copy-paste problem

[JIPNET]

A new behavior is puzzling me: when I copy and paste text from Acrobat DC Pro (any file) to Word and to Apple Mail messages, the text comes out in Italics. Is there a reason? I want Roman characters (no itals).  This never was a problem, but now is on my M1 laptop. My other machine is Intel based; has same fonts, apps, and OS–and it does not produce this error.

Is this a known bug? If anyone has an M1 machine could you please test this and see if you can reproduce the error? Thanks.

Lates Acrobat DC Pro; latest Monterey; M1 laptop.

[Amal.]

Hi there

Hope you are doing well and sorry to hear that.

As described its an issue with Mac Monterey, M1 and not on the Windows machine, please try to reset the Acrobat preferences as described here https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/how-to-reset-acrobat-preference-settings-to-defau...

Also please try to create a new test user profile with full admin rights or enable the root account in MAC and try using the application there and check

Regards

Amal

[JIPNET]

Wiping out the preferences did not do it.

I will try with the test profile. 

[JIPNET]

Same result with a Guest account. It's specific to the M1 machine (not happening on my intel iMac)

[Amal.]

Hi there

We are sorry to hear that. Would you mind collecting the Adobe CC logs as described here https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/cc-log-collector.html and share the logs via document cloud as described here https://helpx.adobe.com/document-cloud/help/sharing-pdfs.html so that we can isolate the issue for further investigation.

Regards

Amal

[James23228917qbyi]

AdobeLogs_20220218_085831_418-mac-GS.zxp

Done. I hope it captured the data.

[James23228917qbyi]

Did you receive the logs?

[Amal.]

Hi there

Please share the logs via document cloud as described in the help page shared earlier and share the link via private message by clicking on the mail icon on the top right corner of this page.

Regards

Amal

[JIPNET]

Did you receive the logs? I signed in with APple below but now with my university account. tx

[JIPNET]

Uploaded again today:

AdobeLogs_20220226_100900_392-mac-GS.zxp

[Amal.]

Hi there

Thanks for uploading the logs. Also please share a small video recording of the steps you are doing and getting the issue, for a better understanding.

Regards

Amal

[JIPNET]

There's nothing to show. Imagine selecting text in a PDF, copying it, and pasting it into any other format (Word or an email): Italics result.

[Amal.]

Hi there

Sorry to keep you waiting. We have raised this issue to our engineering team for further investigation. We will share the update as soon as we get any news from them.

Thanks for your time and patience.

Regards

Amal

[Deepika Bisht]

Hi There,

Hope you are doing well and sorry to keep you waiting.

Could you please help me with following:
1. Are you usng MAC 12.0 Beta? If yes, can you try to upgrade to GA version of MAC.
2. Can you please update the application to latest version from the help menu > Check for updates and reboot the computer once and see if that helps.

Let us know how it goes.

Thanks, 

Acrobat Team

[JIPNET]

The update did nothing to solve the problem. I am using an M1 machine. Not an issue on the Intel mac with same everything. Can you replicate this yourself on an M1 mac? thanks.

[MattPat]

Any progress on this bug (because it's still a bug, and it's annoying)? I'm on an Apple M1 Pro, macOS 13.5 (22G74), Adobe Acrobat Pro Version 2023.003.20244.

[JIPNET]

NOPE.

[MattPat]

I forgot to mention, it sometimes copies over a line break (carriage return) where one was not copied.

For example, when I coppy the word "Camp" from a PDF, with only the word highlighted (no white space), and paste it into an Outlook email, I get: 

"Camp

"

It doesn't add the line break if pasting into Word, but is always in italics.

[Matthew322655804luh]

BTW, this issue persists in the revamped version, 2023.003.20284.

[mark_4349]

Adobe has not done a thing about this problem for years. But there is an easy fix: USE APPLE'S PREVIEW. I have become so frustrated by the italics probem and by Adobe lack of responsiveness, I have now set PREVIEW as my default. It works great! It's much more powerful than I thought it was. 

So, here's the solution: stop using Adobe, use Preview instead!

[Tariq Ahmad]

Hi @mark_4349, 

Thanks for sharing your feedback; it is not entirely correct. This workflow has a technical dependency or bottleneck.

If you are getting gibberish text when copying and pasting from a PDF, the issue is typically related to font encoding or missing font information.

Why This Happens

Font Encoding Issues:

• Some PDFs use custom font encoding or lack proper Unicode mapping for characters. This means that when you copy text, the glyphs (visual representations of characters) cannot be accurately mapped to their corresponding text characters, resulting in garbage text.

Non-Standard PDF Generators:

• Many PDF creation tools do not adhere to PDF standards, leading to improperly embedded fonts or incorrect encoding.

Missing Fonts:

• If the PDF relies on fonts that are not embedded in the file and are also not available on your system, it can lead to issues when displaying or copying text.

How to Fix It

Use the Preflight Tool in Adobe Acrobat:

• Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat Pro.
• Go to Tools > Print Production > Preflight.
• Search for the “Embed Fonts” fixup profile.
• Run this profile to embed any missing fonts into the PDF.
• Note: The fonts need to be available on your system for this process to work.

Export and Recreate the PDF:

• Export the PDF to another format, such as Word or plain text, using Acrobat or other tools. This can sometimes recover the correct text encoding.
• Recreate the PDF with properly embedded fonts.

Use OCR (Optical Character Recognition):

• If the PDF text is effectively an image due to improper encoding, use the Enhance Scans tool in Acrobat to apply OCR. This will regenerate searchable and copyable text.

Check with the PDF Creator:

• If possible, request a new version of the PDF from the original creator, ensuring they embed fonts and follow standard PDF practices.

Addressing the font encoding and embedding issues should resolve the problem of gibberish text during copying and pasting. Let us know if you have more questions.

~Tariq

[mattpat]

@Tariq Ahmad, This is not a correct answer as it misunderstans the problem. When using Acrobat DC on macOS (for years now, and still on v. 15) all properly encoded text, when copied from a PDF and pasted into another app (e.g., Word, Outlook, etc.), pastes in italics. Every PDF, every time. Pasting in giberish is an extirely separate issue.

[Tariq Ahmad · Accepted solution]

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction @mattpat! I removed my answer as a correct answer. 

However, there is a workaround that I have tried and tested at my end. 
Ensure the Select tool is selected. Select the text you need to copy, right-click on the highlighted text, and choose content menu options > Choose "Copy with formatting." Then try pasting the text into MS Word, and it should work fine. 

                 

Let me know if that works on your end. 

~Tariq

 

[JIPNET]

This works. Thanks very much.

[Tariq Ahmad]

Thank you for the confirmation and quick response, @JIPNET!