Periods between words in Exported PDF

[Bob34135622k2i0]

Has anyone ever come across a situation where a tagged PDF has periods between every word?

It happens sporatically and between doc types; normal layout, forms, etc. There does not appear to be any commonality, so I do not think it has anything to do with Settings and I realize there are overrides to Paragraph Styles (the span tags) but even if we remove the overrides, the same thing occurs.

We are using Neulis Sans, on M3 Macbook Pro

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @Bob34135622k2i0,

The issue you're seeing with periods appearing between every word in a tagged PDF usually points to a tagging artifact, often introduced when text spans are split too granularly during export.

Could you please confirm which version of InDesign you're using and the details of your operating system? Also, if possible, try exporting the same file using a system font or a different sans serif type to see if the behavior changes. This will help us check if it's font-related.

If you're comfortable sharing the INDD file (or even a stripped-down sample), I'd be happy to check it with the team. You can upload it to any public cloud sharing service and share the downloadable link here. If the file is confidential, feel free to DM it to me directly on the community.

Let me know if this happens across all files or just specific ones.

Looking forward to your update!

Abhishek

[Bob34135622k2i0]

Thank you for the response.

The document only contains text and fields/checkboxes; no other artifactable items exist. I even rebuilt the form from scratch. Sorry but due to privacy issues, I am unable to share the file.

The issue lies with the font we use - Neulis Sans and the Numbered Bullets structure. Our forms are built 10.5pt with Neulis Sans Regular. When it's output, the dots between every word appear. However, we have discovered a workaround; creating a Character Style with the same font/size but changing the weight to Light clears the issue when the file is output.

Stranger yet, I have run Auto-Tag in Acrobat and it clears the text problem, but since it strips a good number of the form fields, its not a viable option.

FYI - Mac with 15.5 os, INDD 20.3.1, Acrobat 2025.001.20476

[Mike Witherell]

Why not apply a paragraph style (that has no overrides) instead of a character style?

[Bob34135622k2i0]

I'm sorry for the confusion, Mike. There is a Paragraph Style, along with a Character Style

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @Bob34135622k2i0,

Thanks for the update. Since switching the font weight resolves it, this does point to a font-specific tagging issue during export. If you haven’t already, try using only a Paragraph Style without the Character Style to see if that helps.

Let me know if the issue still appears after testing that.

Abhishek