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quintonv31658388
Participant
Nov 25, 2018 8:18 PM UTC
Answered

Copying and pasting text in PDF turns to gibberish

Using Adobe Acrobat Pro DC as my default printer.

 

When trying to copy and paste text from pdf to another app, the text appears as gibberish (symbols, etc.)

 

Some pdf prints also do not allow for copying/highlighting of lines of text - tried "Enhance Scan" to ensure OCR and flow but still cannot select single words or lines of text in some documents.

    Isa37131267pfkwCorrect answer
    Participant
    May 2, 2024 9:54 AM UTC

    Hi guys, I just found a solution and thought it might help someone.

    Basically you can just open the google translate app on your phone, and use the image translation function (camera) to scan the file. Note that you'll need to set both the detected and result languages same as the file language, otherwise it'll  translate into another language. When the process completes, select 'copy text', and then you can copy the text. You're welcome!

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    30 replies

    Tung-Tung-Tung-Sadur
    Participant
    May 21, 2025 5:53 PM UTC

    TUNG TUNG TUNG TUNG SADUR so tung

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    Tung-Tung-Tung-Sadur
    Participant
    May 21, 2025 5:51 PM UTC

    TUNG TUNG TUNG TUNG SADUR

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    Vibrant_Moolight
    Participant
    Nov 14, 2024 6:35 PM UTC

    When I had this issue, it happen when my Adobe .pdf files loaded from a browser window, and it is only when I copied the text when the .pdf was in a browser that I received gibberish.  Once I downloaded the file and actually opened up adobe version 24.004.20243.0 and performed the same copy and paste, the selected text finally copied correctly.  

     

    Was everyone else having this issue from the browser, or from the actual app?

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    nicolas_4858
    Participant
    Sep 25, 2024 5:31 PM UTC

    I solved it by opening it in Microsoft Edge and printing it with Adobe PDF as the printer. Afterward, I opened the new PDF file, did OCR on Adobe Pro, and solved it.

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    LegoAtlantis
    Participant
    Jul 16, 2024 3:19 PM UTC

    The way I fixed it was to export the file as a Word document (Foxit PDF did this on a free trial), then make it into a PDF from Word and the text could now be copied correctly. Shouldn't happen in the first place though.

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    Isa37131267pfkwCorrect answer
    Participant
    May 2, 2024 9:54 AM UTC

    Hi guys, I just found a solution and thought it might help someone.

    Basically you can just open the google translate app on your phone, and use the image translation function (camera) to scan the file. Note that you'll need to set both the detected and result languages same as the file language, otherwise it'll  translate into another language. When the process completes, select 'copy text', and then you can copy the text. You're welcome!

    Translate
      abdo334586275qx2
      Participant
      Nov 7, 2023 10:01 PM UTC

      Simply edit the pdf then copy the text and it will work

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      Maï Maï
      Participant
      Apr 26, 2023 11:29 AM UTC

      Hello everyone,

      I am on Mac and I have the same issue.
      I created a large file under CorelDraw. 
      When I try to copy from the PDf to Word, it works.
      But when my colleagues open on their Windows computers, it does the gibberish once pasted in Word.

      Please help (literally crying)

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        YanMTL92
        Participant
        Apr 5, 2023 10:50 AM UTC

        I had that same issue this morning with some font in a large PDF that I needed to find some specifiec terms. I simply printed as PDF and ran a new text recognition scan on top, then saved and it worked like a charm.

         

        hopefully this will help someone else in the same situation.

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        Wes28303415aylj
        Participant
        Feb 7, 2023 8:33 PM UTC

        Neither of the "correct" answers work.

        This is BS.  Just want to have acrobat pro be able to copy from pdf and paste.  Otherwise will need a different PDF solution.

         

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          Michael29164618kbk0
          Participant
          Mar 30, 2023 7:13 PM UTC

          Same problem - scan in text to a Searchable PDF and the Greek words display correctly in the Acrobat reader.  But if I try to copy a section of the text to paste into another document (typically Word), the roman characters are fine, but the Greek text is gibberish.  Is there not a simple solution such as enabling Greek text or a particular font in Reader?

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          YanMTL92
          Participant
          Apr 5, 2023 10:53 AM UTC

          Hello, I printed as PDF and ran a text recognition scan and in my case it fixed it. hopefully it works for you as well.

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