Comments in Acrobat are garbled when comments using Japanese font are added first in PDF-XChange Editor.

[rakunavi]

Hello all,

I have found an issue when adding a comment in Japanese font in a heterogeneous environment of Acrobat (Reader) and PDF-XChange Editor, the comment is not displayed correctly.

Specifically, if I add a comment with a Japanese font in PDF-XChange Editor first, and then add another comment with the same Japanese font in Acrobat (Reader), the characters are not displayed correctly. If the order is reversed, i.e., the comment is added first in Acrobat (Reader) and later in PDF-XChange Editor, it will be displayed correctly. If the first application to add comments in Japanese font to a PDF file is PDF-XChange Editor, it is permanently impossible to add comments which uses the same Japanese font in Acrobat (Reader). There seems to be no workaround.

However, fortunately, there are several Japanese fonts. So, if you add a comment with a Japanese font that has not been used in the PDF file before in Acrobat (Reader), and then add a comment with the Japanese font in PDF-XChange Editor, you will be able to add comments using both Acrobat (Reader) and PDF-XChange Editor. Additional comments can be displayed correctly even in a heterogeneous environment.

I have confirmed that this can be reproduced on a total of three machines with Windows 10 and the latest version of the applications. For one of the machines, I did a clean install of the OS and all the apps, and left all settings in Acrobat and PDF-XChange Editor as default, except that I set the same Japanese font to be used in the comments. If you are using Acrobat and PDF-XChange Editor together in a Japanese environment, you should be able to reproduce the issue.

Since multiple applications are involved, it is difficult to say which application has the issue, and there may be an issue with the PDF specification itself regarding font handling. Regardless of the issue, it is certain that users in a Japanese-language environment will be troubled.

The screen of the verification process was captured for reference, so please check the attached video for details.

CapturedVideo.zip

(4.16 MiB) Downloaded 53 times

SampleFiles.zip

(34.18 KiB) Downloaded 48 times

The reproduction procedure is as follows.
The corresponding timecode in the video is also included.
([MM:SS] "MM" shows minutes, and "SS" shows seconds.)


If you added the comment first in Acrobat (Reader), it works fine.

• [00:03] - [00:10]
  Create a blank document.
• [00:11] - [00:25]
  Add comments using Japanese fonts in Acrobat (Reader). Any comment tool that can be entered as text is acceptable (ex. Typewriter, Text box, Text call-out).
• [00:26] - [00:35]
  Add comments in PDF-XChange Editor using the same Japanese font as the comments added in Acrobat. Any comment tool that can be entered as text is acceptable (ex. Typewriter, Text box, Text call-out). Confirm that the characters are displayed correctly.
• [00:37]
  Font information in document properties after adding a comment in PDF-XChange Editor

If you added the comment first in PDF-XChange Editor, the characters are not displayed correctly.

• [00:42] - [00:52]
  Create a blank document.
• [00:53] - [00:59]
  Add comments using Japanese fonts in PDF-XChange Editor. Any comment tool that can be entered as text is acceptable (ex. Typewriter, Text box, Text call-out).
• [01:03] - [01:10]
  Add comments in Acrobat (Reader) using the same Japanese font as the comments added in PDF-XChange Editor. Any comment tool that can be entered as text is acceptable (ex. Typewriter, Text box, Text call-out). Confirm that the characters are not displayed correctly.
• [01:11] - [01:28]
  If you change the font on your typewriter, the characters will appear correctly. However, if you change it back, it will not display correctly again!
• [01:36]
  Font information in document properties on Acrobat (Reader) after adding a comment in Acrobat (Reader)
• [01:47]
  Font information in document properties on PDF-XChange Editor after adding a comment in Acrobat (Reader)
• [01:51] - [01:58]
  If you select the incorrectly displayed comment area with the comment selection tool in PDF-XChange Editor and enter text mode, the text will be temporarily displayed correctly.
• [02:00] - [02:15]
  Use the Replace Fonts tool to convert between the same font names so that the characters will display correctly.
• [02:19]
  Font information after font placement by PDF-XChange Editor
• [02:23] - [02:33]
  Add comments in Acrobat (Reader) using the same Japanese font as the comments added in PDF-XChange Editor. Any comment tool that can be entered as text is acceptable (ex. Typewriter, Text box, Text call-out). Confirm that the characters are not displayed correctly.
• [02:35] - [02:45]
  If you change the font on your typewriter, the characters will appear correctly. However, if you change it back, it will not display correctly again!
• [02:52]
  Font information in document properties on Acrobat (Reader) after adding a comment in Acrobat (Reader)

Thank you for taking the time to read this message.

Best regards,
rakunavi

- PDF-XChange Editor Plus Version:9.2 build 359.0
- Adobe Acrobat Reader DC Version 2022.001.20085 64-bit
- OS Version: Windows 10 Home 21H2 Build 19044.1586
- PC Model: Lenovo IdeaPad C340-15IWL / HP ProDesk 600G1

[Paul - Tracker Supp]

Once again, thank you for the attention to detail and the very thorough report.
We will investigate further and correct this.

For your reference: RT#6011: Comments in Acrobat are garbled when comments using Japanese font are added first in PDF-XChange Editor.

[rakunavi]

Thank you, Paul, for creating the ticket!
Best regards
rakunavi

[Paul - Tracker Supp]

[rakunavi]

Hello all,

The same issue was posted in the past and I have included a link for your reference.

  https://forum.pdf-xchange.com/viewtopic.php?p=139745

unfortunately there is nothing that we are doing wrong in this case, and thus nothing we can change to make this work from our end.

From the conclusions there, it seems that no matter how long we wait, there will be no improvement. However, as a user of the Japanese environment, I am just hoping for a miracle. I hope the day comes when we can add text-based comments without worry.

Best regards,
rakunavi

[TrackerSupp-Daniel]

Hello, rakunavi

This does indeed appear to be the same case, but we will still leave the ticket open so the Dev team can review and see if there is some slim chance this is "similar but unrelated". Unfortunately though, I suspect you are right and this will point to the same root cause, and not be something we can affect from our end.

Kind regards,

[rakunavi]

Hello all,

Unfortunately, the problem reported in this topic continues to occur in build 380.

• RT#6011: Comments in Acrobat are garbled when comments using Japanese font are added first in PDF-XChange Editor.

Follow-up Information

• I have found that exporting comments (typewriters, text boxes, callouts) created in the PDF-XChange Editor to an XFDF file and then importing them again into a blank file in the PDF-XChange Editor will produce a file that is not garbled when editing comments in Acrobat. At first glance, exporting once and then importing immediately seems to be a meaningless operation, but if you only do this, the problem will not occur in Acrobat. The flow of the operation is illustrated in the figure below.
  
  

  • 

  The blue dotted line in the upper part of the figure is the procedure that causes the problem reported at the beginning of this topic. On the other hand, the part enclosed by the red L-shaped cloud line in the lower part of the figure is the procedure for avoiding the problem reported here.
  
  For your reference, here are the verification videos for each of the two procedures (NG case and OK case) shown in the figure.
  
  

  • 

    NG case
    (This is a GIF animation. Click to play.)

    
    

    

    OK case
    (This is a GIF animation. Click to play.)

  The Tracker developers should be the most knowledgeable in the world about the process of exporting and importing comments in the PDF-XChange Editor. It would be helpful to compare the internal formatting of each file between the file when the comments are first saved and the file when they are saved after exporting and importing. Specifically, you might find some clues by comparing "sample.pdf" and "newsample.pdf" in the verification.
  
  

  • SampleFiles.zip

    (32.52 KiB) Downloaded 25 times

  If the comments could be saved in the same format as "newsample.pdf" from the first time the PDF file is saved after the comments are created, this problem would surely be solved. Since the PDF-XChange Editor already outputs "newsample.pdf", the developer is should be pretty close to the goal.

Verification in an English-language environment

• In addition, I verified the same method as previously reported in this topic, using an English version of Acrobat and font packs provided by Adobe installed on an English version of Windows. As a result, I confirmed that the garbled characters can be avoided by creating a file through the export and import of comments as described above. The files generated at that time ("sample_EnglishOS.pdf" and "newsample_EnglishOS.pdf") are shown below for reference.
  
  

  • SampleFiles_EnglishOS.zip

    (29.9 KiB) Downloaded 23 times

  When the output files ("sample.pdf" and "newsample.pdf") in the Japanese environment shown former are opened in the English verification environment shown later, both files are displayed correctly without garbled characters, which may mislead the developer into thinking that garbled characters do not occur. In order to reproduce a situation similar to what actually occurs in the Japanese version, you need to install the font pack provided by Adobe in Acrobat and open "sample_EnglishOS.pdf" and "newsample_EnglishOS.pdf". If you do not install the font pack, the following dialog box will appear when you click on a comment in Acrobat.
  
  

  • 

    acrobat_FontPack_error.png (3.65 KiB) Viewed 1714 times

In the two years since I purchased PDF-XChange Editor, I have refrained from adding any comments in Japanese from the viewpoint of file compatibility. I hope that one day this problem will be solved and I will be able to add Japanese comments to documents with PDF-XChange Editor without any worries. As I mentioned previously, this problem seems to occur not only in Japanese, but also in Korean, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese. Potentially, that many users are waiting for a solution.

Thank you for taking the time to read this message.

Best regards,
rakunavi

- PDF-XChange Editor Plus Version: 10.1.0 build 380
- OS Version: Windows 11 Home 22H2 Build 22621.2134
- PC Model: Lenovo IdeaPad C340-15IWL, HP All-in-One 22-c0xx

[TrackerSupp-Daniel]

Hello, rakunavi

That ticket is still ongoing, and has not been marked as resolved as of yet, but I have added your new notes to the ticket for the dev team to review when the get a chance. Thank you for testing this.

Kind regards,

[Vasyl-Tracker Dev Team]

Hi rakunavi.

We will try to fix this bad issue in the upcoming release (soon). Thanks for your incredible patience, and really sorry for that...

Cheers.

[rakunavi]

Hi Vasyl and Daniel, thank you for your reply.

I am glad that my additional information was of some help. As it has been about 3.5 years since koide_r first reported the issue, and at one time the prospect of a solution was completely denied, so I sincerely look forward to the upcoming release. Please give my regards to the developers who are assigned to this issue.

The latest build 380 has solved the long-standing issue of EOCR for Japanese. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for this as well.

Best regards,
rakunavi

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]

Hello rakunavi,

Many thanks for your patience and understanding!
I've passed your kind words to the devs who are assigned to fixing this problem!

Kind regards,
Stefan

[rakunavi]

Hello all,

This is follow-up information.

Unfortunately, the issue reported in this topic continue to occur in build 385.

Previously I reported how to work around the issue using XFDF files, but I have found that using PDFXplorer published by O2 Solutions to forcefully remove AcroForm has almost the same effect.

• O2 Solutions PDFXplorer
  https://www.o2sol.com/pdfxplorer/overview.htm

• 

  Open Structure Explorer and delete "/AcroForm" under "/Root".

Trying to work around the issue using XFDF files was difficult to apply to real files because they do not always maintain the appearance of the annotations after import. However, when removing AcroForm, it appears that only compatibility can be improved while preserving the appearance of the annotations.

It may be a coincidence, but when I examine the ABBYY FineReader and Foxit PDF Editor sample files I mentioned earlier in this post with PDFXplorer, AcroForm is not present in either of them.

This is a rather aggressive method and may have adverse effects on PDF files with forms set. However, knowing the risk, if you are in an urgent situation where you have to create a PDF file editable by Acrobat right now with PDF-XChange Editor for comments set with Japanese fonts, the method introduced here may be useful.

See the video for more details.

• 

  This is a GIF animation. Click to play.

• SampleFiles.zip

  (20.62 KiB) Downloaded 4 times

The video first opens a file (sample.pdf) containing comments with Japanese fonts set, created with the PDF-XChange Editor as previously described, in Acrobat, and shows that when you try to edit the comments, the text is garbled. Next, use PDFXplorer to remove AcroForm from sample.pdf and save it as "AcroFormRemoved.pdf". This way, the comment will also be editable in Acrobat, and if you add more text to the same comment using PDF-XChange Editor, the text will not be garbled when edited in Acrobat.

Best regards,
rakunavi

- PDF-XChange Editor Plus Version: 10.2.1 build 385
- Adobe Acrobat Reader Continuous Release Version 2023.008.20533 (32-bit)
- O2 Solutions PDFXplorer 3.1.0.1
- OS Version: Windows 11 Home 23H2 Build 22631.3155
- PC Model: Lenovo IdeaPad C340-15IWL, HP All-in-One 22-c0xx

[TrackerSupp-Daniel]

Hello, rakunavi

Thank you for that, hopefully it helps some others looking to workaround this in the meantime. This is (probably unsurprisingly) shaping up to be much more complicated than the dev team anticipated. I have nudged the team and they confirmed that it is still being worked on, but we cannot offer timelines at the moment.

Kind regards,

[Vasyl-Tracker Dev Team]

Hi rakunavi.

It seems we can promise that this long-living and annoying bug will be fixed in the next build, for 100%.
Sorry for the inconvenience.

Info for other customers: this problem seems to appear only on Japanese windows (but not on English windows with installed Japanese lang-pack) and only in Acrobat/Reader apps...

Cheers.

[rakunavi]

Hello Daniel and Vasyl, thank you for your in-depth investigation.

I look forward to future updates. I hope that the garbled text problem in the form field will be resolved at the same time.

• BUG : form field & non Latin fonts
  viewtopic.php?t=41118

Info for other customers: this problem seems to appear only on Japanese windows (but not on English windows with installed Japanese lang-pack) and only in Acrobat/Reader apps...

In my previous verification, the problem was confirmed by installing the font pack for Acorbat provided by Adobe, even on English Windows. As I mentioned at that time, the same problem may occur not only in Japanese, but also in Korean, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese language environments.

Best regards,
rakunavi

[TrackerSupp-Daniel]