Text viewing issue

[zph_acad]

Good day all,

Please, take a look at the picture below:

The origin of the line work and text is AutoCAD 2015.  This is a screen shot of a portion of a PDF generated from AutoCAD viewed in Adobe Acrobat XI Pro.

In AutoCAD, the font is Simplex and the color of all the characters are the same.

Why are the characters that contain curved or oblique segments gray and the characters with only vertical and horizontal segments black?

Is there a property/setting that can be altered to force all text to be displayed at the same intensity?

Thanks!

[~graffiti]

Fist thing to check is fonts. Make sure they are embedded. Look at File>Property>Fonts. Should say "Embedded" or "Embedded subset" next to all of them. Reader has a hard time finding non-embedded fonts even if they are on your system. It's good to do that anyway since the primary reason for the pdf is probably so that others can view it.

[zph_acad]

~graffiti,

Thank you for the prompt response.

Please, see the picture below:

[~graffiti]

Ok. Not fonts then. Here are a couple of things to look in to. First, see if it views like this at 100%.

Then, in preferences there are some settings. Go to Edit>Preferences>Page Display. Make sure the resolution is site properly for your monitor. Then go to "Rendering" and try a couple of the "Smooth text" options to see if one works.

If that doesn't work:

I'm assuming that the text having the issue is selectable in Reader? Just want to be sure your software isn't rendering it as an image.

What steps are you taking to create the pdf file? Have you checked settings in that process?

[Test Screen Name]

I don't think that text is TWCenMT. My guess is that it is outlined. This can be checked: try to copy/paste.

If so, you need to persuade AutoCAD to use a real font rather than draw shapes, which it is treating as a bunch of separate graphics, each to be "enhanced" separately.

[zph_acad]

Test Screen Name,

Take a look at this:

I went to Edit > Edit text & Images and I was able to select the individual characters.  I don't know where to look to see if Adobe considers the selection a text or an image object.

[~graffiti]

zph_acad  wrote

Test Screen Name,

Take a look at this:

I went to Edit > Edit text & Images and I was able to select the individual characters.  I don't know where to look to see if Adobe considers the selection a text or an image object.

Sorry. Missed this post. That is not text. That is an outline and would explain things. It's something in the settings you or AutoCad is using to create the file.

[zph_acad]

AutoCAD has numerous settings; some are displayed as printing options while others hidden as system variables.

This is searching for a needle in a haystack.

In order to narrow down the issue, I need to know why/when Adobe creates "outlines" (as you call them).

[zph_acad]

I set the view to 100%, but saw no change.  Just to test, I zoomed in to 300% and for SOME of the text, each character displayed the same, but this isn't an acceptable solution.  I need the text to be displayed uniformly at all magnifications.

I altered the resolution from 110 to default, but saw no change.

I modified the Rendering options, but the issue persisted.

With regard to the text being selectable, take a look at the picture below:

With regard to the creation of the PDF within AutoCAD, the PDF file prints out correctly; this only appears to be a viewing issue.

[~graffiti]

Have you tried printing to the pdf printer?

[zph_acad · Accepted solution]

~graffiti,

Thank you for sticking with this.  I noticed that Adobe classified the characters as "AutoCAD SHX Text".  This jogged my memory about AutoCAD SHX Fonts and 'finickiness' in working well with other pieces of software.  This allowed me to search for the proper terms and I found the solution:

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad-electrical/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarti...

The solution turned out to be one of the Rendering options > "Smooth line art".

This makes sense, because you informed me that the characters were not, in fact, text, but outlines which are probably considered to be more image based.

Thanks again!

~Z

[~graffiti]

Excellent. Glad you caught that. I didn't know about this particular font issue with AutoCad (not being a user). It's best to find a way to use actual fonts if you can find it (maybe use a different font) since that setting is a local setting and your users may not make this connection. But that is a good way to fix your view.