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New Participant
March 28, 2017
Answered

Font changing when creating PDF from Word

  • March 28, 2017
  • 18 replies
  • 315953 views

Hi,

When I create a PDF document from word, the font Times New Roman is getting changed to Times Roman.

Here I use the Acrobat Pro Dc for my conversion of word to PDF.

 

I found a similar blog Times New Roman in Word documents changes to TimesNewRomanPSMT in PDF documents (Create PDF)  explaining the problem.

 

Is there any solution to overcome this problem?

 

Can someone please help?

Correct answer try67

In Word go to the Acrobat ribbon and click on Preferences. Select the Conversion Settings profile you want to use and then click on Advanced Settings. Switch to the Fonts section and tick "Embed all fonts" (if it's not ticked already). If you want, save the profile under a new name and then use it when converting your file to a PDF.

18 replies

New Participant
July 29, 2021

I had the same issue, and even when I ticked the box for to embed the font it kept happening. (not sure if it was because of my new Macbook Pro.   I then tried ticking "Best for Printing" and this seemed to keep the font the same!

New Participant
March 21, 2023

This works for me in terms of keeping the fonts the same, but doesn't carry over any embedded links to the PDF document.

New Participant
September 16, 2020

None of these options worked for me. I finally chose the "Print" option and then "Print as PDF" in the lower left hand corner and that did it. 

New Participant
August 20, 2021

Same here! Thanks for posting this suggestion. Going through Print in order to see/save the PDF maintained both fonts and hyperlinks on my Mac. 

Participating Frequently
August 25, 2021

This didnt work for me - I still get strange fonts in PDF. Any other suggestions?

New Participant
September 9, 2020

I am having a similar issue from Word to Adobe. The horizontal spacing of my characters is all wrong and very hard to read. There are spaces where their shouldn't be. It looks great in Word, but Adobe looks so unprofessional. Please help. I did ensure that I had the embed all fonts selection checked. 

 

New Participant
September 9, 2020

Also... I am on Microsoft 2010, on Windows 10. with the most up to date version of Adobe.

Thanks!

New Participant
July 10, 2020

For Mac OS users - when saving as a pdf select 'best for printing' rather than 'best for electronic distribution'

New Participant
July 29, 2020

This works but it does not function for electronic distribution. This has two problems: (1) It will not embed URLs so that a user could click a link the way they can in the document in Word, and (2) the document loses compliance with disability requirements. For my job I need to produce pdfs that are legal in terms of disability law and maintain clickable URLs that users can connect to the web with. I would also like to retain the same fonts I am using as the Word conversion becomes unpredictable without maintaining the same fonts (it produces embedded blank pages, etc.) Is there no way to do this simple task?

New Participant
October 16, 2020

Same issue. Very frustrating to have to choose between a print distribution PDF that cuts off logo files and kills hyperlinks and an electronic distribution PDF that keeps the logo and links whole, but changes all the fonts and formatting. The Embed Fonts solve that worked for others doesn't appear to make a difference on my end.

New Participant
June 13, 2020

Mac OS... go to Word > Preferences > Output and Sharing > Save

In Save go to the bottom and click on Embed fonts in file...

New Participant
June 24, 2020

This isn't working for me. 😕😕 And same with the Adobe Ribbon Preferences button not having any options. (I have a Mac OS)

anoukg35082779
New Participant
April 21, 2020

can you show us by a screenshot?

New Participant
May 14, 2020

I do have hte Acrobat Ribbon, though the preference options in the acrobat ribbon don't provide any options. Also in acrobat itself you can choose to update preferences from to convert from word to pdf, but it does not allow changes there either. You can convert directly from word to pdf by using the save option in word, though that does not keep the hyperlinks in your doc. So still curious about how other people solved it... ( I am a mac user)

Brainiac
May 14, 2020

Mac ribbon has minimal functions, and often sends the files to the cloud for conversion. It's often said that the Windows Word is much more powerful for apps to add stuff. Don't know if that's the reason.

Brainiac
March 28, 2017

Actually, that's a pretty normal transformation, which tends to go away if you embed fonts. They are considered equivalent so Reader is likely to use Times New Roman in some variation to show PDF files which say to use Times Roman.

kareng29572434
New Participant
March 21, 2018

I am having the exact same problem using my Mac. It changed my fonts to Times New Roman. So how do you embed fonts?

try67
try67Correct answer
Adobe Expert
March 21, 2018

In Word go to the Acrobat ribbon and click on Preferences. Select the Conversion Settings profile you want to use and then click on Advanced Settings. Switch to the Fonts section and tick "Embed all fonts" (if it's not ticked already). If you want, save the profile under a new name and then use it when converting your file to a PDF.

Dov Isaacs
Brainiac
March 28, 2017

More information please?

What platform are you running on - Windows or MacOS? What version of Word?

Also, it would be helpful for you to provide a screen shot of what happens when you open the PDF file in Acrobat and show the Document Properties' Font listing so we can see exactly what the font status is in terms of font referenced versus font used, embedding status, etc.

          - Dov

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
New Participant
May 4, 2024

When I convert from a doc to a pdf, it is changing one one area of font to these unreadable characters. I've embedded the font and it is still changing the font. 

New Participant
May 4, 2024

I had the same issue and embedding the font did absolutely nothing to resolve the issue. We have a brand guide that requires we use a specific font so I was really frustrated. 

 

Here's what worked: upload the word doc to SharePoint. Within SharePoint select the file and save it as a PDF. 

 

It will work and the text will be in the right font and readable. It is the only thing I've found to solve the problem