Characters changing when InDesign file is exported to a PDF

Report · Jun 30, 2023

I'm dealing with an issue where when an InDesign file is exported to a PDF, certain symbols change both appearance and change into a different unicode. In this case, the hyphen-minus (U+002D), which was being used as a bullet point, changed into a different symbol (U+0171) as shown below.

When it was previously exported, there were no errors. The file was exported again after a different part of the document had a small formatting edit applied, and that was when this error occurred, even though the section of text where these symbols were being used was not touched. So far, I haven't been able to replicate this error.

I would really appreciate any insight as to why this happened, and how I can avoid this error in the future.

Report · Jun 30, 2023

Are you using a character style for the bullet? Perhaps that style was edited in that formatting operation?

Report · Jun 30, 2023

Thanks for the reply! I checked, and there was no change to the chararcter style or paragraph style. I believe that the formatting operation was making a line of text in a different area of the document bold.

Report · Jun 30, 2023

You didn't quite answer my question.

If you are using a character style for the bullet that style could be redefined if you also use it someplace else and you edit it to make a change there. I would expect, though, that you would see the change in your bullet at that point.

Have you verified that the bullet character is still correct in the .indd file and is only changed in the PDF?

Report · Jun 30, 2023

Thanks for the clarification, there is a style being applied to the bullet point but no, that character style has not been changed.

The bullet character is still correct in both versions of the .indd, it is just in the PDF that it shows up differently.

Report · Jun 30, 2023

Could be a font embedding problem, perhaps. What is the font being used?

Report · Jun 30, 2023

Myriad Pro - specifically Myriad Pro condensed for the bullet points. I checked the document properties of both PDFs and it appears to be embedded. Here's a screenshot of that-

Report · Jun 30, 2023

I'm perplexed.

You'll probably have to share a sample file that shows the correct bullet but exports incorectly for some of our other experts to have a look.