Highlighting PDF distorts text

[Rich23659089ipol]

I frequently "save as PDF" documents from the Federal Trade Commission.  The format changed over the past several months so that after I open the saved document and use the highlighter tool, the text becomes distorted and garbled, even text that is not directly highlighed:

Before:  

After: 

Note that when I "print as Adobe PDF", the document cannot be effectively highlighted, resulting in the large elliptical shapes at the bottom of the document, which other posts have reported.

This seems to happen primarily with documents from the Federal Trade Commission.  The link to the excerpts above is https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business. 

I have not seen anyone address this problem.  Thanks for any help.

[Amal. · Accepted solution]

Hi @Rich23659089ipol 

Hope you are doing well and thanks for reaching out.

What is the workflow/steps you are doing to create the PDF file from the original document? A small video recording of the same would be very helpful.

Please try to create the PDF from Acrobat desktop application Open Acrobat and choose Tools > Create PDF > Web Page. and see if that works. For more info please go through the help page https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/converting-web-pages-pdf.html

What is the version of the Acrobat DC you are using? To check the version go to Help > About Acrobat and make sure you have the recent version 23.03.20269 installed. Go to Help > Check for updates and reboot the computer once.

~Amal

[Rich23659089ipol]

Create PDF from Web Page resolved the problem, but it took minutes to complete once I cliced Create.  This would not be feasible on an ongoing basis, but for this one source it should be OK.  

The workflow is simply, right click on web page, Print..., Save as PDF.

Adobe DC version installed is the most recent one you specified, and I even restarted computer to confirm installation.  After recreated the scenario with the same URL with Save as PDF, and the highlighting caused the same distorted text.  Could this be the manner in which the FTC is creating the web pages? 

[Amal.]

Hi there

The option save a PDF is not Adobe process of creating the PDF files. Either you may try saving as Adobe PDF (if the option is available) or the correct workflow as described in the earlier response.

Hope this information will help.

~Amal

[Rich23659089ipol]

I am well aware that Save as PDF is not proprietary to Adobe, however, if I select Print as Adobe PDF, the highlighting fails miserably and generates large elliptical shapes not even near the text I tried to highlight.  For example, the screenshot below shows what happens when I tried to highlight a few words on the top of the page:

[Amal.]

Hi there

Print as Adobe PDF, will flatten the PDF file and an image copy of the document. You need to run the OCR tool on the document to make the text searchable as described here,  https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/edit-scanned-pdfs.html

~Amal

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

@Amal. Creating the PDF through the standalone app is unnecessary as long as they using the Adobe Chrome plugin and not the Chome print to PDF method. (See below)

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

I used your link two ways: right-click to use Adobe Acrobat to save the PDF (only took seconds) and used the Chrome Print to PDF option. The Acrobat method worked perfectly, while the Chrome P2PDF had the problem you describe. I believe Chrome is not embedding the fonts correctly. (I did not have to use the Acrobat app, just the right-click in Chrome.)

[Robert22024479sxsc]

I have a similar problem but it's with pdf's that I download. I've attached an example. When I try to  highlight in Adobe Acrobat pro in some cases the text gets distorted and in others the highlighting spreads across the page. I have attached examples of both. Appreciate the help.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

Look at the embedded font info and see if the fonts look properly embedded. Since you didn't create the PDFs, there is little you can do to fix the problem (assuming it's a font issue).

[Robert22024479sxsc]

Thanks. How do I check the embedded font info?

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

File>Document Properties

[Robert22024479sxsc]

Thanks. I'll check next time it occurs.