With the rise of modernization, technological advancement and development seem to be at their peak. One such is the Portable Document Format, or what people commonly know as the PDF. Developed by Adobe in 1990, PDF came into existence as a read-only file format that could sustain a fixed format. Secured sharing of files from one device (mainly computers) to another was difficult to do before, and this is the main reason for the development of PDF. In the years that ensued, PDF seems to have become one of the most known and used document formats globally. PDF is valued among all people, be it a document or a book.
The PDF file format has numerous uses and advantages. The top functions of this file format are that it can maintain the original composition of a file and can be easily shared among various means. Although this file format has given several benefits, its usage is not exempt from errors that affect multiple actions of its users, such as downloading, file accessibility, printing, transferring, etc. This article will further enumerate and explain the issues users may encounter when using the format and methods to resolve them. We will cover the common issues users have to deal with and how to solve them, from problems regarding formatting and fonts to having to rotate PDF pages and repairing corrupted PDF files. Check them out below!
Table of Contents
1) Page Numbering
The first issue PDF users usually encounter is the problem regarding page numbering. Sometimes, converting your file into a PDF changes the roman numerals of your paging to Arabic numbers, consequently restarting the sequence with “1” at the first chapter.
To solve this, you can keep your work in two separate files, one with roman numeral pages and one with Arabic-numbered pages. Once you finish working on them, separately convert the two files into PDF. After converting, concatenate them into one with Adobe Acrobat. The menu commands to do this are Document > Insert Pages > browse to choose the PDF document to be inserted > click OK > and then save the file you linked together.
2) Embedding Fonts
There are thousands of fonts available out there. Aside from this fact, these thousands of available fonts also come with hundreds of different versions. Take the Times New Roman as an example. If the font you use is the version distributed by Windows Vista, it may not match the MS Office 2007 version of TNR. Embedding your fonts means that you attach a font version to the PDF file so that the characters will always appear the same on every device. Not doing this forces a device to substitute its local version, meaning it might be different enough to cause concerns.
Some third-party PDF tools offer automatic checking to see if fonts are embedded in a file. And if they are not, they will reject it, and you will be unable to upload it. To check if your PDF file has embedded its fonts, follow the steps below:
- Choose the Select File button and proceed to Document Properties.
- Once selected, choose the option Fonts. Every font listed should say whether it is embedded or if they are an embedded subset. Embedded subset refers to only those characters truly used. If all the fonts you used are labeled as this, then you are fine. If any of them are not, proceed to the next steps.
- Change the settings on the software you are using to generate the PDF document. Most programs have a box to choose an option called Embed Fonts. If what you are using is Adobe Acrobat, it is in the Preferences > Output module menu.
- You can then re-distill the PDF file. Print the PDF file to a new PDF file with Adobe Acrobat. This step will embed the fonts that were previously not embedded.
3) Rotating PDF Pages
Sometimes, PDF pages unintentionally get scanned upside down or rotated incorrectly. This instance means you have to orientate PDF pages to correct their orientation. However, most people seem to be unfamiliar with this issue. Third-party PDF tools, such as PDFBear, can help you solve this issue in four easy steps:
- Choose the PDF file you want to orientate, or you can drag and drop it to the tool’s site.
- Two circular arrows will appear, and with these, you can choose which way you want to rotate your file.
- Once you have decided which angle, click the Apply option.
- Wait for the editing to finish, and you can then download the PDF file or share them.
4) Repairing Corrupted PDFs
PDF files may occasionally display error messages and fail to open in Acrobat or Adobe Reader. Such problems occur due to several various reasons. There are different causes as to why PDFs get damaged and corrupted, but the most common reasons PDF users have to deal with are errors occurring during download, storage device failure, transfer problems, the root file is missing or invalid, and incompatibility of the file to your PDF reader.
There are multiple ways to address this problem manually. However, if you want a quick and easy solution, you can use a third-party PDF tool site to help. With these sites, repairing your damaged files becomes convenient.
- Choose your corrupted PDF file.
- The site’s tool will then analyze the issue and upload it.
- There are damaged files that may not be recoverable, but these sites can help revive the recoverable ones.
- Click the Repair option and wait for the task to finish. Once completed, you can go ahead and download the file or share it.
5) Large File Size
PDF files with attached media, such as pictures, videos, audios, and clips, enlarge the size of the file. You can solve this by sizing them to the approximate final size before inserting them and compressing them.
Takeaway
Portable Document Format (PDF) has a lot of uses. It undeniably has multiple advantages compared to other file formats, and it has been valuable to many of us since its development. We should know that however useful it is, PDF is still vulnerable to errors, and encountering issues while using it is common and unavoidable. Despite this, its functionality still outweighs its issues since these problems are small enough that they are easily resolvable.
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