Character Spacing and Production PDF Export

[GeoffChapman]

I am having some issues with the exporting to Production PDF of annotation that uses character spacing from ArcMap 10.7.1. We have a number of Annotation objects that use Character spacing to lay them out over large geographical features and have generated masking polygons using the Feature Outline Masks tool to help manage any conflicts with any highways or drainage the text my come across. As can be seen from Screenshot_1, the masking polygons and the annotation line up quite nicely in ArcMap.

However, when we export the page to a Production PDF the Annotation is shifting and no longer lines up with the masking that is being created (see Screenshot_2). The issue appears to only affect annotation that has character spacing applied to it.

I did find the following technical support document (Problem: Specified character spacing is not preserved when exporting to PDF with ArcMap 10.5.1 ) but this does not make any mention of 10.7.1. In addition to which we have hundreds of MXDs that need exporting to CMYK PDF so making none of the suggested solutions very suitable at this time.

[DanHopkins]

Hi Geoff,

It has been a few months since we last corresponded. I hope you enjoyed the holidays.

What happens when you take Production PDF and Esri Production Mapping out of the picture and just use the PDF export that comes with ArcGIS Desktop out of the box?

Regards,

Dan

[GeoffChapman]

Hi Dan,

Happy New Year to you

Having given it a go through the standard PDF export the issue appears to be the same.

regards

Geoff

[DanHopkins · Accepted solution]

Hi Geoff,

This post is to inform the members of the GeoNet community that might be following or that might encounter this issue that we have communicated by email outside of GeoNet. You have provided access to your annotation feature class, masking feature class, and font for the affected annotation.

On my ArcGIS Desktop 10.7.1 machine, I could not reproduce your issue. Upon further research, I discovered the following bug that describes your issue:

BUG-000104959 - Annotation masks do not display correctly after being exported to PDF.

The link to the bug on our support site is below:

https://support.esri.com/en/bugs/nimbus/QlVHLTAwMDEwNDk1OQ==

As you can see from the link for BUG-000104959, the Status is set to “Not in Current Product Plan”. This means that it will not be addressed. “Additional Information” states the following why it will not be addressed:

“This issue cannot be reproduced in ArcMap or ArcGIS Pro. In ArcMap, using a default printer with a default DPI that is equivalent or better than the resolution requested helps eliminate inherent inaccuracy in GDI coordinate conversion as this is known to cause mismatches between text and masks.”

After choosing a default printer with a default DPI that is equivalent or better than the resolution requested, the annotation and mask line up as expected in your PDF.

Regards,

Dan

[LisaPierce1]

Hello Geoff, 

Wondering if you know if this issue has been fixed in 10.8.1 ?  We have not implemented the tool and are wondering what options might work, as we have the same issue using ArcFM 10.6.1 with extensive circuit mapbooks.