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Participant
June 1, 2016
Answered

Cannot find or create the font 'Arial'.

  • June 1, 2016
  • 10 replies
  • 112660 views

Hello Forums,

Cannot find or create the font 'Arial'. Some characters may not display or print correctly.

This happens when exporting from mulitple third party applications to PDF with Adobe Reader XI 11.0.6

Any help is much appreciated!


Thank you,

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer MastaDoza

I had this problem for a lot of school PDFs.

What fixed it for me was changing a setting in Preferences:

Edit - Preferences (or Ctrl+K) - Page Display - UNCHECK "Use local fonts".

10 replies

Participant
October 28, 2022

I found a relatively easy fix.

When you go to PowerPoint / Print    select Printer Properties (the little underlined text)

Then select the Adobe PDF Settings tab and UNSELECT the box "Rely on System fonts only; do not use the document fonts"

Press OK and then Print as usual.

Participant
February 22, 2021

Thank you that worked for my issue.

 

 

Participant
February 16, 2021

I am STILL experiencing the same error every day when opening new pdf's mailed to me. I have tried so many of these hacks about ticking & unticking use local fonts, installing latest version, etc. 

NO JOY

First time I open it, looks blank. Sometimes show after a while, not always

If I rotate the file 90 degrees I can see the text, but difficult to read. When I rotate it back nothing again.

Sometimes when I close and open the file again it will show, but no guarantee.

Funny how each one of these Adobe conversation tracks show this problem is resolved...?

Participant
March 16, 2021

Just ran into this issue today. The user had recently changed Scale and Layout to 125% in Windows 10 display settings. Changed it back to 100%, logged them out and back in and didn't get the error anymore. Make sure to log out after the change because some apps won't display with the new setting until sign out. Hope this helps!

garyj62680292
Participant
January 13, 2021

Brilliant.   Worked first time.  thank you MastaDoza

MastaDozaCorrect answer
Participant
February 11, 2018

I had this problem for a lot of school PDFs.

What fixed it for me was changing a setting in Preferences:

Edit - Preferences (or Ctrl+K) - Page Display - UNCHECK "Use local fonts".

Participating Frequently
August 31, 2021

this hack has not solved my issue

lisal39009543
Participant
August 4, 2016

What worked for me when converting a word document to a pdf was in the save as/publish box I selected the options button and under 'PDF options' selected the 'ISO_19002-1 compliant (PDF/A)' box. My document then converted to pdf with no font issues.

~graffiti
Legend
June 16, 2016

The font may be "standard" arial but mostly it has to be the exact version of Arial (not older, not newer) that you have on your computer. If it isn't, it's hit or miss whether it uses your version or not. So as  mentioned above, you need to be sure that you are using a tool (such as the full version of Adobe Acrobat) that supports embedding fonts.

wimbor
Participant
June 17, 2016

That may be the case, but I do not have any control over the PDF files that other organisations sent me. If a government agency is supplying a PDF with specific administrative procedures, I cannot change it.

Furthermore I still think it is a bug. Because if the file is copied to a local drive, it displays correctly. If I have the issue, the file is often viewed online on a website (although that technically also produces a copy locally) or on a network drive. I have a feeling that the latency of the link with the disk/file is having an impact.

Participant
June 1, 2016

This application does support Adobe and the font is standard aerial. This does not happen every time as well. The temporary solution is to close the application and reopen which works for some time then stops.

Checking on the app to see if it is able to embed the font.


Thank you,

wimbor
Participant
June 16, 2016

I have the same issue. Both Windows and Adobe up-to-date. Occurs somtimes, sometimes not.  It occurs mainly with files I receive from other sources, so I do not have any way of fixing the document itself.

CtDave
Participating Frequently
June 1, 2016

Ensure the desired font(s) are properly installed on the source computer (see OS help for this).

Ensure PDF creator actually has the ability to embed fonts / font sub-sets.

If this second feature is not available dump the application & install a 'proper' PDF creation application that does support this (e.g., Adobe's Acrobat).

Be well...

~graffiti
Legend
June 1, 2016

When exporting from these third party tools, look for a way to embed the font information.