Over the past few days, my pdf's are missing letters and words after saving, closing, and reopening. The first time this happened was when I duplicated a page in the document. Ever since then, when I open files with "Open Sans" embedded font, the words and letters are randomly missing and it doesn't happen with all Open Sans text boxes. My only recourse has been to select the text box, change the font to another font, and switch back to the original font.
Any thoughts on how to resolve this issue permanently?
System Details:
Adobe Acrobat Pro DC Version: 20.13.20074.411690
OS Name: Microsoft Windows 10
OS Version: 10.0.18363
28
Replies
This happens when the PDF file can't locate the font that the file uses, and whoever made the PDF did not embed the fonts into the PDF at the time it was created (lesson to learn, here).
First, check to see which fonts the PDF uses:
- File / Properties / Fonts tab
- View the list of fonts (different weights, variations, etc.)
- Check your system fonts to see if they are installed on your workstation. In Windows, that would be in the C://Windows/Fonts folder.
- If you're missing one or more fonts, see if you can install it on your system.
Once the fonts are installed, reboot your computer (just to make sure all of the system resources are aware of the fonts). Relaunch Acrobat, and try to embed the fonts using Acrobat's Preflight utility.
Then, save the PDF, close it, and reopen it. Hopefully your fonts will now be working.
Permissions are controled within the individual PDF file, specifically in the File / Properties / Security settings.
However, font manufacturers can also restrict the embedding of fonts. See below.
1. Is the PDF file locked?
Look at the top of the left-hand panel. Is there a black lock icon? If so, you can't make any changes to the PDF unless you have the password to unlock the file.
However, if you're trying to embed a font that restricts embedding, then you also will get an error.
2. Are the fonts restricted? Or can they be embedded in a PDF?
Check the font's properties. In Windows File Explorer, right-click and view the font's Properties. Look for wording like embedable, editable, editable embedding, or something similar.
Also check the manufacturer's licensing and ensure you have the licensed rights to embed the font into a PDF. In the above screen capture, the last line is License Description and when expanded, it states you have the right to embed it.
Most (but not all) of the fonts installed with Windows and MS Office can be embedded into PDFs. Several weights of the Lucida family can't.
Adobe states that all of its fonts installed through Creative Suite can be embedded.
Fonts purchased from many outside foundries, such as Monotype/Linotype, have licensing restrictions. The cheap price lets you install the font on your computer and use it to print to your desktop printer. These are called "desktop fonts."
If you want to embed the font into a PDF or other form of electronic publication, you must buy a separate license to embed the font — for each individual publication, edition, or file you produce. Check the manufacturer's website for specific details ... they are all slightly different from each other.
Best solution to correct font problems in PDFs:
- Always try to go back to the source file to correct the problems. Fixing a PDF is extremely time-consuming, costly, and often doesn't work. (I know, sometimes this isn't possible, but try to track down the source file...it's worth the extra effort. Someone somewhere has the original source file!)
- Always use Unicode/OpenType fonts. Since 2000, they have been the computer industry's standard font technology and are universally recognized by all technologies.
- Always ensure that each font is embeddable. (See above.)
- Always ensure that you have an end user license that allows the font to be embedded into PDFs and other digital publications. (See above.)
- When exporting from the source file to PDF, always "Export" or "Save As PDF/Save As Adobe PDF". Never print to Adobe PDF or any other virtual PDF printer.
- When exporting to PDF, always check the option to embed the fonts. If you can, select "subset if less than 100% of the characters were used." This embeds only those characters/glyphs that are used by the PDF and not the thousands of others on the font.
- If necessary, follow the instructions above (November 27, 2021) to embed fonts into the PDF with Acrobat. But honestly, if the previous steps are carried out, then there shouldn't be a need to embed them again with Acrobat's Preflight utility.
Hope this helps you find the problem and fix it. My best to you!
Hi Bevi,
Thanks so much for the information. I did confirm my file is not locked and the font shows editable for Font embeddability (I'm using Arial). This problem is occuring when I add text boxes to a pdf generated report. The report text is primarily in Times New Roman, so I might elect to change to that.
Another item to note the version I am using, Win11/Adobe Acrobat Pro ver 2022.003.20258 64-bit. When I look at the preflight tool it is grayed out:
Perhaps I am uncovering bugs? I was able to get through this week without the issue occuring after having corrupted files the past two weeks. I'm fine with an unsolved mystery if it stops occurring.
Thanks again for the assistance,
Jason
For my job, I have to take PDF documents from our state's Medicaid website and fill them in using Adobe. These are prior authorization forms for medications that patients need. This problem happens to me routinely. I always use the font Arial because it's the most basic and easiest to read and I don't want to give Medicaid a reason (like not being able to read the submission) to deny the prior authorization so that's why I always use Arial. I'm going to assume that font is loaded on my computer. How do I stop this from happening permanently? I obviously don't have the ability to change how the documents were created because they come from Medicaid. I usually don't notice that half of the text is missing until after I've faxed the prior authorization to Medicaid and I'm uploading the submission to the patient's chart. This is something I've been dealing with for about 2 years and it's incredibly frustrating!
The only way I've figured out to "solve" the problem is to re-open the file that I have saved and go to “edit PDF."
I click in the box with the text that I have added and press ctrl + A, ctrl + C, then ctrl + V and the text that I originally had typed shows back up.
PLEASE HELP ME! I've tried contacting the help desk at my job but they don't know what's going on. Thanks 🙂
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