BUG? Adobe Acrobat Pro breaks Semibold and Medium Italic fonts when creating PDFs from Word

Report · Nov 11, 2025

Dear Community Members,

Adobe Acrobat Pro breaks Semibold and Medium Italic fonts when creating PDFs from Word - Multiple fonts affected since August 2025. Adobe Acrobat Pro fails to correctly embed or preserve some (or all?) Semibold Italic and Medium Italic font variants when creating PDFs from Word docx files. This issue affects multiple font families and appears to have emerged between June 28 and August 10, 2025.

Does this affect you too? Please reply if you're experiencing similar issues with Semibold or Medium Italic fonts in recent Adobe versions.

My system info:

Adobe Acrobat Pro Version: 2025.001.20844
Windows Version: Windows 11 Pro Version 10.0.22631 Build 22631
Last working PDF created: June 28, 2025
First PDF with font problems: August 10, 2025
Problem persists as of: November 10, 2025

SOME AFFECTED FONTS (Confirmed with testing): See attached screenshot showing side-by-side comparison of Word document vs Adobe-generated PDF.

adobe problem.jpg

FAILS:

Junicode Semibold Italic → Garbled characters (substitutes with Courier)
Junicode Medium Italic → Garbled characters
Segoe UI Semibold Italic → Semibold only (removes italic)
Bahnschrift Semibold Italic → Regular Italic (removes semibold weight)

WORKS:

Junicode Semibold (regular) → Correctly rendered
Junicode Italic (regular weight) → Correctly rendered
Junicode Bold Italic → Correctly rendered
Segoe UI Bold Italic → Correctly rendered

PATTERN: Adobe fails with Semibold Italic and Medium Italic combinations across these tested fonts, but Bold Italic works correctly.

ERROR MESSAGES: When using Adobe Distiller, the following error appears in the log:

%%[ ProductName: Distiller ]%%

Junicode-SmBoldItalic not found, using Courier.

%%[ Error: invalidfont; OffendingCommand: xshow ]%%

No warning dialogs appear to the user - Adobe silently substitutes fonts or removes styling.

REPRODUCTION STEPS:

Create a Word document (.docx) with text in Junicode Semibold Italic (or Segoe UI Semibold Italic, or Bahnschrift Semibold Italic)
Use Adobe Acrobat Pro: Create PDF → From File (or File → Create → PDF from file)
Open resulting PDF
Result: Font is incorrectly rendered (garbled text, wrong weight, or missing italic styling)

EVIDENCE SUGGESTING THIS IS AN ADOBE BUG:

Fonts display perfectly in Word - the font files themselves are not corrupted
Microsoft Print to PDF embeds Semibold Italic correctly - the same fonts work when using Word's "Save as PDF" or "Microsoft Print to PDF"
Fonts are confirmed embeddable - Windows font properties show embedding permissions are allowed
This worked previously - PDFs created on June 28, 2025 with the same fonts embedded correctly
Multiple fonts affected - This is not specific to one font family; pattern is consistent across different font vendors

This bug prevents my professional book publishing workflow where Semibold Italic is commonly used for emphasis.

REQUEST:

Can Adobe confirm this is a known issue?
Can a timeline be estimated for a fix?
Are other users experiencing this?
Is there a workaround within Adobe?

Report · Nov 11, 2025

Hi @William_Robert3460,

Hope you are doing well. Sorry for the trouble with creating PDFs on Acrobat.

Would you mind trying out the steps below:

Open the Word file > go to Print > select Adobe PDF > Advanced Settings > Modify > uncheck "Use System Fonts only. Do not use Document Fonts" > OK.

Once done, try creating the file again.

Let us know how it goes.

Regards,
Souvik.

Report · Nov 11, 2025

I will try this and report back.

Report · Nov 11, 2025

Sure, @Endre353695381sw8.

We'll be on standby in case you need further assistance.

Regards,
Souvik.

Report · Nov 11, 2025

Dear Souvik,

Thank you for your help. I followed your advice and unchecked "Use system fonts only," then tested converting two Word files:

File No. 1 (Simple one-page test file - attached as JPG in original post):

Method: Print to Adobe PDF
Result: ✅ PDF produced successfully - all fonts rendered correctly with no problems
However, when using "Save as Adobe PDF" or "Create Adobe PDF" options, the Semibold Italic problem persisted

File No. 2 (260-page book with special characters - my main document):

Method: Print to Adobe PDF
Result: ❌ FAILED - Process crashed on page 30 with the following Distiller error:

%%[ ProductName: Distiller ]%%
%%[Page: 1]%%
%%[Page: 2]%%
%%[Page: 3]%%
%%[Page: 4]%%
%%[Page: 5]%%
%%[Page: 6]%%
%%[Page: 7]%%
%%[Page: 8]%%
%%[Page: 9]%%
%%[Page: 10]%%
%%[Page: 11]%%
%%[Page: 12]%%
%%[Page: 13]%%
%%[Page: 14]%%
%%[Page: 15]%%
%%[Page: 16]%%
%%[Page: 17]%%
%%[Page: 18]%%
%%[Page: 19]%%
%%[Page: 20]%%
%%[Page: 21]%%
%%[Page: 22]%%
%%[Page: 23]%%
%%[Page: 24]%%
%%[Page: 25]%%
%%[Page: 26]%%
%%[Page: 27]%%
%%[Page: 28]%%
%%[Page: 29]%%
%%[Page: 30]%%
%%[ Error: undefined; OffendingCommand: namenotfound ]%%

Stack:
-mark-
/

%%[ Flushing: rest of job (to end-of-file) will be ignored ]%%
%%[ Warning: PostScript error. No PDF file produced. ] %%

No PDF was produced. Page 30 contains special characters, but these render fine when I use the "Create Adobe PDF" option (my usual method). However, with "Create Adobe PDF," I get garbled characters in other locations where I use Semibold Italics.

Summary:

Print to Adobe PDF works for my simple document but crashes on my complex doc
Create Adobe PDF handles special characters of my complex doc but garbles Semibold Italics

Your suggested method appears to be a step toward the solution, but the originally described Semibold Italic problem still persists with both test files when using "Create Adobe PDF."

I hope my feedback can be helpful towards a more satisfactory solution.

Thank you very much for your continued help.

Best regards, Endre

Report · Nov 26, 2025

Dear Souvik, are there any news concerning this bug? Thank you in advance.

Report · Nov 26, 2025

Hi @Endre353695381sw8,

Hope you are doing well. Sorry for the delayed response.

When using the Adobe Print PDF tool, have you checked to see if the "Use System Fonts only" option is unchecked?

From the error message you shared above, it seems the checkbox was checked, which led to the error log message being generated, which you might have received as a text file in Notepad.

If the option is unchecked and you still see the issue, please share the details below for further investigation:

1. The app version of Acrobat you are using (go to Menu > Help > About Acrobat);

2. A screen recording of the entire event for better understanding.

3. A sample file where you see this.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,
Souvik.

Report · Nov 26, 2025

Dear Souvik,
I double checked when using Adobe print to PDF: yes, Use system fonts only is unchecked.
My version is Acrobat Pro 2025.001.20937 (screenshot attached).
There are 2 scenarios:
1. If I want to produce a PDF from my Word doc with Adobe print to PDF (use esystem fonts only uncehecked), then a PDF is NOT created , only an error message (attached), indicating problem on page 30 (my page 30 of original word doc is attached, it has special characters).
Scenario 2. Another type of error occurs if I use Acrobat/create PDF option from within Word: a PDF is created, but semibold fonts are turned to other types of fonts. As a demonstration of this I do not want to upload my 300 pages document with the misrendered semibold fonts, but I show a test document in Word and the PDF produced from it with it with errors (both files attached).

Please inform me if you still need better understanding of the problem. In my very first post I described and illustradted the problem with as many details as i could, please also read that first post as well if necessary. nothing has changed in the behaviour of Adobe Acrobat Pro since my first post .