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lambda2013
Participant
July 15, 2022
Answered

Open Sans converts to Times New Roman in Acrobat Pro DC when using CreatePDF within MS Word

  • July 15, 2022
  • 2 replies
  • 19664 views

I have an MS Word Document (attached) which I am converting to PDF.

 

The source file has two Google Fonts: Open Sans and STIX Two which I have installed for all users in the C:\Windows\Fonts folder on Win 10 Pro by right clicking "Install for all users" on the TrueType files I downloaded from Google Fonts. These display, print and save to PDF correctly on MS Word.

 

However, I have a Creative Cloud licensed version of Adobe Acrobat Pro DC (32 Bit)

 

Version is 2022.001.20169

 

The problem:

 

While the fonts (Open Sans and STIX Two) show up correctly in MS Word and MS Excel and print correctly, plus can be saved as a ".PDF" file from the File menu every time I try to use the alternate MS Word menu option "Save as Adobe PDF" OR the Ribbon Tool "Create PDF" the PDF that is created does not have the Open Sans regular typeface. This is converted to Times New Roman. I checked my fonts in the Word file using "Font Search" from the extended search function and there is no Times New Roman in the document. Oddly enough, I am using Open Sans Condensed in my footer and that does convert.

 

I note there were previous posts that were a bit similar, dealing with PowerPoint. 

 

I chedked the Word Options "Save" configuration and that is NOT embedding in fonts.

 

Without Acrobat DC Pro I can do everything fine.

 

With Acrobat DC Pro nothing works.

 

I even tried eidting the PDF that was created in Word using the "CreatePDF" button on the ribbon to replace the Times New Roman with Open Sans. Open Sans actually shows up as an avaiable font in the drop down for 'Edit PDF" font choice. When I select that nothing happens.

 

I have already spent 6 hours on this and none of it makes any sense at all. 

 

The thing seems to be broken for Open Sans but not Open Sans Condensed.

 

Nothing should be this hard. I published my research note using Microsoft "Save as PDF".

 

That worked PERFECTLY. 

 

Kingsley

 

 

    Correct answer lambda2013

    Since there does not appear to be any solution to this flakey behaviour I suggest simply testing every font you want to use before attempting to use this applicaiton for anything important. It is bizarre that font substitutions happen when printing to PDF, but ONLY via Acrobat. Printers and everything else have NO problem.


    I solved my issue with Open Sans be replacing it. Some fonts seem not to be picked up very well by Acrobat DC in my Windows 10 environment (and no, it is not because I did not install them correctly). In any case, that font really did not work for my purpose since I need high quality display of tabular figures. Open Sans Condensed kind of works, but Open Sans would not embed. In the end I had to choose fonts that Acrobat would actually embed. The Paratype family PT Sans, PT Serif and PT Sans Narrow works!

     

    So, my problem was solved by *going around* a problem with Acrobat DC to choose fonts it would play well with. On the other side, many folks on this thread have commented on problems with MS Word and needing to switch off font embedding. This seems to me like a dumb idea because then you cannot share the source Word document with other people! In fact, the whole thing worked together if I stuck to these rules:

    1. Do a very simple test font sheet in MS Word with no styles and see what works with Acrobat DC. That way you will isolate any problems with fonts that are just not getting embedded correctly (like Open Sans)

    2. Strip out any extraneous styles from MS Word that you are not using and/or make sure you set the base body and heading fonts in Word to your chosen typefaces. That eliminates a lot of bogus font embeddings that are realetd to Word applying styles from the base set to punctuation, paragraph markers, spacing and other font invisibles. Use advanced font search if you still have crud in there.

    3. Go ahead and embed the fonts in MS Word and in Acrobat via the CreatePDF preferences. The tests at step 1 will isolate any problematic fonts and the measures at step 2 will avoid bogus font embeddings due to the idiosyncratic way that MS Word attaches a "font" to things that are not fonts (whitespace).

    When I did all of that I got the workflow to actually work.

     

    I still have to clean up my design, but the typography and two-way need: 1) be able to share source MS Word with people who do not have the font installed; and 2) be able to embed fonts in Acrobat DC generated PDF worked. I guess many folks don't care about MS Word because they are using Adobe InDesign for layout. However, in the world of professional writing pretty much *all* writing is in Word.

     

    Like I said... I solved my own problem but I am really surprised that there was no other input.

     

    Open Sans is like the "sans" version of Times New Roman.

     

    As icky as that thought may be it seems nutty that it has embed issues for anybody who does the obvious thing and downloads it from Google Fonts (my god, what a crazy wild thing to do), and uses "install font" from the Windows 10 right-click pop up menu. No matter how I finangled things, that did not work.

     

    Now, that is not my problem. I am never going to use Open Sans 🙂

     

    Frankly, having now tried other font choices, I am happy about that!

    2 replies

    Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
    Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
    Legend
    July 20, 2023

    There are 3 methods to export a Word.docx file to PDF.

    Methods A and B described in this blog use Adobe's PDF Maker plug-in and you must correctly set them up to embed the fonts as described.

    Method C is Microsoft's built in PDF export and it automatically embeds the fonts.

    See if these instructions solve the problem: https://www.pubcom.com/blog/tutorials/ms-office/export-pdf/index.shtml

     

    |    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |
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    lambda2013Author
    Participant
    July 19, 2022

    Still trying to fix this with no luck. I tried other fonts like Archivo. They won't embed. Tried every combination of embed settings. Tried updating software. Tried uninstanlling and reinstalling fonts. Tried installing fonts for all users or just the actigve user. None of that works. Acrobat DC insists on converting these to Times New Roman. Tried doing preflight PDF checks and it says no fonts are missing. Tried changing the embed settings for Word through all combinations, then using CretedPDF. Made sure that "embed all fonts" is checked under preferences for CreatePDF. None of the above works.

     

    Always and every time. DC converts to Times New Roman.

     

    Undoubtedly the most broken peice of software I have ever used.

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      lambda2013Author
      Participant
      July 19, 2022

      Thus far this forum has not provided any useful informaiton to me.

       

      I thought, perhaps, that stome styles in Word might be messing things up so I made a simple word document with nothing but the default style (attached) and a few test fonts.

       

      Indeed, those shown are transferred correctly *except* Open Sans which is changed to Times New Roman.

       

      There does appear to be something broken here and I am surprised nobody seems to care.

      L
      lambda2013Author
      Participant
      July 19, 2022

      Since there does not appear to be any solution to this flakey behaviour I suggest simply testing every font you want to use before attempting to use this applicaiton for anything important. It is bizarre that font substitutions happen when printing to PDF, but ONLY via Acrobat. Printers and everything else have NO problem.

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