Word-creates PDFs look Fugly in Adobe Reader

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stephen_ep@officeformac.com - 01 May 2008 04:16 GMT

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
Processor: Power PC

I created a resume using a resume template in '08, and saved a copy as a PDF. Said file looks exactly as intended when viewed with Preview, but the same file looks terrible in Adobe Reader. The formatting is all the same, but the actual writing looks blobby and almost squiggly and very inelegant. Has anybody else noticed this problem? This worries me, because I plan on sending this resume to a prospective employers who will most likely be using Adobe Reader on Windows machines.

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Phillip Jones - 01 May 2008 20:06 GMT

First you should use a common font that is embedible (is that word
<grin>) such as Helvetica, Times, etc. Many fonts especially MS fonts do
not have an agreement to allow embedding fonts into PDF documents. So
adobe chooses substitutes. sometimes the subs work sometimes not.

Also both in acrobat and reader there is a setting I believe in the
tools menu to use system fonts try turning that on or off and see which
looks the best. PDF's use the fonts on the viewers computer unless
copies are embedded into the document.

> Version: 2008
> Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
> Processor: Power PC
>
> I created a resume using a resume template in '08, and saved a copy as a PDF. Said file looks exactly as intended when viewed with Preview, but the same file looks terrible in Adobe Reader. The formatting is all the same, but the actual writing looks blobby and almost squiggly and very inelegant. Has anybody else noticed this problem? This worries me, because I plan on sending this resume to a prospective employers who will most likely be using Adobe Reader on Windows machines.

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stephen_ep@officeformac.com - 01 May 2008 23:08 GMT

Tried it. Specifically with Helvetica. It still looks ugly on Adobe Reader and beautiful on Preview. I've never had this problem with Adobe Reader before.

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Phillip Jones - 02 May 2008 02:11 GMT

I have a thought that might help. Its just a stab in the dark.

If you have some type of utility that you can kill font caches (remove
and empty) try remove any and all fonts caches especially any related to
Acrobat or Reader.

restart computer then reopen document wit Reader (or Acrobat). they will
be forced to rebuild.

Could be a font cache problem.

> Tried it. Specifically with Helvetica. It still looks ugly on Adobe Reader and beautiful on Preview. I've never had this problem with Adobe Reader before.

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John McGhie - 06 May 2008 12:55 GMT

Hi Stephen:

I'm with Phillip on this one. If it's OK in Preview, the PDF is OK and
Adobe Reader is having a problem.

If you are making a file for wide distribution, use Arial and Times New
Roman as your fonts. That way it won't matter where you send it, they will
HAVE the fonts.

Embedded fonts are a really bad idea if you want to email the thing
anywhere: nobody appreciates megabyte emails just because you wanted to send
the fonts :-)

Cheers

On 2/05/08 7:38 AM, in article ee9a35a.1@webcrossing.caR9absDaxw,

> Tried it. Specifically with Helvetica. It still looks ugly on Adobe Reader and
> beautiful on Preview. I've never had this problem with Adobe Reader before.

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Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:john@mcghie.name

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Mac Forum / Applications / Word / May 2008

Word-creates PDFs look Fugly in Adobe Reader