PDF information: Characters are missing.

Characters are missing

There are a number of cases in which text seems to disappear once you create a PDF file. Below are the cases I encountered or read about:

Pagemaker: capital F is missing

Tex, DVI and dvips

Microsoft Office, TrueTypes and Adobe drivers

FrameMaker 6 documents

Using PDFwriter instead of Distiller

Problem 1: PageMaker: capital F is missing

You open a PDF file in Exchange or Reader 3.x and some letters, particularly the capital letter "F" or the lower case "c" are missing on-screen . The PDF file was created using PageMaker 6.5.x, the Adobe PostScript printer driver (AdobePS) 4.2x or earlier and Acrobat Distiller 4.0..
Solutions

Do either of the following:

Upgrade your AdobePS printerdriver to version 4.3, then re-create the PDF file using the new driver.

View the PDF file in an Acrobat 4.0 or later viewer.

Problem 2: Tex, DVI and dvips

Richard T. Bumby was kind enough to mail me the following problem: Much of what we do uses the TeX mathematical typesetting language, converted to a DVI file by a TeX program, then to PS by a program like dvips or Y&Y's dvipsone, then to PDF using the Adobe distiller. The dvi-to-ps programs do partial font downloading, but do not rename the font (this is true of dvips and the old version of dvipsone -- I can't upgrade dvipsone in my MicroSoftFree computer environment, so I don't know about the current release). Distiller includes the partial font as if it is the full font. If you view several such documents in Acrobat Reader, it will use the font from the first document whenever the name is used, leading to missing letters in other documents. Acrobat Reader also prints what it shows on the screen.
Solutions

Close Acrobat Reader and restart it to clear the cache.

Disable partial font downloading when converting to PS, and allow Acrobat Distiller to rename the subset that it creates.

Problem 3: Microsoft Office, TrueTypes and Adobe drivers

If you use TrueType fonts in applications like Microsoft Word and you create a PDF by printing to disk using an Adobe printerdriver and then distilling the file, characters in the test may be replaced by small rectangles that each represent one character.

Solution

To solve this problem, you should use the Microsoft PostScript driver that came with Windows '95 or '98 to create the PostScript file.

Problem 4: FrameMaker 6 documents

Text in Acrobat 4.0x PDFs authored in FrameMaker 6, even though displays and prints correctly, might be interpreted in Acrobat 4.0x in a way which results in missing letters, extra spaces and question marks. The Find, Search and Copy & Paste functions in Acrobat might suffer as a result.

There is currently (may 2000) no known solution to this problem.

Problem 5: Using PDFwriter instead of Distiller

I read in the PDF newsgroup that several people had problems with characters of the Wingdings font or special symbols in other fonts that disappeared in PDF-files as long as they used PDFwriter to create the PDF file. Switching to Acrobat Distiller solved the problem. Most users were running NT or Windows 2000.

© 2000 L. Leurs

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			There are a number of cases in which text seems to disappear once you create a PDF file. Below are the cases I encountered or read about: Pagemaker: capital F is missing Tex, DVI and dvips Microsoft Office, TrueTypes and Adobe drivers FrameMaker 6 documents Using PDFwriter instead of Distiller
			Problem 1: PageMaker: capital F is missing
			You open a PDF file in Exchange or Reader 3.x and some letters, particularly the capital letter "F" or the lower case "c" are missing on-screen . The PDF file was created using PageMaker 6.5.x, the Adobe PostScript printer driver (AdobePS) 4.2x or earlier and Acrobat Distiller 4.0.. Solutions Do either of the following: Upgrade your AdobePS printerdriver to version 4.3, then re-create the PDF file using the new driver. View the PDF file in an Acrobat 4.0 or later viewer.
			Problem 2: Tex, DVI and dvips
			Richard T. Bumby was kind enough to mail me the following problem: Much of what we do uses the TeX mathematical typesetting language, converted to a DVI file by a TeX program, then to PS by a program like dvips or Y&Y's dvipsone, then to PDF using the Adobe distiller. The dvi-to-ps programs do partial font downloading, but do not rename the font (this is true of dvips and the old version of dvipsone -- I can't upgrade dvipsone in my MicroSoftFree computer environment, so I don't know about the current release). Distiller includes the partial font as if it is the full font. If you view several such documents in Acrobat Reader, it will use the font from the first document whenever the name is used, leading to missing letters in other documents. Acrobat Reader also prints what it shows on the screen. Solutions Close Acrobat Reader and restart it to clear the cache. Disable partial font downloading when converting to PS, and allow Acrobat Distiller to rename the subset that it creates.
			Problem 3: Microsoft Office, TrueTypes and Adobe drivers
			If you use TrueType fonts in applications like Microsoft Word and you create a PDF by printing to disk using an Adobe printerdriver and then distilling the file, characters in the test may be replaced by small rectangles that each represent one character. Solution To solve this problem, you should use the Microsoft PostScript driver that came with Windows '95 or '98 to create the PostScript file.
			Problem 4: FrameMaker 6 documents
			Text in Acrobat 4.0x PDFs authored in FrameMaker 6, even though displays and prints correctly, might be interpreted in Acrobat 4.0x in a way which results in missing letters, extra spaces and question marks. The Find, Search and Copy & Paste functions in Acrobat might suffer as a result. There is currently (may 2000) no known solution to this problem.
			Problem 5: Using PDFwriter instead of Distiller
			I read in the PDF newsgroup that several people had problems with characters of the Wingdings font or special symbols in other fonts that disappeared in PDF-files as long as they used PDFwriter to create the PDF file. Switching to Acrobat Distiller solved the problem. Most users were running NT or Windows 2000.

	© 2000 L. Leurs		back to the top