Export to PDF intermittent bug Indesign 18.2.1

[mikem5914646]

Hi, 

I have encountered an intermittent bug while exporting to PDF, 5 out of 30 times it corrupted some of the fonts in the document.  It was not consistent which font it messed up and when exported again the error was gone.  A couple examples of the output below.  System is Win 10, more than ample RAM and HD space.  We did not encounter this problem with any of the previous version of INDD.  

Is this a known bug, is there a fix in process?  

We create very large multilingual manuals and IFUs, for a vast catalogue of products.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  

Thanks, 

Michael

[Mike Witherell]

What kind of fonts are being used in the document?

Visit Type menu > Find/Replace Font > and take an inventory of the fonts. Click on More Info to see more detail about each font.

There are no old old old fonts in there? No T1?

[mikem5914646]

Hi Mike, 

Thanks for replaying.  

No old fonts, all standard new fonts.  Exported perfectly well for the raw artwork, exported again with crop marks etc for the printer and 4 out of 15 files it corrupted one font, but not the same font in each.  One it was all the Myriad Pro, one it was all the Arabic in Arial.  

I exported the affected files again, not changing any settings and the files are fine.  It is not something we have ever had a problem with any of the previous versions of INDD, going back over 10 years.  

Best regards, 

Michael

[Mike Witherell]

What have you explored with regard to possible document corruption? Have you done the "Export to IDML" routine?

[mikem5914646]

Hi Mike, 

The document shows no sign of corruption, I have managed to export the files perfectly since, without issue.  It is very odd how intermittent it is and there is no pattern, for example it is not one font that got corrupted or mis encoded when generating the PDF, but different fonts. All 15 documents share the same fonts, paragraph styles and and almost identical content.  

I exported to IDML and PDF with no errors.  

My concern is if it is not spotted and the additional time required checking it has exported correctly over very large projects.  This has not been a concern in previous versions, if the font corrupted in previous versions an error box would show either when exporting or when opening the PDF.   

Best regards, 

Michael

[Zaid Al Hilali]

Oddly, one Arabic character ي يـ  ـي, in particular and in its various states, was replaced with a square shape as shown in your second screenshot.

[Zaid Al Hilali]

Out of curiosity, and to see if I can find something to help with here. I retyped the paragraph, applied Arial and Myriad Pro Arabic then exported to Acrobat 5 (PDF1.4). I didn't encounter the issue you had. 

Note. I use InDesign v. 18.2.1, Middle Eastern version.

As mike said, it could be a font issue, but then why is it intermittent?