Skip to main content
A
ainal71745830
Participant
October 20, 2020
Answered

PDF not selecting text properly (huge selection)

  • October 20, 2020
  • 1 reply
  • 7097 views

Can someone tell me why is this happening? I have a regular pdf file with text on, but whenever I try selecting a portion or highlighting it, it selects a giant portion as if the font size was giant. I tried the "recognize text" tool (OCR) but did nothing. It's also not the first file I encounter this problem with.

 

 

Thanks in advance.

Correct answer try67

This is usually the result of an incorrect font encoding when the file is first created. I assume you have Acrobat because Reader can't do OCR. If that's the case one possible workaround is to re-create the file. Export all pages as images, then create a new PDF from those images and run Text Recognition on it. Hopefully that will solve it. You should also report this issue to the authors of the PDF file.

1 reply

try67
Community Expert
try67Community ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
October 21, 2020

This is usually the result of an incorrect font encoding when the file is first created. I assume you have Acrobat because Reader can't do OCR. If that's the case one possible workaround is to re-create the file. Export all pages as images, then create a new PDF from those images and run Text Recognition on it. Hopefully that will solve it. You should also report this issue to the authors of the PDF file.

    I
    intelligent_artistry0942
    Participant
    September 24, 2025

    Sadly, this solution would ruin the quality of the archive, image, etc.
    This Acrobat bug is soo annoying

    N
    netG506
    Participant
    November 13, 2025

    Hello @netG506

     

    I hope you are doing well. Thank you for sharing the information. I am sorry for the trouble.

     

    Could you please check if you are still experiencing the issue with the latest build of Acrobat: 25.001.20844 for Windows and 25.001.20841 for Mac, November 3, 2025? If the issue continues, please provide the following information: the current version of the operating system on your device, a quick screen recording, and the logs from the affected machine. To collect the logs, download and run the Log Collector tool. Ensure that you select all log options and attempt to reproduce the issue. After that, close the Log Collector tool; it will generate the logs along with a log ID. Please share this log ID with us for further investigation.

     

    Thanks,

    Anand Sri.


    Thanks for the reply. I will work to get the requested information, and will reply back. 

    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
    Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices