Participating Frequently

Question

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

Forum|Forum|12 years ago
November 21, 2013
4 replies
117478 views

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?

This topic has been closed for replies.

D

Darlene5EDC

Participant

We had a similar problem that we solved this week. I could print from our program to Adobe fine but the Controller of our company was having issues. I checked her printer driver and she was using a generic windows driver when I am using the correct driver for our Printer , Copier Scanner Multifunction Office machine. Removed her printer, reinstalled (it tried to use generic Windows 10 driver) overode with correct driver...bingo solved her problem. Operations Manager said he had problem to, (same generic driver), removed printer reinstalled TCP/IP correct driver...corrected his issues also. It is worth a try checking to make sure you have the correct up to date driver for your actual default printer.

A

AFFENDI5C4E

Participant

Hi Guys. I just solved teh same problem today. What I did: Open my pdf files using Microsoft Edge. Then you could either print it or download it to be printed. I hope this helps

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JessyeM1

Participant

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!

A

afpadc

Known Participant

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.

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JJordaAuthor

Participating Frequently

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

J

JJordaAuthor

Participating Frequently

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?

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?

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JJordaAuthor

Participating Frequently

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.

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HUnknown1

Inspiring

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

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JJordaAuthor

Participating Frequently

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!

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