Not able to paste the copied text, text appears as boxes when pasted.

[hi897456]

I have this pdf file:data.pdf, I don't know how it was created. When I copy the text from this pdf and paste it somwhere else it shows boxes instead of the text. I think it has to do something with its encoding or font-
ECQMlV+Helvetica (Embedded Subset)
       Type: TrueType (CID)
       Encoding: Identity-H
ZZSOZT+Helvetica-Bold (Embedded Subset)
       Type: TrueType (CID)
        Encoding: Identity-H
Please help me to copy paste the text.

[try67 · Accepted solution]

Yes, it's a font encoding issue. The only real solution is to re-create the file using proper fonts.

To do that export it as (high-quality) images, such as PNG, then create a new PDF file from those images, and run Text Recognition on it.

[hi897456]

Thanks for the reply, I will do the Text recognition.

Is it possible someone had deliberately created the pdf in this fashion or it is somekind of error? And can I also create pdf's with this problem.

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse]

"Is it possible someone had deliberately created the pdf in this fashion or it is somekind of error?"

Neither. A PDF is not meant to be an editable format, it's an output format, and it's also designed to be compressed to make it as small as possible, hence, when a font is subsetted to make the file smaller, it will sometimes renecode it for this new "virtual font" (which is no longer Helvetica at all, but "ECQMlV+Helvetica") because it doesn't need the entire character map, especially the larger one that comes with some TrueType CID fonts. In other cases, it will leave the encoding as is, say, ANSI, because it's a smaller character map.

Is there a way to fix this after the fact? not really, as you can't get the eggs back after the cake is made.

However, some tools, like Pitstop or Markzware's OmniMarks (not trying to promote them, just showing an example), can allow you to remap Characters when you convert a PDF, like so:

 Since your fonts are subsetted, you will only have to remap as many characters that you have used, but this will allow you to copy/export/create a new PDF of the text as a more usable form.

[try67]

I would say both, actually. Some people do it on purpose to "obfuscate" the file (I will not explain how to do it, though, as I consider it quite harmful for the end-user), and some just do it by mistake. This doesn't really prevent editing. It prevents copying the file's text, searching it, extracting information from it, etc.

[hi897456]

Thanks for the answers, you guys have been really helpful.

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse]

There ARE some on-line conversion tools that can successfully reencode fonts on the way to another format (e.g. Word file or even IDML), but this is a buyer beware sort of things, and probably not what you want to do with any sensitive data

[dani_0985]

Nothing suggested here worked for me, but what did work is this:

1. In Acrobat Pro, go to File > Export a PDF > JPEG. This will create individual JPEGs for each page
2. In Finder (Mac) or Explore (PC) , select all of the created JPEGs, right click, open in Acrobat Pro. A prompt will ask if you want to combine the files into one PDF, say YES. Adobe OCR functionality converts the image back to text in a supported font!
3. Edit the newly created PDF Adobe OCR functionality converts the image back to text in a supported font!

4. Copy and paste.

[try67]

That's exactly what I suggested in my original reply to this question..

[dani_0985]

I wasn't finding a "Text Recognition" option, so I thought these specific steps would be helpful. Yes, they are similar to your suggestion.