Printing problem when PDF is sent to the printer with certain fonts - missing text

[JJorda]

I'm running into a printing problem when PDFs containing certain characters of the Calibri font are used.  The text in large sections of the PDF is missing on the paper version, but the text is there on the screen.  It's also happened when the PDFs we created were e-mailed out to a client and printed on their printer.  The problem is not present when printing directly from the programs (Microsoft Word, Excel, Visio, etc.).  I've been trying to get tech support from Adobe on this, but every time I call they apologize and say they will call back in 4-6 hours with an answer.  Same result each time, no call back.  If anyone from Adobe is listening, it's case number 184891587.  The font appears as an embedded subset when I look at the document properties.  Sometimes deleting one or two Characters allows for larger text blocks to be printed - i.e. removing a long dash in bold from the heading of a paragraph makes the paragraph reappear when printed to paper from PDF.  In all cases the PDF appears correct on the screen.  Printing as an image allows the text to appear, but the image quality isn't acceptable for small text, even at the 600 dpi setting on the printer.  If the PDF is sent out by e-mail, we do not have control over the end-user's printer setup anyway, so we need this to work in all cases.  

The setup/process I'm using is as follows:

Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-Bit

Microsoft Office 2013 - problem is present when printing documents from Word, Excel or Visio.  Even other variations on documents. 

I've tried Acrobat versions 11.0.0 to 11.0.5 as well as Acrobat Pro 11.0.0 and 11.0.1.  Same Result

Printing to Adobe PDF as the printer, from the third party application

Printing to a Xerox printer from PDF using Acrobat - Text missing

Client prints to Konica printer - Text missing

I print to the wide-format Ricoh (which also does 11x17) and the text is present. 

Is there something I'm missing?  Is the entire font not getting embedded into the PDF file?  I noticed that rolling back to a much older version of the Calibri font (1.02 compared to 5.72) makes the problem mostly go away, but it's not completely gone.  Is it possible the font is too large to be completely embedded?  Where can I go from here? 

[JJorda]

A quick update to this: I found that the problem appears to go away if I use a post script driver instead of the standard PCL driver for the printer.  This doesn't solve the problem of e-mailing files out to clients and having them not print, however. 

This may be a whole different round of questions, but how are fonts handled differently in PS vs PCL drivers?  I wouldn't think the the file would be so dependent on the type of printer driver, but printing with the same driver from Word/Excel/Visio etc. vs. printing from Acrobat have two totally different outcomes. 

[HUnknown1]

Yes I am running into this same problem with that font. When I convert from InDesign or Illustrator to PDF. I also found another font that causes an issue is Source Code Pro when coverted to PDF It is also blank or gives similar line issues. However, Source Sans Pro works OK no problems. One thing you can try is if you have acrobat pro xi is selecting just that text in edit mode change it to another font and then change it back again and save the document. This makes the file larger, but it sometimes helps if that text is in a small local area and not the whole document. Then print it out to see the result. The other alternative is just to use arial or helvetica if you're in a rush with printing or emailing. I think they look close enough. Hope that helps.

Oh One more item this solved the font problem too:

http://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/quick-fix-print-pdf-image.html

[JJorda]

Thank you for your reply.  Were you able to finally get a solution for your issue?  Calibri is the standard Office 2013 font - every new text box on every drawing we do in every office will start out as Calibri.  It's throughout the entire drawing.  It's really not a feasable option to change the font in production or once the file is created. 

Is there any way to tell if the printer drivers can't handle the latest version of the Calibri font in a .PDF file?  I would think that if it will work going from Office to the printer, but not from Office to PDF to the printer, then it's not a print driver problem but instead a problem with the way the font is embedded in the pdf file that's not compatable with the driver.  Does that make sense? 

We have used print as image as a temporary fix, but the image quality isn't the best.  Some of the smaller text is not readable. 

Dov - I've seen you comment (very helpfully!) on other threads.  I know these forums are not an official Adobe method of communication, but I'm not getting much help from the official Adobe technical support.  Do you have any input?  Thank you in advance, I'm at a loss now! 

[afpadc]

More to add to the pile: We just upgraded to Acrobat XI Pro. Now when I print a Word 2013 document containing the Century font to PDF (Acrobat XI), all of the text appears on the screen. When I print the PDF file to paper, some of the text disappears and shows as blank space. If the font is changed to Century Schoolbook, the text both displays and prints. When I use the "save to PDF" option in Word, rather than the "Print" option, the document containing Century font both displays and prints. The same thing happens with WordPerfect files, so it doesn't seem to be limited to Microsoft Word. Different machines, different installs, different printers all act the same. The file printed correctly in Acrobat X.

Other folks have the same issue. Any suggestions?

Windows 7x64; Acrobat XI with the 01/08/2013 update; Microsoft Office 2013. WordPerfect X6. Embed all fonts set to on. Rely on system fonts only set to off. Phaser and Brother B/W and Phaser color printers.

[JJorda]

I just tested Century on my machine as well as Cambria.  Both have the problem.  Arial prints fine. 

[HUnknown1]

Wow interesting with all these fonts!  For print as image I would say for small fonts to go at 800dpi -1800dpi that would be good. What point size are you using? 

If you "print as an image" and output another pdf file instead. Then extract only the problem pages from the orignal PDF and insert the new PDF pages that you've just created. That should temporarly control how the pages are printed by clients eventhough the file maybe now larger.

[afpadc]

The resolution on print as image us not sufficient for our needs. General font size is 10-point or 12-point.

[JJorda]

The highest resolution I can choose with the printer we are using is 600 dpi.  We use text down to 3 or 4 pt for some details.  An image is not sufficient quality and the time to print a document is much longer. 

[HUnknown1]

Yes you are right the document will take longer to print. I was able to type in 800 dpi even though the dropdown said only up to 600dpi and I think that helped a bit at the font size of 12pt. I got no warning. So you may still be able to over ride it.

If you're going 4pt font size I would see if I could print to a higher resolution laser printer or maybe even an inkjet. Even arial would not look great that small on most regular office lazer printers.

I will mention that out of those font.

Cambria -Regular  works

Calibri - Italic works

[JJorda]

I think we may have a workaround now.  By deleting the entire Calibri font and rolling back to an earlier version (1.02 for testing) we can't get the printing to fail.  We have not tested it with Cambria or Century yet. 

Could it be possible that Adobe Acrobat XI isn't compatable with Calibri 5.72?  Is there any way to contact Adobe to find out?  Their technical support seems to be, well, lacking in compentency in anything more than directing people to how to use Acrobat.  Anything technical seems to be over the head of anyone, even in the escalated tech support section. 

[Steve Werner]

It could also be a BUG in the Calibri 5.72 font. Microsoft has had bugs in their fonts before and has had to issue fixes.

[JJorda]

I guess it could be a bug in the font, but if it was a font problem I would expect it to fail if I printed directly from Word/Excel/Visio too.  The problem seems to lie with the way Acrobat handles the fonts I would think - but my background isn't software. 

I have read online that Cambria and Calibri are both larger fonts - each with more than 2048 glyphs.  Is it possible that the font is too large for Acrobat to keep track of all of the characters?  Can the embedded subset (I can't get the entire Calibri font to embed, it only shows up as an embedded subset) not be able to hold all of the characters needed to print the document?  Is there a limit to the number of glyphs that can be embedded in a font to not have the subset? 

One "oddity" that I noticed is that I have several temporary fonts after I print a pdf file that show up in my fonts menu in word.  Selecting that font gives similar, but not the same, response - some missing text.  The fonts come up with a name of Z@RB2F5.tmp or similar.  Googling the first portion of the string makes this appear that these are temporary files/fonts created by Acrobat during the printing process.  Why are these created?  What information do these temporary fonts contain?  Is it possible a mismatch between these temporary fonts and the Calibri/Century/Cambria fonts are causing the printing problems? 

[JJorda]

I still have this as an open issue.  I've been getting some sugggestions from Adobe technical support but still do not have a resolution that works with the Calibri 5.72 font.  Is there anyone out there that can suggest any further solutions?  I have seen other posts online with the same problem from other people with other printers - I can't believe we're unique with this problem.  Where can I go from here? 

[PhilipD303]

I appreciate that you have posted this issue.  I have been working on a series of forms ALL NIGHT LONG try to fix the Calibri font issue.

I am stunned that this issue has yet to be resolved.  I can open up the pdf in ADOBE Acrobat and the Calibri shows up fine.  When i open up the same pdf in ADOBE llustrator, I get a bunch of garbage.

My hours have been spent copying and pasting and trying to make adjustments.

[JJorda]

If you come up with a solution, please post here!  I'm still waiting on some sort of response from Adobe that will work.  It seems like once a week I'll get a response from them with a suggestion I already tried.  I'll tell them it doesn't work, then they'll say my case has been re-escalated and I will get a call back in 24-48 hours.  Usually it takes a week, not one to two days.  Even if they gave me a status update every two days I'd be ok with that, but tech support doesn't call back when they say they will.  It seems like this problem has been going on with others for years.  Is this something Adobe can't figure out? 

[JJorda]

Success!  At least for now.  It looks like my problem was fixed with Adobe's most recent update, 11.0.06.  From the release notes:

PDF creation

• Added support for Lotus Notes 9.
• Added support for WebCapture in IE 11.
• Added support for conversions from AutoCAD 2013.
• 3652540 A blank pdf is created for files having hidden visual style.
• 3601108 Flow Chart converts as a multicolored square.
• 3654345 Word documents missing parts of images in conversion to PDF.
• 3654572 Temporary file size increases when creating pdf by combining multiple files into one PDF.
• 3670155 PDF file created with Distiller XI prints incorrectly to some printers. (Emphasis mine)
• 3599407 Checkbox check marks do not appear in these files.
• 3663233 IE Web Capture in localized OS: Icons and drop-down menu items are missing and conversion dialog is not localized.
• 3651931 Chrome Only: Few web pages when converted to pdf from Chrome plugin doesn’t show up the Save As dialog.
• 3597910 EPM Mode On: Web capture is not working on Windows 8-32 bit when cache folder is missing.
• 3610644 Firefox 23.0: With Firefox version 23.0 (latest), the WebCapture icon shows up very dim as if it is disabled.
• 3650244 ODA falis to convert DWG files to PDF for large files.

I don't know if that's definately what solved the problem, but it sure sounds similar and this is the update that made the printing problem go away.  We can't get the PDFs to fail at this point with our printers, even with Calibri 5.72.  I'll come back to thread if we have printing problems at the end-user locations. 

[afpadc]

It seems to work for Century as well both in Word and WordPerfect. Yay!

[JJorda]

Afpadc, just out of curiosity, what brand printer do you use?  I'm hoping that more than just Xerox printers were fixed in this update....

[afpadc]

In addition to two different Xerox Phasers, we also use a Brother Laser and HP Inkjet.

[JJorda]

Excellent!  I was worried it would work here but not at the end user.  If HP and Brother printers work too, I'm more confident that this will work at all times.  Thank you! 

[HUnknown1]

Great! It seems to work for me too. Now Source Code Pro, Century, Calibri, Cambria, all work when I print from InDesign to PDF. I also tested full sentences using lorem ipsum and there were no weird breaks or missing words.

Just to note and reminder old PDF that were created before the this fix may still contain the font issue. So best to recreate those files again as PDF's if possible.

[Guest]

Well I can confirm that the 11.0.06 upgrade does not fix the problem for PDFs created in Word (with Calibri fonts) and printing against a PCL driver. Hm.

[JJorda]

Owen,

Were you printing a PDF that was created before the update?  This update seems to change something in the way the file is created in order to fix the printing issue.  I tested it this morning - I created a new pdf from a Word document and it printed fine.  Even with the PCL6 driver on our office printer.  What model printer do you use? 

A little more info on the issue from Adobe:

A bug # 3670155 was logged for another customer where ‘PDF file created with Distiller XI prints incorrectly to some printers’.

Description:-

Printing to certain other printers, sections of text drop out and are not printed. The customer was sending the documents to various clients and they need to have the PDF created so that it will print.

This behavior has been seen when printing to HP Deskjet D2400, HP Colour Laserjet CM3530 MFP, HP Laserjet P 1005, Kyocera FS-C5350DN and other non-postscript printer.

The issue has been fixed in the latest version of Acrobat / Reader (11.0.6).

[JessyeM1]

I have found a solution (workaround), I had a problem printing Calibri font in a PDF when I was using Acrobat XI Pro and printing with Adobe Reader X.

When printing in Word, choose Adobe PDF - Printer Properties - Paper/Quality Tab - Advanced - In the Document Options, and in the Postcript options, I have changed TrueType Font Download Option to Outline instead of Automatic

Working for me!