text disappear when using reading order in acrobat pro

Report · Sep 15, 2021

Hi,

When we change Reading order for Accessibility process using "Order" option in Acrobat Professional XI version, the text was hidden, how we can avoid this issue in future, is this known bug in Acrobat?

This is Accessibility PDF creation process. We are facing this issue when change reading order in pdf. Is there any possiblity to avoid text hidden issue, is it manual process if text hidden in pdf we should go and use "Bring to front" option to show the hidden text. Sometime our user missed to do it and customer complaint also receiving for this text hidden issue. Could you please solve or advice.

Note: Source is PDF, we dont have any application file like InDesign. Input is PDF and output is Accessible PDF

Input:

Output:

Regards

Jayesh

Report · Jul 20, 2023

Has anybody resolved this? We are experiencing the same thing.

Report · Jul 20, 2023

@jonathanw22774588 and Jayesh_Kumar@int, this is caused by incorrect control of the stacking order in Adobe InDesign and can be prevented by better construction methods in the original source layout file.

In the original sample that is posted above, the light gray background box is a separate element from the text. When the architectural order was changed in the PDF (I'm assuming that elements were moved up/down in the order tree), the background box ended up above the text and now hides it. The text hasn't been removed, just covered by the gray box.

The best method is to prevent this from happening at all by using better techniques in InDesign. But that's for another day or class.

If all you have is the PDF, you can remediate the file and unhide the text by using the Content Panel, which shows every element on the page. Locate the element for the background box, it's usually a Path and should be artifacted. Slide it up or down in the tree until it's now out of the way and lets the text show again. Since it's a decorative background box, it really doesn't matter where it ends up in the tree because it's artifacted.

Report · Sep 18, 2023

This doesn't solve the issue.

Even if you clear the page structure and re-define the reading order, it makes text disappear. It's frustrating that this issue has been going on for 12+ years now but Adobe haven't fixed it. What are we paying for?

Report · Sep 18, 2023

And to make matters worse, you can't "undo" in the event Acrobat does something completely random like deleting text when fixing the reading order.

Report · Sep 18, 2023

When using the Order panel's tree, you are changing the stacking order of the page's elements. You can literally hide text behind a background, depending on how well you control what you slide where.

This is not an error in InDesign or Acrobat: it's just the way elements are created and coded in a PDF file, and in order to be successful in remediating a PDF file, you must get training in how the Order panel (and also the Content panel) works.

If text has slid behind a background box, such as in the example at the beginning of this thread, then locate the box in the Content panel and slide it before or after the text to uncover the text.

But really, get training and learn how to prevent this from happening, and when it does happen, how to correct it.

Report · Sep 18, 2023

Hang on, the PDF is generated by Adobe. Changing the reading order shouldn't change the z-levels of the elements. It does though. Having to place paths above text elements so that text elements appear above the path elements is counter-intuitive.

Remedying it is an absolute pain to do and should be fixed in the way Acrobat deals with reading orders, containerising of elements etc

Report · Sep 18, 2023

I give up.

Reread what was already written.

Report · Sep 27, 2023

This worked for me. I clicked through every Path element in the content panel till I found the one blocking the text. Dragged it to the top and the text reappeared. Thanks for the tip.

Report · Jul 22, 2024

I had this same problem. I went back to the InDesign file and added each of the elements, in order to the Articles panel. Saved, exported to PDF. Reading order was in exactly the same mess as before.

In my document, there is a mix of text and images--several of each, on each page. Moving them to the correct order in the Reading Order panel winds up obscuring one or more of the text boxes. The only way to un-obscure is to move them back to the wrong order (or, more accurately, to close the file without saving, and start over again from scratch).

I thought that ordering all the elements in the Articles panel would keep this from happening, but it did not.

Threading the text and the images creates near-total chaos in the application file. Which someone else made, not me.

I'm stumped. Once again, I'm really wishing Adobe's tools to support accessibility were 100x better.

Report · Jul 22, 2024

There's a cool design program called Venngage (not promoting). It has a drag and drop reading order and lots of accessibity features. Our institution is doing a trial. Hopefully Adobe will adopt some of those features.

Report · Jul 24, 2024

Hi @julietw99713499

I thought that ordering all the elements in the Articles panel would keep this from happening, but it did not.

No, the Articles panel doesn't fully control all of the reading orders in a PDF. (See blog about PDF reading orders at https://www.pubcom.com/blog/2020_08-18_ReadingOrder/reading-orders.shtml). If you have just text and graphics, the Articles Panel does little to control anything.

You'll also need to control the stacking order in InDesign's Layers Panel to get full control of them, as well as threading your story frames, and anchoring your graphics into the story threads. Sequencing the story threads in the Articles Panel is optional and may not be needed at all for simple layouts like the one you described.

And once in Acrobat, the Order Panel is mis-named — it is not THE order penl but is better named the architectural order of the PDF, one of the 4 reading orders in a PDF file.

When you change something in the architectural order panel, it can change the tags and the tag order in the Tags Tree panel, sometimes slipping text behind its frame/box and hiding it.

Report · Oct 09, 2024

I’ve also been struggling with this. The text and elements keep disappearing. I’ve attended lectures on creating accessible PDFs from InDesign, but everyone seems to have the same opinion—it’s horrendous! When you set the reading order in InDesign, it does NOT carry over to the PDF, even if you adjust the settings. This has always confused me, especially now that accessible files are mandatory due to legal requirements. None of my coworkers have figured out why the reading order in InDesign doesn’t transfer to Adobe Acrobat, so we end up manually adjusting it in Acrobat.

I know Bevi is frustrated that we ‘no-brainers’ can’t figure it out. I save the PDF after fixing each page because Acrobat tends to crash when there are more than 80 pages to adjust. But now, after reopening the file, I see the structure order has changed again. Has anyone managed to solve this? It feels like changing the reading order somehow affects the structure order, which doesn’t make sense since it shouldn’t. Now, I have to go back to the “Content” panel, which shows every object in the document, and manually rearrange the order there, moving the text back above other elements.

In the inDesign file I have text always on the top layer, graphics next, images and so on if this is relevant.

Any GOOD guidevideos on this would be much appreciated!

Report · Oct 18, 2024

Hi Alisa,

Reading order of PDFs by assitive technology actually comes from the tag tree not the order panel. Adobe is misleading about this with the Order Panel but there are very good and easy to follow tutorials for fixing the tag tree here and creating tags in InDesign here. Hope this helps!

Report · Oct 18, 2024

Hi Alisa,

Reading order of PDFs by assitive technology actually comes from the tag tree not the order panel. Adobe is misleading about this with the Order Panel but there are very good and easy to follow tutorials for fixing the tag tree here and creating tags in InDesign here.

Hope this helps!

Report · Oct 20, 2024

Thank you so much for the tutorials! I will definitely check these out, especially the YouTube video, which seems incredibly helpful. I’ve often relied on the default paragraph style settings when it comes to tagging, and I noticed it’s important to ensure InDesign’s reading order is set to export to tag order (from the Articles panel menu > Use for Tagging Order in Tagged PDF). I hadn’t checked that before!

Have a wonderful rest of your day 🙂