Text gets whacked out when exported to PDF

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08-31-2011 06:05 AM
DanielSattler
New Contributor III
I used some text to label cities on my map (no labeling, no annotation) and when I export to PDF some of the text gets goofy spacing and symbols, but the rest of them are fine.  See attachment.

The font is Calibri, which I use all the time with no problems in the past.
Any history of ArcMAP not liking this font?

Any thoughts?

Thanks
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7 Replies
JohnSobetzer
Frequent Contributor
You can make sure your fonts are embedded, but that may not help with Calibri.  It is a known problem with exported pdfs.
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DanielSattler
New Contributor III
it's embedded.  I've messed with those PDF settings and nothing has helped.
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MelitaKennedy
Esri Notable Contributor
There have been other posts about Calibri like:

http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/17743-Calibri-Font-issues-in-PDF-after-ArcMap-Export

There are a few possible solutions, but nothing that works everywhere.

Melita
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TobinLilly1
New Contributor
Are there plans to fix this issue.  Changing the font across a whole project is not feasible.  This issue has been ongoing since Windows 7 and ArcGIS 10 came out.  As a long time user of ESRI products.  I have a hard time believing that a solution can't be found.  I had hopes for SP2, but it ignores this problem completely.  Why doesn't ESRI just exclude the fonts that don't work, since they seem incapable of fixing the issue?  This problem only comes up when using ArcMap, so I don't care if its a windows issue because it doesn't effect anything except my maps.
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DavidWatkins
Esri Contributor
We are aware of this problem. Fonts with automatic ligatures, such as Calibri, Palatino, Linotype, Adobe Jensen Pro, and Myriad Pro, can fail to export certain character sequences to PDF, EPS, SVG, and AI (Illustrator) formats. Some of the failed sequences include 'ff', 'fl', 'fi', and 'Th'. The characters may fail to appear in the export file, and text following the character sequence may appear garbled. This problem occurs on Windows XP when regional settings are set for non-English text input, and occurs on all versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7.   The nimbus tracking number for this is NIM012587.  We have narrowed this to a Microsoft bug and we are actively working on a solution. I will post an update when a fix is available.
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TiffanyProffitt
New Contributor
I had a similiar problem with a style file for well symbols. Try exporting the map to Adobe Illustrator then going in to AI and saving it as a PDF from there. solved my issue!
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Christopher_TNiven
New Contributor
We are aware of this problem. Fonts with automatic ligatures, such as Calibri, Palatino, Linotype, Adobe Jensen Pro, and Myriad Pro, can fail to export certain character sequences to PDF, EPS, SVG, and AI (Illustrator) formats. Some of the failed sequences include 'ff', 'fl', 'fi', and 'Th'. The characters may fail to appear in the export file, and text following the character sequence may appear garbled. This problem occurs on Windows XP when regional settings are set for non-English text input, and occurs on all versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7.   The nimbus tracking number for this is NIM012587.  We have narrowed this to a Microsoft bug and we are actively working on a solution. I will post an update when a fix is available.


Hello David-

Have you received or posted any resolution to NIM012587? I am working to resolve an issue of dropped labels when using the Export to PDF routine. I am hoping that service pack 4 or version 10.1 will have a resolution.
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