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OCLC Support

Why is CONTENTdm showing strange fonts or characters in the PDF item preview?

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Symptom
  • Different fonts or strange characters display in the image preview of a compound object created from a PDF file on the CONTENTdm website, though the fonts in the document appear correctly in the expanded view.
Applies to
  • CONTENTdm
Resolution

If the PDF uploaded contains fonts that are not embedded, the preview image will be generated with the best-matched fonts installed on the server. The expanded viewer will use the best-matched fonts available on the local device, accounting for the display discrepancy.

The following workflow can be used to successfully embed fonts in a PDF file before ingesting it into the Project Client:

  1. In PDF viewing software, Export as a Word Document
  2. In Microsoft Word, select File > Options
  3. In the Word Options window select Save
  4. Scroll down to Preserve fidelity when sharing this document: and,
  5. Select "Embed fonts in the file" and "Embed only the characters used in the document..."
  6. Click OK
  7. Select File > Save as Adobe PDF or Export > Create Adobe PDF

This new PDF will contain only the necessary embedded fonts and should resolve the font display issue. If the above workflow does not work, please reach out to OCLC Support with details about the impacted collection and a sample file if possible

Page ID
40143