Bad kerning in PDF using "Save as PDF or XPS" add-in

[Rickard]

Has anyone else noticed that the PDF documents produced by the "Save
as PDF or XPS" add-in has really bad kerning/letter spacing? Compare
these two:

http://rickardandersson.com/drop/kerning-acrobat.png
http://rickardandersson.com/drop/kerning-office.png

The first image is from a PDF produced by Adobe Acrobat from within
Word 2007 and the latter is produced by the add-in. I've tried the
different settings available in the save as dialog, but nothing seems
to fix the problem. For online viewing, I guess this is alright, but
for print, this is a no-go.

Anyone else bothered by this?

Cheers,
Rickard

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Has anyone else noticed that the PDF documents produced by the "Save
as PDF or XPS" add-in has really bad kerning/letter spacing? Compare
these two:

http://rickardandersson.com/drop/kerning-acrobat.png
http://rickardandersson.com/drop/kerning-office.png

The first image is from a PDF produced by Adobe Acrobat from within
Word 2007 and the latter is produced by the add-in. I've tried the
different settings available in the save as dialog, but nothing seems
to fix the problem. For online viewing, I guess this is alright, but
for print, this is a no-go.

Thanks for posting the images. That makes the problem quite clear.

I don't know what the problem is but have a thought:

Before making the PDF via the Save As PDF add-in, go to the print
dialog box, choose Adobe PDF then close the dialog box without
printing. Then make PDF.

If Adobe PDF isn't available, try another PostScript printer driver.

 

[Rickard]

Thanks for posting the images.  That makes the problem quite clear.

I don't know what the problem is but have a thought:

Before making the PDF via the Save As PDF add-in, go to the print
dialog box, choose Adobe PDF then close the dialog box without
printing.  Then make PDF.

If Adobe PDF isn't available, try another PostScript printer driver.

Hi Steve,

I have no idea how or why, but it actually seems to help. The end
result is not perfect, but it's pretty damn close. Might I ask what's
happening?

Cheers,
Rickard

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Hi Steve,

I have no idea how or why, but it actually seems to help. The end
result is not perfect, but it's pretty damn close. Might I ask what's
happening?

Sometimes even the wildest guesses bear fruit. <g>

Word uses information from the printer driver to compose/kern text. By
choosing the Adobe PDF driver or similar PostScript driver, you're giving
it information that more accurately resembles what'll happen in the PDF>

 

[Rickard]

Sometimes even the wildest guesses bear fruit. <g>

Word uses information from the printer driver to compose/kern text.  By
choosing the Adobe PDF driver or similar PostScript driver, you're giving
it information that more accurately resembles what'll happen in the PDF>

Ah, that makes sense. I wonder if there's a way to fix it permanently
and universally. It's not exactly convenient for end users to have to
"fake print" before they save as PDF.

Cheers,
Rickard