Text changes to special symbols with saving PDF in Acrobat

[JDNC]

When I recently saved a PDF I was editing in Acrobat Pro DC -- many of text characters changed to an odd symbol. Attached is a sample. Any ideas on how to avoid this issue next time I save the doc? Thx.

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

You need to embed the font into the PDF when you set the export options.

Look deeper at the conversion/export options.

The odd symbol is called a tofu box (like a brick of tofu).

[JDNC]

Thanks for the feedback and information. I will look into that. However, I was 'saving' the PDF when this happened, not converting, or is that similiar?

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

Yes, there's a difference. Let us know what your source program is (that's the program you're exporting/saving the PDF from) and we can give you guidance on what to click.

[JDNC]

Yes. thanks. The orignal document I am editing is a PDF -- The problem occurred when saving the PDF -- as a PDF using Adobe Acrobat Pro DC 19.012.20040

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com · Accepted solution]

To embed fonts in a PDF...

First, the ideal method is to embed them when the PDF is made (ie, saved as a PDF or exported to PDF) from the source document (ie, Word, PowerPoint, Adobe InDesign, etc.). Look at the conversion options, settings, or preferences to set the conversion to embed the fonts.

If you're dealing with an existing PDF, you can embed the fonts using Adobe Acrobat Pro. NOTE: This process should work OK if you have the same fonts on your computer system that the author had when the PDF was made. However, if the author used a special font or a special character that is not on your system, then it won't work for that portion of the PDF.

1. Open the PDF Standards tool panel (if it's not already in your right-side tool set, then open it via the Tools Tab in the upper left of the Acrobat window).
2. Open the PDF/UA Standards section.
3. From the Profiles tab, select the blue wrench in the upper menu bar.
4. Expand the Document section.
5. Select the Embed fonts utility and then click the FIX button in the lower right (has another blue wrench in the button).

Open the Preflight panel from the PDF Standards tool.

Preflight from PDF Standards tool.

Run the Embed Fonts utility from the PDF/UA profile.

Embed fonts into a PDF.

Hope this helps.

--Bevi

[Warren.com]

Hi - I have a similar problem - I have created a pdf from scratch and use if for a mainly text project. I have just recently instered pages with JPG's and decided to put text labels on the pictures. When I save the document (intermittently) I get a similar problem described above -  some of the text (only on the photos) gets garbled and I've tried to follow the process above - but it won't actually complete the processing of saving (it creates the new file). Any ideas? I'm using a different (but std font) for the JPG labelling and even have used the same font as in the main part of the text but reducing the size. My document is 500+ pages so its a little frustrating if I have to go back and manually edit each label again! Thanks for any help! Warren.

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

Quote: "I have created a pdf from scratch"

And that's where font problems begin!

As you're exporting the PDF from your source document (Word, Adobe InDesign, etc.) set the export settings to embed the fonts.

• ALL of the fonts you've used, subsetting if less than 100% of the characters were used.
• Even common fonts such as Arial and Times New Roman.
• And never use File/Print method of creating a PDF. You won't get the editability you need in the PDF.

[Warren6C29]

Hi Bevi - let me clarify what I did.

1. File was originally in excel

2. Converted to pdf, first book (500 pages) no issues

3. After converting the second book, I started hitting the font problem

4. I make edits (add images/text) in the pdf editor and save on completion

5. Sometimes - something happens end I end up with tofu boxes on the text labels of the images

6. I follow your process above and it almost clears the 'tofu' issue - onle 1 or 2 characters (which are the labelled text only) are affected.

You mention in your response above about setting all fonts on export - do I need to do this in akrobat, if so - how?

Thanks for your help,

Warren

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

I'll try to help, Warren!

Tell me how you're making the original PDF from Excel.

• Are you using the Acrobat Ribbon bar?
• Or File Save As Adobe PDF?
• Or File Save As / PDF?
• File Print / Acrobat Virtual Printer?
• Something else?

[Warren6C29]

I originally saved as pdf via print in excel. 

One other thing I've noticed, on the text with the remaining 'tofus' I am able to select the text box and re-select the font and size and bingo, goes back to its original! obviously there are quite a few text boxes to do this manually and my concern is the font clearly isn't always 'staying' in the doc. Hope this also helps!

Thanks!

Warren

[Warren6C29]

furthermore - just edited and saved again, this time I get an error message stating;

'the font could not be embedded because the font stored on the page and the system font are encoded differently and the encodings could not be resolved'

I have seen this maybe once or twice, usually an additional save works.

Thanks!

Warren

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

Quote: "I originally saved as pdf via print in excel. "

That's probably what started the problem: printing to a PDF does not embed the fonts into the PDF. It's the least-desireably way to create a PDF.

Use a better method of making the PDF. From Excel, choose one of these 3 methods of exporting a PDF from the spreadsheet:

1. If you have Acrobat Pro or Standard installed on your computer, it also installed the PDF Maker plug-in into your MS Office apps, including Excel. Locate the Acrobat Ribbon within Excel, click the Preferences button, and adjust the settings to Embed all fonts, subsetted. Follow the instructions here: Embedding fonts into PDF from MS Applications. 
2. Also if you have the Acrobat PDF Maker plug-in, you can export a PDF with embedded fonts using FIle /Save As Adobe PDF.
3. FInally, you do this with Microsoft's built-in PDF export utility, which is File / Save As / PDF and then adjust the settings.

Exporting PDF using the Acrobat RIbbon is MS Office applications.Export PDF using File / Save...

[Warren6C29]

Hi Bevi - my mistake, I did use the file/save-as-pdf option rather than print. However, I just went through the embed all font recommendation and noticed that embed open-type fonts was not checked but the others were. So I've saved this and will run through one of the conversions.

Re correctly the existing pdf - I've managed to work through 2 books of 500 pages each, with the current one underway - is there anything else I can do rather than stop and start again with the new process?

Thanks for your help, I've only ever used pdf in the past to print documents but have learnt a lot from this exercise and your help!

Thanks,

Warren

[default5f9akqq5jpsk]

I was fighting with this problem from much time and finnaly i fix it by saving .pdf by Adobe Illustrator from Adobe Photoshop .psd. It will work guys.

[Jenna325952279reo]

I tried the Preflight fix and got the following results. Can anyone advise?

[Jenna325952279reo]

I tried the Preflight fix and got the following results

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

It means that the Geneva and 2 weights of Helvetica are not on your computer. Without them installed, they can't be embedded into the PDF.

Either go back to the source file and re-export the PDF correctly (selecting the options to embed all fonts into the PDF), or install Helvetica and Geneva on your system and try the Preflight tool again.