Arial rendered as skewed mix?

[Janerl]

I switched to PDF-XChange Viewer recently because of compatibility with programs like Docear, and I'm very pleased with how fast it is and other general options. However, one thing has been driving me nuts and I can't figure out how to fix it. When XChange Viewer tries to render Arial, it makes a this skewed mess that has no regards for capitalization. This is especially a problem because the notetaking that I would make to import through Docear is through comments, which uses Arial as default.

I am using the most recent version, in Windows Vista. If I open the document in another viewer, it reads just fine, so I don't think it's a problem with the Arial font on my system.

The PDF I am viewing in the screenshot can be found here http://www.uhnresearch.ca/facilities/wc ... scence.pdf.

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Hi Janerl,

welcome to the forums and thanks for the post. It looks to me that there is some font substitution going on here and that what you are seeing is not Arial at all. Can you open that PDF, select some of the offernding text and user "Text Properties" from the right mouse button context menu?



it should show what actual font is being used:



As you can see, the font is not embedded in the PDF and on my WIn8 system it is being replaced with Helvetica. If you send us this screen shot we can see what your system is substituting Arial for and maybe help.

[Janerl]

Hello Paul,

Thank you for the fast answer! I am impressed.

I tried what you said, but it also seems to say it is Helvetica on my system.


However, your mention of font substitution got me thinking. As you can see from my previous screenshot, the substitution is also affecting text tools in Viewer, not just rendering the file. I saw when I was searching for an answer in the forum that the font for text tools can be customized. When I tried typing a text box, I noticed it WAS actually using a different font. I could change the font to Times New Roman or Courier New, but if I tried to change the font Arial, it would instantly change to that other font. After uninstalling that font (by deleting it from C:/Windows/Fonts) and restarting Viewer, it switched to another font. I had to repeat several times, deleting MetallicA Old (the screenshot), Alien League, Iced Earth, Brady Bunch, and Jungle before hooray! it correctly displayed Arial both in the file and in my text tools.

That seems to fix the problem for now, but would you have any idea what the problem could have been? I fortunately don't need any of those fonts right now for any current project, but for future reference...

Thank you for your help!

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Hi Janerl,

thanks for that. Can you send us the problematic font(s) - it looks like there is something we may be able to do to correct the substitution in the Viewer.

regards

[Janerl]

Hey Paul,

Thanks again for all your help. I really appreciate guys monitoring and answering questions so quickly. I've attached the .zip of fonts that I made a copy of before I deleted, and I hope it helps. Good luck to the devs in figuring out what went wrong!

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

My pleasure Janerl,

though I find is a little ironic that after yor showing appreciation for the speed of responses that I went away for the week end...

Still we have the fonts, thanks and I'll let you know what the team has to say.

Thanks for working with us on this.