Exported .pdf gives LiberationSerif font error in Adobe Acrobat Reader

secarica · April 11, 2019, 2:04pm

When using the Export as PDF… feature of Writer (LibO 6.2.2.2, on Windows 8.1 64bit) and by opening the generated .pdf with Adobe Acrobat Reader, the reader pops up a message telling me “Cannot extract the embedded font ‘CAAAAA+LiberationSerif’. Some characters may not display or print correctly.”. Using the toolbar shortcut icon to generate the .pdf file makes no difference.

Similar issues (but not related to LibO) are reported on Adobe forums, mentioning other fonts; at the same time, by opening the same .pdf with Foxit Reader, no error is reported – so at first glance this may sound like an Adobe product problem.

However: if I use another program to generate the .pdf file from the same .odt document (by using the Print… menu command and then using something like PDFCreator “printer”), Adobe Acrobat Reader no longer reports any error. Unfortunately, I cannot use this option to generate the .pdf file, because the document has several footnotes, of which the references in text (the overscript numbers) are automatically converted as hyperlinks on .pdf file generated directly via LibO (which points to respective footnotes), but no hyperlinks are created on .pdf file generated with third party programs.

By changing the overall document font with Times New Roman, Adobe Acrobat Reader no longer reports any error.

I replaced the default LiberationSans font with the latest from Font Squirrel | Liberation Serif Font Free by Red Hat (and then restarted the system); no difference.

I installed OpenOffice 4.1.6 in parallel on same system; using there the Eport to PDF… menu command on same .odt document, Adobe Acrobat Reader no longer reports any error.

??

anon73440385 · April 11, 2019, 2:30pm

This looks similiar to bug report #tdf112152

secarica · April 11, 2019, 2:57pm

Well, actually I do use Narrow No-Break Space into my document, so yes, that could be related to the same bug.

anon73440385 · April 11, 2019, 3:51pm

I’ve updated the long-running bug report #tdf112152 and hopefully we will get some feedback from developers.

secarica · April 11, 2019, 5:44pm

Thanks, however, something is strange: your file – either the given .pdf or generating another .pdf from .odt – gives no error with AAR DC (version 2019.010.20099 here); then I created a small test with my own words, which generates the error (i.e. .odt source file and .pdf generated file). Other strangeness is that the nnbsp on your file appears here underscored in LibO, whereas on my own file it does not (I generated the nnbsp with 202f followed by Alt+X).

secarica · April 11, 2019, 11:47pm

Other strangeness is that the nnbsp on your file appears here underscored in LibO, …

Now I observed that this is just a simple underline put “over” the nnbsp

anon73440385 · April 12, 2019, 9:23am

Sorry for the confusion - But I added that to see where the nnbsp is, but missed to make a note - my bad, sorry again.

rixon · April 2, 2020, 1:06am

The solution is to change the font to one that is built into Adobe Acrobat, like the Times New Roman you mentioned.

Note that if you have a fillable form already created, do a Select All, then change the fonts, that is not enough. You’ll also need to change the font in each Control individually. The font will list (default); change each Control font to Times New Roman or another supported font to eliminate this issue.

imthepipe · April 28, 2021, 5:20pm

The “Answer” is not a solution - it’s a work around. Is a fix/update being developed to allow the use of Liberation Serif (and presumably other fonts) when printing/exporting to PDF?