"Cannot extract the embedded font" Some characters may not display or print correctly.

[annetteS]

this message keeps coming up: "Cannot extract the embedded font 'GLJYQU+News-Gothic-BTS-Bold'. Some characters may not display or print correctly." I have reinstalled the fonts and still bet this message. I use Acrobat to send X1A files all the time to printers and am tired of constantly having to outline all my fonts to send my files and it makes the files uneditable in case of a client last minute change on press. And sometimes even when I outline all the fonts I still see this warning. Any ideas?

[Adorobat · Accepted solution]

Hi annetteS,

As per the issue description mentioned above, you are getting above mentioned error when opening files in acrobat, is that correct?

This is an indication of corrupt embedded font in the PDF file. Refer to the following forum threads discussing the similar issue:

Adobe Reader DC: cannot extract embedded font "BKQYDZ+DejaVuSansCondensed"

Cannot extract the embedded font...

Cannot extract the embedded font error

Thanks,

Shivam

[Edited]

[Crockettr]

I have PDF's that I've opened many, many times, that NOW are exhibiting this missing font issue "Cannot extract the embedded font..." and the only thing I can attribute it to is a Microsoft Windows 10 update.

I've uninstalled Acrobat, and reinstalled it, still no luck.

Any thought's?

[Dov Isaacs]

Assuming that the fonts in question are actually embedded in your PDF file(s), no Windows 10 updates should have been involved in the problem you are encountering. Acrobat (and Reader) do not depend on operating system services for font handling in any way assuming the font(s) are embedded in the PDF file.

Generally, the type of problem you are encountering is due to either fonts that are corrupted or invalid in some way prior to being embedded in the PDF file or possibly a valid font being improperly embedded in the PDF file, the issues often associated with either missing glyphs, improper or missing encoding tables, or improper font type specification. We have seen this quite often with third party PDF file creation libraries.

If you can post a sample file, we might be able to assist you.

          - Dov

PS:     Uninstalling and reinstalling Adobe products very rarely accomplishes anything other than indicating that you suffer from “reinstallzheimers”

[binemp_will]

I am seeing this error on certain PDFs after updating to Adobe Acrobat Reader DC version 2019.012.20036. So far, I have been able to confirm that the same PDFs load correctly under the previous version 2019.012.20035.

Any guidance on how to proceed?

[Dov Isaacs]

Without posting samples, we cannot ascertain what the issue is. Earlier versions may have been ignoring a real file problem. But again, without sample(s), cannot help you.

          - Dov

[binemp_will]

Fair enough - I will see if I can find a sample that I am comfortable with sharing. Most of the examples I've seen so far come from my business clients, and I'm not sure how sensitive (or not) those files are.

For what it's worth, I've been telling my users to open any affected files with Chrome instead, which appears to work well so far.

[BrianBartky]

Dov Isaacs​

I have a PDF I can share but I don't see any options to attach anything other than images and videos.

Thanks,

Brian

[Crockettr]

Likewise, I emailed one to Dov, he has it.

[BrianBartky]

Great! I'd like to email my file to him too but that doesn't seem possible.

Brian

[BrianBartky]

Dov,

I started seeing the same issue as Randy today on PDFs I had never seen it on before. here's the error:

And here's the Adobe Fonts tab:

It happens in both Reader and Pro. The only common denominator I have found is that it's in PDFs created in MadCap Flare 2019 but not in PDFs created in Word or Microsoft Publisher. So, I will head on to the MadCap forums and see if they know what might be wrong.

Thanks,

Brian

[Dov Isaacs]

We are aware that there is some defect in the MadCap Flare PDF files in terms of embedding of fonts that is no longer ignored by the most recent release of Acrobat/Reader.

I have one sample and am following up internally with regards to exactly what the problem is with how MadCap Flare is producing PDF and secondly what changed in Acrobat to no longer simply ignore the error.

          - Dov

[BrianBartky]

Thanks Dov! You are awesome!

[BenGarwoodEvans]

Sorry to jump on an old thread but I noticed that it was getting narrowed down to PDFs which have been generated by MadCap and wanted to point out that i am experiencing the same issue with PDFs which have been generated by Aspose. Just as a heads up.

[Docguy]

Please tell that ("Uninstalling and reinstalling Adobe products very rarely accomplishes anything other than indicating that you suffer from “reinstallzheimers”) to your chat support people, as that was one of the solutions they presented to me this morning to solve my font issue.

[Dov Isaacs]

Please don't get me started! 

          - Dov

[candice0805]

Hello Dov,

I have the same issue and search on the internet for quite a while. I have the XML file received from our web service, the XML file includes PDF base64 encoding,
then in my end, I grab base64 from the XML file, then decode it, then write to IFS(Integrated File System) as PDF file.
once call my program (in my program, 1st step, call web service get XML, 2nd step, get base64 from XML, then decode, save PDF in IFS), i get PDF file.

for example i run my program 10 times, I get output PDF file, 1 or 2 times out of 10, it will pop up 'cannot extract the embedded font'FABEBD+HelveticalNeue-Black',
some characters may not display or print correctly'. 8 or 9 times are good. and the error sometime is 'cannot extract the embedded font'FADABE+HelveticalNeue-Bold', and
cannot extract the embedded font'FABEBD+HelveticalNeue-Roman',.
we have no problem open this PDF file with Adobe before this whole process (encoding, add data, transfer XML, decoding).

it looks it is sometime issue, what really confused me is, it is not happen all the time, just occasioncally. this morning I run 20 tests, 18 times are good, 2 times pops
up this window. i feel we really hit the wall here.

we had the same issue with "OJBADL+AvenirLTStd-Light" font before, same popup, so we changed font to Helvetical, looks the problem still persists, but only occasionly,
I could not understand why sometime is good. sometime give this warning, (when give the warning, sometime the font looks still good after click ok, sometime it corrupts
after click ok).

This problem only happen when we try to open PDF with Adobe,(my Adobe Acrobat Reader DC version:20.006.20034.39303) other Viewers are good. 99% of our customer use Adobe, we really like to sort this out.
I did check for update, it says 'no updates available)

I read carefully your comments here, I wonder how we can know is there any improper or missing encoding pieces when our web service do the encoding?
your insight would be much appreciated. is there any confidential channel that I could possibley send you the sample?

thanks a lot, i look forward to hearing from you.

[candice0805]

Hello Dov,

I have the same issue and search on the internet for quite a while. I have the XML file received from our web service, the XML file encludes PDF base64 encoding,
then in my end, I grab base64 from the XML file, then decode it, then write to IFS(Integrated File System) as PDF file.
once call my program (in my program, 1st step, call web service get XML, 2nd step, get base64 from XML, then decode, save PDF in IFS), i get PDF file.

for example i run my program 10 times, I get output PDF file, 1 or 2 times out of 10, it will pop up 'cannot extract the embedded font'FABEBD+HelveticalNeue-Black',
some characters may not display or print correctly'. 8 or 9 times are good. and the error sometime is 'cannot extract the embedded font'FADABE+HelveticalNeue-Bold', and
cannot extract the embedded font'FABEBD+HelveticalNeue-Roman',.
we have no problem open this PDF file with Adobe before this whole process (encoding, add data, transfer XML, decoding).

it looks it is sometime issue, what really confused me is, it is not happen all the time, just occasioncally. this morning I run 20 tests, 18 times are good, 2 times pops up this window.

we had the same issue with "OJBADL+AvenirLTStd-Light" font before, same popup, so we changed font to Helvetical, looks the problem still persists, but only occasionly,
I could not understand why sometime is good. sometime give this warning, (when give the warning, sometime the font looks still good after click ok, sometime it corrupts
after click ok).

This problem only happen when we try to open PDF with Adobe,(my Adobe Acrobat Reader DC version:20.006.20034.39303) other Viewers are good. 99% of our customer use Adobe, we really like to sort this out.
I did check for update, it says 'no updates available)

I read carefully your comments here, I wonder how we can know is there any improper or missing encoding pieces when our web service do the encoding?
your insight would be much appreciated. is there any confidential channel that I could possibley send you the sample?

thanks a lot, i look forward to hearing back from you.

[Dov Isaacs]

A few things:

(1) If you have a PDF file that consistently demonstrates this problem, please post it for us to have a look at. Acrobat Pro DC Preflight can show us what the problem might be.

(2) If you are creating the PDF file on MacOS and you are running under a beta test version of MacOS 10.15.4, that may be your problem right there. We have numerous reports of issues of fonts under that beta test OS version. Of course, you should never use prerelease, beta test software for production.

[candicew47880207]

Thank you so much Dov for your response. I think  we use Windows only, I like to send you the file, do you have private channel that I can post to? Thanks a lot (candice0805 is me)

[Dov Isaacs]

Check you e-mail for a response from me!

[Dov Isaacs]

I have been in direct contact with Candice0121 and have analyzed her files.

Her symptoms sounded a bit similar to others discussed in this thread, but the underlying cause of the problems is that as part of what appears to be file transfer protocol is severely corrupting the very structure of the PDF files.

I won't get into the details here, but the problem is unrelated to everything else discussed in this thread.

Given that a number of different sub-threads exist here with different issues from diffterent eras, I am going to close this thread. If others have anything to add in this general area that are unrelated to what was discussed here, feel free to start a new topic.

[Crockettr]

I suspect this is related to update 1901220036, but I have no way to roll back to 1901220035 to verify it.

[BrianBartky]

Thanks Randy! I saw your response in the other thread. Very helpful! Hopefully, Adobe will fix it.

[BrianBartky]

Randy,

Other MadCap Flare users are seeing this issue too.

https://forums.madcapsoftware.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=31873

Brian