Garbled gibberish when exporting to PDF format, help!

[RoryOF]

If I were to do anything (bearing in mind that I don't use, and hope never have to use, Windows 10), I'd be carrying out a Windows 10 reinstall. I understand that this might not be possible because of Win 10 security. If doing and un/re-installs, you should back up all your data before doing so. Is there a switch to return Win 10 to "out of the box" defaults? (data backup first!)

Because of various restrictions on Windows installations over many years, I moved to linux about ten years ago, which involved simplifying my work processes (not a bad thing), and caused me to move to OpenOffice, a move I have never regretted.

[Bill]

I'd reinstall Windows 10 only as a last resort. I'd reinstall OpenOffice and run the System File Checker in Windows 10 first. If the problem still persists, then look at the options to recover Windows 10 instead of reinstalling Windows 10.

[RoryOF]

I'd trust Bill's advice more than mine; he has more recent Windows experience.

[John_Ha]

Note that 2017-0007-BLC-test-arial.pdf you uploaded has the following error messages:

Code: Select all

% CreateFontSubset failed for font "Arial" weight=8
% CreateFontSubset failed for font "Arial" weight=5
% CreateFontSubset failed for font "Arial" italic weight=8
% CreateFontSubset failed for font "Trebuchet MS" weight=5

See "Export to PDF" yields jibberish for a discussion.

[John_Ha]

If you still have the problem, it would be very interesting if you could remove your Times New Roman font files from C:\Windows\Fonts and replace them with some correct Times New Roman font files.

1 Go to https://www.dropbox.com/s/nd9yy3tmciim7 ... s.ttf?dl=0 and download times.ttf. Repeat for https://www.dropbox.com/s/m820o1rdzmytl ... d.ttf?dl=0 (timesbd.ttf), https://www.dropbox.com/s/1w2iuemp8otfx ... i.ttf?dl=0 (timesbi.ttf) and https://www.dropbox.com/s/ij3wy68mk6k40 ... i.ttf?dl=0 (timesi.ttf). You now have my copies of times.ttf, timesbd.ttf, timesbi.ttf and timesi.ttf font files.

2 Create a new folder on your desktop by r-click the desktop > New > Folder. Call it TNR

3 Navigate to C:\ Windows\Fonts. Click More options ..., to set the window to Details as below

4 right-click Times New Roman > Copy.

5 Go to the TNR folder on your desktop > right-click inside it > Paste. This pastes a copy of your Times New Roman fonts so you do not lose them

6 Go back to C:\Windows\Fonts. right-click Times New Roman > Delete. This deletes them

7 right-click each of my font files > Install. This installs my font files for you.

8 Reboot your PC.

Does this fix the problem?

[John_Ha]

Note: See Why Some Fonts Can’t Be Embedded In PDF which suggests that you may have some very old, non-embeddable fonts on your system.

You need to delete these old, unembeddable fonts, and replace them by the standard, Windows fonts.

Rogue Fonts

Q. I followed with interest your series about PDF font embedding. I hadn’t realized that some fonts weren’t being embedded in my files ... Can you explain this?

A. Some fonts are actually prohibited by their creators from embedding in a PDF. You aren’t doing anything incorrect; the font has been deliberately constructed to prevent PDF embedding.

Some Solutions

... Use fonts that will embed! You may wish to contact the foundry (the font creator from whom you purchased the font) about an updated replacement copy of the font that is licensed to permit PDF embedding.

You may not have purchased these problem fonts individually. For example, Corel software such as Draw and WordPerfect used to install vast numbers of non-embeddable fonts on its host computer. Even if WordPerfect was later uninstalled the fonts remain, usable (but not embeddable) by any program. Corel does offer replacement embeddable versions free of charge.

Another example was Apple, whose Macintosh system fonts circa OS8 were also unembeddable.

Old Font, New Font

When Acrobat was new, some founders were concerned that fonts might be extracted from PDFs, so they restricted embedding. The PDF format has become so common that most type foundries have realized that a font that won’t embed has very little value. If a font manufacturer is still deliberately restricting PDF embedding make a mental note to stop doing business with them! The problems their unembeddable type will cause for you in this PDF-connected 21st century are simply not worth the headaches.