Words and letters missing after exiting and reopening document

[karonnb6309714]

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

[Karl Heinz Kremer]

Open up Acrobat's preferences, then go to the "Page Display" category. In the "Rendering" section, you will find a setting called "Use local fonts". Does it make a difference when you change this setting? 

[karonnb6309714]

Karl,

Unfortunately, this made no difference. Also tried to use the Print Production tools to analyze and fix missing fonts and embedded fonts at no avail.

Any additional thoughts?

[Karl Heinz Kremer]

OK, so we know it's not due to local vs. embedded fonts. Is this a doument that you assembled by combining from different sources? If so, the workaround I have here might help: http://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/missing-or-garbled-text-printing.html

[karonnb6309714]

Its not happening when I print, only when I save and reopen.

[johnc91346251]

I had the same problem, every correction i made, then disappeared when i next opened the document.  i then saved AS, (and saved as a new document) and the new document corrected it. 

[johnc91346251]

actually no it didnt work totally! still missing words

[Merlin66666]

There is not option for that in the "Rendering section" 

[Dave__M]

I had a PDF once that behaved similarly.  I didn't create it, but when I opened it, I had some characters just refuse to show.  After much hair-pulling, I stumbled on the fact that there were some stray characters from a non-English, non-standard typeface.  If I recall, there was an F-like character that wasn't really the letter F at all.  Once I replaced it, the PDF seemed to magically work as it should.  Can you spot anything out of place by Document Properties>Fonts?

Do you get the impression that the characters are there, but not displaying, or actually missing from the text stream?

My best,

Dave

[karonnb6309714]

They are definitely there. Once I change the font to something else and then back to the original, everything is back perfect again.

[default9nxibwsox4f4]

Hi! - Have you managed to resolve this at all? I am having the exact same problem and am rushing to meet a deadline!

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

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.

[default9nxibwsox4f4]

Thank you so much for your reply!

The font I am using is Times New Roman so was already installed- 

I did your excellent suggestions and it worked nearly completely on one document but there was still about 5 letters missing! I could change those manually by changing to font to something else and changing back to Times New Roman.

However when I did the same thing on a different document it didn't work at all! 

[Jason267017933ij5]

I have this problem as well with Win11/Adobe Acrobat Pro ver 2022.003.20258 64-bit. Unfortunately I cannot apply the change as I don't seem to have permissions. Are the permissions to apply the font controlled within Acrobat or is this network controlled? This issue has caused me hours of pain in rebuilding files with numerous text boxes. Please advise

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

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.

A locked PDF.

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.

Font Properties - embedable.

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.

Desktop font license.

Digital publication font license, COST PER WEIGHT.

Font license for a digital publication: PDF, EPUB, etc.

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!

[Jason267017933ij5]

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

[caroline56green]

THISSSSSS! SAAAAAAVED!! MEEEEE!!!

Thank you.

So much!

🙏 

[Ajeet29364171nifn]

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

Glad to help!

[KnockeledUp]

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 🙂

[Bensox79]

I'm also having this problem on Windows 11 - created a pdf and it keeps disappearing random letters and numbers when I save it. All the same font so no reason for it to be random letters. A pdf that I created so it's not been emailed from elsewhere.  Changing the missing letters to or from bold, or italics and back again displays them again. Running very slow too, even though CPU and memory on laptop is OK. Acrobat is so unstable, but maybe it has yet to be updated for compatibility with windows 11?

[ABHI37171992e2vd]

It can resolve easly.

1) Switch to Edit tool

2) select the font error affected text.

3) change font style to some other.

4) Get back to the previous font style.

5) Error will be fix.

[default9nxibwsox4f4]

Obviously I tried re-editing the font but a soon as I would save and reopen would happen again elsewhere not to mention there was SO much text missing was impossible to deal with

Sent from my iPhone

[Amal.]

Hi there 
 
Hope you are doing well and sorry to hear that
 
Is this an issue with a particular PDF file or with all the PDFs? Please try with a different PDF file and check. If the file is stored on a shared network/drive please download it to your computer locally and then try again.
 
What is the version of the OS and the Acrobat DC you are using? To check the version go to Help > About Acrobat and make sure you have the recent version 24.02.20736 installed. Go to Help > Check for updates and reboot the computer once.
 
Also try to repair the installation from the help menu (Win Only) and see if that works.
 
Please try to reset the Acrobat preferences as described here https://adobe.ly/3QA0T2h
 
You may also try to create a new test user profile with full admin rights in Win or enable the root account in MAC and try using the application there and check.

~Amal

[sean_8113]

Amal,

Updating the program and rebooting the computer are standard basic troubleshooting steps, and I have performed both multiple times without any improvement. The issue persists consistently without even brief relief.

The only partial resolution I've found involves ensuring font consistency between the main text and the filled text, but this appears to be more of a workaround than a true fix. It seems clear that this is a deeper issue with Adobe itself and warrants further investigation beyond routine updates or basic troubleshooting like restarting the system.

It’s concerning that users have to rely on community forums for meaningful assistance, while official support channels offer little in terms of actionable solutions. This is not a user error but a problem that should be addressed at the development level. Especially as users have experienced this issue for multiple years without Adobe actually taking action.

I urge the development team to look into this more thoroughly, as it should not fall on the end user to troubleshoot beyond basic steps.