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A
Anonymous
September 4, 2011
Answered

Font spacing goes haywire when Word document is saved to PDF

  • September 4, 2011
  • 6 replies
  • 141798 views

Dear all,

I only noticed it recently. When I save a Word document to PDF, it seems that the font spacing of certain words change somewhat. I'm pretty sure it's not Word's fault. The spacing is fine in Word. Also, I have stripped the font formatting in Word and tried again, but the problem persists.

I've uploaded a screenshot here - http://www.box.net/shared/oncje9l3bzsgq7j2ky8b. (When I try to upload to Adobe Forums, the upload times out).

On the left is the text in Word 2010. On the right is the PDF produced.

The spacing for "adherence" and "unsurprising" has quite obviously changed.

Any ideas what's going on?

Cheers,

Jay

      Correct answer defaultd71pqa5jkki2

      Same problem with me. But as suggested, what worked for me was going to the Print settings before saving/converting the Word doc into a PDF.   One print setting was "Microsoft Print to PDF" and selecting that setting, the problem was solved. Thanks everyone for giving me this idea.  

      6 replies

      N
      NISHAM34618470lqgh
      Participant
      January 5, 2024

      It's because your printer is changed somehow. You can fix this by changing the default printer to MS printer in settings. 

      G
      Gary29039325nnye
      Participant
      March 23, 2023

      Thaks for this.  What worked for me was going to the Print settings before saving/converting the Word doc into a PDF.   One print setting was "Microsoft Print to PDF" and selecting that setting, the problem was solved. 

      D
      defaultd71pqa5jkki2Correct answer
      Participant
      October 26, 2021

      Same problem with me. But as suggested, what worked for me was going to the Print settings before saving/converting the Word doc into a PDF.   One print setting was "Microsoft Print to PDF" and selecting that setting, the problem was solved. Thanks everyone for giving me this idea.  

        A
        Anonymous
        September 9, 2011

        Hi Bill,

        Your suggestion to try using Press Quality instead of Standard Quality hit the nail on the head. The fonts are behaving properly now.

        When you suggested that, was there a specific setting within the Standard Quality settings that you thought was the culprit?

        I thought that there was some difference between creating a PDF from "Save as" and "Create PDF" since the former did not require me to save the Word document first.

        Thanks,

        Jay

        B
        Bill12
        Inspiring
        September 10, 2011

        The standard job settings do not embed all of the fonts. Depending on your viewer and such, that can be an issue. I use a job settings file from the IEEE for publications and it embeds all fonts. The fonts that are not embedded are typically the Adobe fonts. As long as you use the Adobe products you should get the fonts showing properly, but other viewers like GhostView might have problems. Another thing to look at is the selection for using local fonts. That sometimes is an issue.

        A
        Anonymous
        September 21, 2011

        Bill,

        You mentioned that "Save to PDF" and the "Save as Adobe PDF" are probably the same.

        I noticed today, out of curiousity when trying both, that the application metadata for the PDFs created by both are different.

        The former saves a v 1.5 PDF while the latter saves a v 1.4 PDF and has the "Press Quality.joboptions" attached to the PDF. I've uploaded a screenshot.

        This leads me to think that the configuration to use press quality job setting works only for the "Save as Adobe PDF" command.

        Aside - by any chance would you know which particular setting in the "press quality" set is causing all my landscaped documents to be rotated to portrait?

        Jay

        A
        Anonymous
        September 4, 2011

        Hi Bill,

        Thanks for chipping in.

        I have tried creating a PDF from Word using 2 alternative methods. Both reproduces the problem. 1) By saving to PDF. 2) By using the Adobe PDF maker plugin.

        I have not tried using the Adobe PDF virtual printer to create a PDF from word, as my bookmarks are not retained.

        Font substitution wise, these are the 2 fonts embedded in the PDF: http://www.box.net/shared/ktjozysav1op0afbl8n4. There is the Times New Roman True Type encoded font, and there is also the problematic Times New Roman Identity H encoded font (which has caused me problems in other respects in the past, and which seemed to crop up if there are graphics in the word document).

        How can I tweak the settings for font substitution? It does not seem to be available for the option of saving from DOCX to PDF.

        Jay

        B
        Bill12
        Inspiring
        September 4, 2011

        Try changing to the press or print job settings before creating the PDF. The job settings are available in the printer properties for printing and in the PDF Maker preferences for the other. The save to PDF is likely just the short cut to PDF Maker from the save menu and should create an identical result. You can also try to compare to the WORD plugin from MS for creating PDFs. The latter has some issues, but it is still a useful tool for comparison.

          B
          BH^.^
          Participant
          October 8, 2025

          Thank you so much, @Bill12! Changing the setting to Press has fixed my issue as well.

          B
          Bill12
          Inspiring
          September 4, 2011

          There are typically 2 factors that might create this result. The first is that you do not have WORD set to use the Adobe PDF printer when you are printing (though I do not think this is the issue). You might check to see if in OFFICE 2010 that the printer metrics are used in the layout and use this in your mind set. However, the most likely issue is that you have not embedded the fonts and the font substitution is not ideal. You can use ctrl-D to check the fonts in the document properties. At least those are my suggestions of things to look at right now.

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