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Technical Article   Problem:  Some symbols, markers or fonts change or disappear when exported to EPS or PDF at ArcGIS 9.x

Article ID: 28548
Bug Id: N/A
Software:  ArcGIS - ArcEditor 9.0, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 9.3.1 ArcGIS - ArcInfo 9.0, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 9.3.1 ArcGIS - ArcView 9.0, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 9.3.1
Platforms: N/A

Description

Some or all regular or custom markers, symbols, north arrows or certain fonts may change to random and/or incorrect symbols and fonts when exported to PDF or EPS and that file is viewed on another computer.

Cause

The fonts that contain those symbols, such as markers, north arrows, and text are not installed on the computer on which the PDF or EPS is being viewed or printed.

Solution or Workaround

As all ArcMap symbols and markers are stored in fonts, the best solution is to embed fonts used in the map into the output document.

 Some fonts do not allow embedding or may not be valid fonts. -show me-

If the 'Embed document fonts' option was used when exporting to PDF from ArcMap:

1. Open the PDF in Adobe Reader.
2. Navigate to File > Document Properties.
3. Select the Fonts tab and check for fonts that do not have "(Embedded Subset)" after the name.

These fonts may disallow font embedding. To check:

4. Download and install the Microsoft Font Properties Extension. See the link in the Related Information section below.
5. Start Windows Explorer and navigate to C:\Windows\Fonts or C:\Winnt\Fonts.
6. Right-click on the questionable fonts and select Properties. Notice the additional information now available from the Font Properties Extension.
7. Select the Embedding tab and note if the font allows embedding or not.

If a font that does not allow embedding is used as a symbol, click on 'Convert marker symbols to polygons' in the PDF export options. The font glyph is converted to outlines to get around the embedding restriction. Note that higher-resolution exports will render converted font symbols more accurately.
[O-Image] Font Properties extension


  1. Open the Export Map dialog box by clicking File / Export Map.
  2. Click the dropdown list. Save as type menu and select either EPS (*.eps) or PDF (*.pdf).
  3. Expand the Export Map dialog box to view the Options. -show me-
    Summary
    When ArcMap is first installed, the Export Map dialog box is collapsed and may be difficult to notice.

    Instructions provided describe how to expand the ArcMap Export Map dialog box options.
    Procedure
    Click the arrow in the lower left-hand corner of the Export Map dialog box. The dialog box expands and displays the export format options. -show me-

    [O-Image] ArcMap Export dialog options button


  4. Click the Format tab.
  5. Click on Embed All Document Fonts. -show me-

    [O-Image] Embed all document fonts


  6. Click Save to begin the export.

Related Information


Created: 1/18/2005
Last Modified: 2/1/2010

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