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Ashar22296378ghzl
Participant
June 22, 2022
Question

Tibetan Language Font Encoding Problem

  • June 22, 2022
  • 1 reply
  • 1438 views

Hi all,

has anyone tried using Tibetan language with Adobe Acrobat on Windows?

The problem occurs when we try to edit the document in Acrobat DC.

For example - when the document is created in a word document and then gets exported to pdf the fonts appear to be correct. However when we try to edit the document with DC (not reader) some characters do not get displayed correctly. Perhaps someone has a solution to this.

Thank you in advance.

Best regards

Ashar

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1 reply

Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Legend
June 22, 2022

Hi @Ashar22296378ghzl 

In order to be able to edit any PDF in any language using any fonts, two requirements must be met:

  1. The original fonts used to create the source Word file must be embedded into the PDF when it is exported from Word. Delve into the options of settings in the export to PDF dialogues and check the options to embed ALL fonts (not just some, which is the default).
  2. Those same fonts must be installed on the computer used to edit the PDF.  So find out what fonts are in the source file, and install those fonts on the other computer.

 

quote

However when we try to edit the document with DC (not reader) some characters do not get displayed correctly.

By @Ashar22296378ghzl

 

That's the clue that the computer doesn't have a copy of the fonts installed on it.

 

We recommend using  only Unicode/OpenType fonts in documents, especially those in non-Latin laguages. This ensures that you'll have a complete alphabet of Tibetan characters and punctuation, which will allow the document to be used across multiple computers and platforms. If you haven't already standardized on a Unicode/OpenType font, look at what's available at https://fonts.google.com/  Download and install a Tibetan font on both the source and receiving computers and it should resolve the problems.

 

|    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |
M
Mrahealpia
Participant
March 1, 2023

I ran into the same difficulty as Ashar22296378ghzl and after reading this post, I made sure that the software embedded all the fonts when creating the PDF. The problem persists.

 

I suspect it has something to do with the fact that Tibetan contains 'stacked' words, which is more complex than many other scripts. For example, there is 'གང་', but there is also 'གླང་', which puts a 'ལ' beneath 'ག' to make a different word. I found that when I make a PDF containing Tibetan script, problems mostly (but not exclusively) occur with stacked words.

 

For a simple test, anyone can just print this webpage to a PDF file and try to copy-paste the stacked Tibetan word in the last paragraph. It is likely that although the word displays normally in the PDF, it will be pasted as '􀊃ོབ་'.

 

Also, I don't know how other abugida scripts that stack their letters are handled in PDF files, but there might be ready solutions to this problem, since some of those languages are used much more frequently than Tibetan.

 

If you have the resources, please let the developers know that such an issue exists. Thanks!

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