text to bitmaps until very recently. And it still doesn't convert text to bitmaps if I print from Word using the PDF driver. So how can I get the PDF driver work like it used to from within Acrobat?

Dave

JR Boulay

Community Expert

"The opposite is true. Bitmaps files are much larger than text files.

If I create a PDF from a Word document containing nothing but text"

Your first post referred to a Photoshop-PDF, not a Word document.
By its very nature, a Photoshop-PDF contains pixels and possibly text, which is what I was referring to in my reply.

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe

JR Boulay

Community Expert

Printing a PDF as a PDF to reduce its weight is not good practice.
You should use Acrobat Pro: Save as Other: Optimize PDF

https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/optimizing-pdfs-acrobat-pro.html#save_using_pdf_optimizer_acrobat_pro

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe

D

DaveRadoAuthor

Known Participant

Hi @JR Boulay

Just tried that and it didn't reduce the file size at all.

T

Tariq Ahmad

Community Manager

Hi @DaveRado,

Thank you for reaching out with your question.

PDF Printed Using “Adobe PDF Printer”

• Created by “printing” to the virtual Adobe PDF Printer, which converts the document into a PostScript-based PDF.

• Flattens the content, meaning it treats everything (text, images, etc.) as a graphic, often making it non-editable and non-searchable unless OCR is applied.

• May increase file size and reduce text clarity, especially if fonts are not embedded. Which in your case is reversed.

• Useful when preserving exact visual appearance is more important than keeping text or interactive elements editable.

I hope this answers your question, if not let us know.

~Tariq

D

DaveRadoAuthor

Known Participant

Hi @Tariq Ahmad

That's not true. If I print a Word document using the Adobe PDF print driver, the text is preserved as text, as shown in the attached PDF which I created in this way.

As for preserving the appearance, PDFs containing text always preserve the exact appearance of the original document provided the fonts are embedded. I've been creating PDFs for many years and have never noticed this problem before.

Dave

temp.pdf

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