Invisible text in PDFs

In the last few months, I haven't been able to read many PDFs using the Apple engine (Preview, Safari, etc). Here's an example (I just searched google for PDFs and this was the first affected hit). On the first page I can read black text in the center but only see an empty grey box at the bottom. In other pages, headers are visible but not body text.
If I open an affected PDF in Adobe reader, I can read all text. It is possible for me to copy "nonexistant" text from preview to a text editor.
What's going on?

My issue with PDF has been solved. I was having several other problems and my sons said, "Mom, you need to re-install the operating system." Done, so far no problems. I am responding to this thread now to indicate it is no longer an issue. I have learned that I can't pull old posts. Thanks for your help.
I am having this problem in virtually everything. I
was using adobe reader 7.0.5 very successfully until
I updated to OS X 4.3. I have been a pdf reader user
since mac 2. (It wasn't so long ago that we elected
to get attachments as pdf or word files.)
I use entourage as e-mail. (dotMac is my alternative
but not as easy to use) Clicking on highlighted text
in an e-mail will sometimes bring up the link,
sometimes not. We have our brokerage accounts on
line which require adobe reader. I'm able to do a
work-around to get the information, but time and ease
are missing. Safari is my browser. The web-sites
open, but often the links do not, and this is a real
problem. Bringing up a blank page is indeed
frustration. Information gathering via the web is a
primary use of my computer so this new wrinkle is
indeed unwelcome.
I have uninstalled Adobe 7.0.5 by searcing line by
line through all the possible lists and removing
anything "adobe reader" connected.
Re-install--same problem I am not a command-line
user as I know nothing about programming and don't
want to cause havoc, so if anyone can help I would
need a step-by-step in and out.
If anyone has a solution, please help us out.
Ruth Miller
PPC MD G4
dual 1 GHz, Mem 512 MB Mac OS X (10.4.3)
PPC G4 dual 1
GHz, Mem 512 MB Mac OS X (10.2.x)

Similar Messages

Invisible text in PDF form

I've seen this twice now over the last couple of months under Acrobat Pro 9.3.2.
I've created forms for folks attending an event to complete. They download these forms from a web site, complete them, and click a button I've built into the form to e-mail it to us. They are all downloaded from the same location so everyone is getting the same file.
I've received back about thirty so far this year and all but 2 are fine. Those two are the issue. When opened, regardless if opened directly from the e-mail or if saved locally first, they appear blank. Only when placing the cursor in a field will the text in that field become visible. As soon as the cursor is moved, either by mouse or tab key, the text will again disappear and the text in the field the cursor lands on will become visible.
The form is also blank when printed.
I have searched these forums and found only one other case where this was happening, about a year ago under Version 8. However, the issue there is not the case here. as that had to do with field backgrounds. None of my forms have field backgrounds set. And the fact that 28 out of 30 forms are functioning properly, and the fact that I've been using this form for a few years now, pretty much limits the possibility that it is a systemic issue with the form itself.
Anyone have any idea what might be causing this??

There have been a few posts in the recent past about this.
Typically the answer turns out to be that they are using a third party PDF reader to fill in the forms (like Mac Preview...etc.)
There hasn't been any solutions that I've seen short of putting a notice near the link stating they must use Adobe Reader.

Why does the text in text boxes go invisible when annotating PDFs in preview?

If I hover my mouse over where the text box is, the little yellow box that tells you what text is there comes up and shows what the box is supposed to say, but the text is invisible. If I double click the area where the text is supposed to be, it highlights and makes the text visible again. Its not that the text is white, because if i drag it over a dark area, it still doesn't show up. This happens when I open it up again after annotating and saving/closing it. I attached pictures of my cursor hovering over the invisible text box, and one of it hovering over an unaffected text box, for comparison. This has happened to me before. What is happening and how do i stop it?

david302 wrote:
But, about half the time, when i am finished typing and click out of the box, back to view the result, the text does not appear. If i go back to Edit Content within the box, it is there, but disappears when i exit the box. It does not print when i print a test sheet.
The fact that 'about half the time' you are seeing this issue and presumably not the other part of the time, I would suggest trying to run the 'Repair Database' option in the First Aid dialog:
Quit Aperture > press and hold Option + Command keys while launching Aperture > select and run the 'Repair Database' option.
Post back as needed.

OCR and hidden text in PDF scans of historic documents

I need to edit the hidden text behind a scanned PDF image of a document. The image must remain as an “exact” copy of the original scanned document.
I used Acrobat Pro (versions 7 and 9) to make PDF images of old typed documents from the 1940’s. When I open those images and run OCR in version 9, then examine the hidden (invisible) text layer behind the image, there are errors. For example, the word “book” has been picked-up by the OCR as the word “look.” I need to change the “l” to a “b” in order to make the PDF accurate when it is searched at a later date.
I have checked many user forums. Most people imply that hidden text can be viewed, but NOT edited in Acrobat Pro 7 and 9. (Hidden text can be viewed in Version 9 by selecting “Document” “Examine Document” and then clicking on the “+” symbol next to “Hidden Text,” then clicking “Show preview.”) Some say to use Adobe Capture 3.0 to edit hidden text. Others say to use Photoshop or Illustrator to edit hidden text (I think these folks may have been confused, because Photoshop and Illustrator would be used, logically, to edit the image ON TOP OF the hidden text). Yet another person seemed to say that a hidden text editor was added to Acrobat 8, but was taken away in Acrobat 9. (I can’t verify that because I don’t have version 8.)
The closest answer I was able to find involved using the Text Touch Up Tool on top of the image to edit hidden text behind it, but when you do that you are typing “blind.” In other words, you highlight a spot on the image (top layer) where you THINK the error MIGHT be, and you type the correction without being able to see what you are typing over. Then, you go back to the “Examine Document” procedure (described above) to see if you “hit” your mark, and if not, you redo it until you do “hit” your mark. With the number of documents and corrections that we have, that procedure would be too labor intensive and thus a budget breaker.
If we have to buy more software, my preference would be to buy a genuine Adobe product because I have experienced problems in the past switching back and forth between Adobe products and other PDF manipulation software.
Can anyone answer any of these questions:
(1) Is there a way in Acrobat versions 7, 8 or 9 to edit hidden text, and if so, how?
(2) What Adobe software (other than Acrobat) will edit hidden text behind a PDF image?
(3) Assuming no Adobe product will edit hidden text behind a PDF image, is there any non-Adobe products that will do that?
Thank you!

Hi,
Unless you use Acrobat 8 Pro's Formatted Text & Graphics" or Acrobat 9 Pro's ClearScan you will find that there is no
practicable means of editing the OCR "hidden text" in a PDF.
The TouchUp text tool (Advanced Editing toolbar) is reliant upon the selected text having an available system font to use during touchup. However, both Searchable Image and Searchable Image (Exact) OCR output is of text rendering mode 3 (invisible text) that is provided from within Acrobat and not any installed system or other application installed font.
With Searchable Image (Exact) you have the untouched image augmented by the invisible text which is provided as a user aid for search or find with Adobe Reader or Acrobat. The invisible text is not intended to support word processor like editing.
To your questions:
#1. There is no practicable way to edit invisible text (text rendering mode 3) with Acrobat (any past or current release).
#2. None.
#3. A good question. Perhaps a specialty program. Keep in mind, many products provide a promise but those those that actually deliver tend to be expensive.
Something to play with. Using Acrobat 9 Pro or Pro Extended, try the Preflight Fixup to embed hidden text.
Then try using the TouchUp Text tool. You may also want to see if you can change the font type of this newly embedded font.
(use copies of the "real" files - just in case <g>).
Be well...

Invisible text - a different situation from the norm

Hey fellow reader users,
I happened to run into a problem today when attempting to read an ebook (textbook) today; various parts of the text, (around 5 words per page) were all missing. When I copied and pasted from the pdf into word or notepad, I would see the "invisible text." It so happens I have adobe acrobat pro as well, but there is the same problem. If I (in acrobat), edit the missing text to a different font, it shows up, rather than being a color issue. If anyone has a workaround for this problem for reader or acrobat, it would be much appreciated!
Thanks in advanced!

If you change the Zoom level, can you see the missing words?

Displat the text on PDF FORMAT

Moved to rather more appropriate forum by moderator. Other question that seemed to asking the same as this one has been deleted
Dear ALL,
I am reading some texts using FM READ_TEXT. Now i want to display that texts on PDF Format
on BSP. Please could someone possible tell me the FUNCTION MODULE.
Thanks in advance
Edited by: Matt on Dec 17, 2008 3:45 PM - removed text that gave the appearance of shouting
Edited by: Matt on Dec 17, 2008 3:47 PM

This forum is for the older iMac 2006/2005 or older. We deal with vintage stuff here & don't know about theat new fangled stuff.
Try the Lion forum.
https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/mac_os_x_v10.7_lion?view=discussi ons
Tried it in Preview?
Adobe reader? What version?
Tried printing out the document?
How about copying invisible text to text edit?
Any chance of putting out a small pdf file you cannot read on the web so people could experiment with it?
Robert

How to change text in PDF doc. which is a musical score

Hello,
I'm new here, so please excuse me if I do or say something I shouldn't.
I need to change the words in a musical score because the font is too small. OCR recognition doesn"t work because there are illustrations that are different from images or text... Is there a way to get in there and make the changes I need to do?
Any help greatly appreciated.

Thanks for the reply, but I have Adobe Reader 9 Pro. Will it still not
work ?
Le 29 sept. 2011 à 29 sept. 11 - 16:09, Claudio González a écrit :
Re: How to change text in PDF doc. which is a musical score
created by Claudio González in Adobe Reader - View the full discussion
Unfortunately, not with the free Reader.
Replies to this message go to everyone subscribed to this thread,
not directly to the person who posted the message. To post a reply,
either reply to this email or visit the message page: [http://forums.adobe.com/message/3944833#3944833
To unsubscribe from this thread, please visit the message page at [http://forums.adobe.com/message/3944833#3944833
]. In the Actions box on the right, click the Stop Email
Notifications link.
Start a new discussion in Adobe Reader by email or at Adobe Forums
For more information about maintaining your forum email
notifications please go to http://forums.adobe.com/message/2936746#2936746

How can I digitalize a document text in PDF and export it to WORD?

Anthony
How can I digitalize a document text in PDF and export it to WORD?

If you already have a PDF document, ExportPDF can help you with this task. https://www.acrobat.com/exportpdf/en/convert-pdf-to-word.html
On the other hand, if you have a physical document, you'll need to scan it into a PDF document first.
Depending on what you need to do you may require different tools & services, so please help us out with more details.
Vlad

Changing the seeded rdf report output from text to PDF

Hi All,
I am trying to change the seeded report "Print Requisition Report" output from text to PDF. I changed the output format in the concurrent program definition from text to pdf. The report is now getting displayed in pdf format, but the alignment of the fields are changed. The output is not printing as it was printing while in the text output format. The output looks very sloppy, with uneven fonts and too much of text wrapping.
I tried some formatting and fields are somehow getting displayed but doesnt look in proper format. I am not able to change the font style in the report builder 6i, even if i change it is printing in the same font style with uneven font size. I think reducing the font size might help, but i am unable to change.We are on 11.5.10.2. Please provide your valuable suggestions on how to go about.
Thanks
Sarvesh

Hi Hussein,
Thanks for the information. After the adjustments in the layout and the font change the report is now getting displayed without any clipping when clicked on view output. But when the same report is printed some characters on the left and and right side is getting clipped. Please help on how to solve this issue.
Thanks,
Sarvesh

How to read/extract text from pdf

Respected All,
I want to read/extract text from pdf. I tried using etymon but not succed.
Could anyone will guide me in this.
Thanks and regards,
Ajay.

Thank you very much Abhilshit, PDFBox works for reading pdf.
Regards,
Ajay.

How to upload a text in .pdf to convert it?

How to upload a text in .pdf to convert it?

How to upload a text in .pdf to convert it?

How to change background color of text in pdf based by font name

Hi
How to change the background color of text in PDF based by font name. Is there any option in Javascript. e.g: If PDF containing ARIAL font, the ARIAL text background color needs to be changed in red color for all pages. Same for all fonts with different different color in the PDF.
Thanks in Advance

Hi
1) Is there any possibilities to highlight with different color based on font using javascript
2) list of font used in PDF using javascript
3) How to hilight the text using javascript
Thanks in Advance

How to write a unicode text in pdf file

Dear Friends,
I am a beginner in acrobat pdf plug-in development. I was trying to write a unicode text (Tamil text) into pdf file.
Using same api I am able to write english text in time-roman, areal etc fonts. But I am not able to write tamil texts.
The code is as below:
        memset(&pdeFontAttrs, 0, sizeof(pdeFontAttrs));
        pdeFontAttrs.name = ASAtomFromString("Latha");
        pdeFontAttrs.type = ASAtomFromString("TrueType");
        pdeFont    = PDEFontCreateFromSysFont(                                        \
                        PDFindSysFont(&pdeFontAttrs, sizeof(pdeFontAttrs), 0),    \
                        kPDEFontCreateEmbedded);
        pdeText = PDETextCreate();
        PDETextAdd(pdeText, kPDETextRun, 0, (ASUInt8 *)buffer, _tcslen(buffer),
                                pdeFont, &gState, sizeof(gState), NULL, 0, &textMatrix, NULL);
        PDEContentAddElem(pdeContent, kPDEAfterLast, (PDEElement)pdeText);
        PDPageSetPDEContent(pdPage, gExtensionID);
        PDPageReleasePDEContent (pdPage, gExtensionID);
KIndly assume that PDEGraphicsState and PDETextMatrix are set properly set, I am not pasting entire code to avoid complexity.
Thank you,
Safiq

Dear lrosenth,
I went through some codes/suggestions in internet and I found that I need to have cmap file and cid font file for the respective font since pdf doesn't support unicode fonts directly.
Can you help me to know where can I get cmap file and cid font file for tamil language font Latha(TrueType) microsoft font.
Regards,
Safiq

Why can't I "Save as Text" a pdf file received as an email attachment?

I can "Save as text" a pdf file which I have created in my own computer (that is, it goes into MS notebook that I then can Copy and Save as an MS Word file) but not when I receive a pdf as an email attachment. (The file is saved, but it is empty.) Why would I want to convert my own pdf back to text? Well, in case I no longer have the original Word document I suppose, but the thing is "Save as text" works with my pdf, but not with those I recieve from others. How come? Thanks!

Is this a scanned PDF? If so, it must first be OCR'd.

Randomly Missing Text in PDF Created from FrameMaker

This problem relates to a structured FM document, but I suspect it might be a general issue and have posted it here in the general forum for that reason.
I am generating PDFs that are missing text somewhat randomly throughout. I tried searching the forum for solutions, but none of the suggested fixes worked and none of the posts specifically addressed the issue I am experiencing.
I am working in structured FM. The templates we use were originally created for FM8. We use both FM8 and FM10 in our work group. We are able to duplicate the same problem in both versions and on multiple computers.
I thought I had narrowed the problem down to certain paragraph formatting, since it only ocurs in three or four paragraph formats (a bullet list, table text, etc.) Garden variety formatting. But in most places in the document, these formats appear perfectly. The strangest occurence is a single intance where the page number is missing from the footer.
I thought it might be a font issue, as I've had similar issues in the past. I had a missing font warning in the console, but I am pretty sure that this has nothing to do with it, since they are fonts we are not using and all the other text from the same formats appears.
I tried turning off "Remember Missing Font Names" in preferences. No help.
I checked that the fonts are in the local directory and appear as embedded subsets in the PDF.
I also tried checking and unchecking the "Rely on system fonts only; do not use document fonts" option in the PDF output settings. Also no help.
The randomness of the missing fonts bewilders me and I've exhausted my own troubleshooting abilities. I would be happy to share a source file if anyone thinks they could help me that way.
Thanks in advance,
Douglas

There is a known bug in Windows XP that causes random dropped text in
PDF. The hotfix is here, though the link does not seem to be working at
the moment:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=952909
However, the above link directs you to a download link that is here:
http://support.microsoft.com/Hotfix/KBHotfix.aspx?kbnum=952909&kbln=en-us <http://support.microsoft.com/Hotfix/KBHotfix.aspx?kbnum=952909&kbln=en-us

Invisible text in PDFs

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for