PCFormat Forum Archive

For some odd reason, Acrobat Reader is messing up my fonts when viewing pdfs on my PC. It's only on my PC, the files view perfectly elsewhere.

Here is a screenie of what it looks like on my PC:



The font in there is 11pt Palatino Linotype, but it messes it up regardless of which font I use.

Here is a link to the pdf if you want to download it to check it out on your machine.

Ideas?

Very Strange. I downloaded the document but I am unable to replicate what you see. Played with my screen resolutions, went through all the acrobat-reader options. It stays perfect.

The only difference I could get was with cleartype: Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Display -> Adjust cleartype

It should be on by default and turning it off didn't make a hell of a difference.
Your pdf looks like it's a low quality jpg image, as if acrobat is compressing it somehow. I can't think or see how. Maybe this brings some insight to you.

My only recommendation is to uninstall Acrobat-reader, delete any user files and directories (to remove settings) and re-install.

Synthesis wrote:Your pdf looks like it's a low quality jpg image, as if acrobat is compressing it somehow. I can't think or see how. Maybe this brings some insight to you.

No real insight, because it does it on ALL pdfs, whether I create my own or download pdfs from the web.

Synthesis wrote:My only recommendation is to uninstall Acrobat-reader, delete any user files and directories (to remove settings) and re-install.

Ja, I may have to try this. I was hoping to avoid it, but I may not be able to.

Of course, I should perhaps have added that it ONLY does this in Acrobat Reader. Fonts in all other programs (Word, etc.) are perfect.

Interestingly, here's the same screenie taken from Foxit pdf reader:



I guess it's definitely something awry with my Adobe Reader then.

Did you check:
Edit -> Preferences -> Page Display

There are settings like CoolType, Smooth Text, and Resolution...

The following will not be helpful...

An Acrobat pdf isn't a static document type. If a document is using a font that is not installed on your machine it will find an alternative. Usually a bad one.

In your document however, all the fonts are embedded subsets.

Embedded - Embedding a font ensures that your PDF uses the same fonts as the original document, no matter where you open the PDF or what fonts are installed on that PC.

Subsets - Only those characters of every font that are used are included.

Which means I'm totally clueless as to what the cause might be.

But it is quite interesting , so I'll do some Googling.

Ja, but Oom Doo, it does it with ANY font, including Times New Roman and Arial, which EVERYONE has on their PCs.

I did add theat disclaimer didn't I?

Have you re-installed the Reader yet?

doo_much wrote:I did add theat disclaimer didn't I?

Have you re-installed the Reader yet?

Not yet. Foxit Reader has been working fine for now.

So it turns out that reading before clicking "next" sometimes proves helpful.



When you install Acrobat and run it for the first time it leads you through this setup process. One option in the process gives you the option to enable or disable smoothing of fonts. Seems like that did the trick.