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Hi,
Using Acrobat 11, opening a PDF from CAD software (PDF reports it was created by cgm2pdf), PDF reports ArialUnicodeMS (Embedded Subset) TrueType (CD) Identity H is n the document.
I can copy text and paste it into Microsoft Word, and edit the text there
However, when I use the Edit Text tool within Acrobat, I get a message that there is no editable text and the PDF might be the result of a scan. I tried on a different PC (that one had Acrobat 8 installed) with the same results.
Why can't Acrobat let me edit this text? What's going on? (As an aside, CorelDRAW and Illustrator 5.1 both opened the PDF with text as curves with no option to preserve fonts.)
Sean
It's exactly as I thought: The text you see is just drawing commands, which are not text, and hidden is the text you can copy and paste. Once I make this text visible, you can see that the two are not lined up correctly:
As you can see, I've moved the two (now visible) text items away from their vector drawing cousins, and in this case, I even modified that text (which is now possible as well) by converting some of it to lowercase characters.
It's a pretty common problem that CAD applications do
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It is possible that your text is actually just vector drawing commands, not not "real" text, and that is why you cannot edit it. The text that you can copy and paste may be "behind" (or invisible) your drawing, and is only there for copy and paste purposes. This is usually done when you have a scanned document, and you want to show the original scanned image. When you then run OCR, you can store the text in a way that it's invisible, but can still be selected and copied. But, you would not be able to select text.
Would you be able to share such a file? If not, and if you can get access to Adobe Acrobat DC, you can run a preflight profile that actually makes this hidden text visible. This function is new in DC and was not available in Acrobat XI or older.
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I can share it, sure? How?
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You need to upload to a site that allows you to share a link. The most obvious solution here is of course the Adobe Document Cloud: Share Documents via Adobe's Document Cloud - KHKonsulting LLC
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Np. Here. Thanks. Dropbox - SamplePDF.pdf
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It's exactly as I thought: The text you see is just drawing commands, which are not text, and hidden is the text you can copy and paste. Once I make this text visible, you can see that the two are not lined up correctly:
As you can see, I've moved the two (now visible) text items away from their vector drawing cousins, and in this case, I even modified that text (which is now possible as well) by converting some of it to lowercase characters.
It's a pretty common problem that CAD applications do not produce real text when documents are converted to PDF. In your case, you at least get the benefit that you can search for text and copy and paste it to another application.
Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do with your version of Acrobat. With Acrobat DC Pro you could convert the hidden text to visible text and then remove the vector drawings that correspond with text. You would not be able to do this automatically, it would be a lot of manual selecting and deleting.
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Thanks for the help. Could this be avoided if the CAD application printed to PDF using Adobe Acrobat full product, that is, using the Acrobat printer instance and Distiller?
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Probably not, because the CAD application would not send text, it would send drawing commands. You may want to talk to the makers of your CAD application to see if they have any advice for you.
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Thanks!