The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    does a PDF file always show correctly on different PC?

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by kenny1999, Oct 26, 2017.

  1. kenny1999

    kenny1999 Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    26
    Messages:
    359
    Likes Received:
    28
    Trophy Points:
    41
    does a PDF file always show correctly on different PC, platforms or with different PDF readers?

    Could it shift lines..columns or rows on a different versions of PDF applications or OS platforms?

    I know image files will always show correctly everywhere in the world. It makes sense.

    How about PDF
     
  2. Mr.Koala

    Mr.Koala Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    568
    Messages:
    2,307
    Likes Received:
    566
    Trophy Points:
    131
    It should not. The PDF format does not do client-side line breaks in normal text boxes. Newlines are hard-coded.

    However, if the font is missing/wrong you could get wrong offsets along the text-flow direction (usually left-to-right).
     
    Last edited: Oct 26, 2017
  3. StormJumper

    StormJumper Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    579
    Messages:
    3,537
    Likes Received:
    488
    Trophy Points:
    151
    What software are you using to read/open the PDF? And where did you get the pdf from and was that a actual pdf or created pdf and or what software created the pdf. So til we know more details giving help on here and there pdf problem isn't going to solve the problem.
     
  4. tijo

    tijo Sacred Blame

    Reputations:
    7,588
    Messages:
    10,023
    Likes Received:
    1,077
    Trophy Points:
    581
    Some files may require certain fonts for say equations, etc. for things to display entirely 100% as the original version. I ran into some equation issues, but that's about it and I see a fair bit of .pdfs.
     
  5. kenny1999

    kenny1999 Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    26
    Messages:
    359
    Likes Received:
    28
    Trophy Points:
    41

    No. It's that I create the PDF file and send out the PDF files and I need to make sure the people who read my PDF file read correctly on their platforms, devices and PDF readers no matter what their computers and software they are using to execute my PDF file, which is something I cannot predict.

    I only type English letter (a-z) and alphabet number (0-9), If they don't have the right fonts style, will they still display the English letter correct??

    I use WPS Writer to create my text and then export it to PDF
     
  6. Jarhead

    Jarhead 恋の♡アカサタナ

    Reputations:
    5,036
    Messages:
    12,168
    Likes Received:
    3,132
    Trophy Points:
    681
    If you’re creating PDF files and are worried about compatibility issues, simply avoid using fonts which are non-standard and instead use fonts which are found on pretty much all common computing systems. Times New Roman is rather common, for example.
     
    katalin_2003 likes this.
  7. Mr.Koala

    Mr.Koala Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    568
    Messages:
    2,307
    Likes Received:
    566
    Trophy Points:
    131
    Or embed the fonts.

    The current PDF spec actually demands all fonts to be embedded.


    Common fonts with the same name can vary somewhat from system to system.
     
    Last edited: Oct 28, 2017
    tijo and Jarhead like this.
  8. tomfu

    tomfu Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    6
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    I have 3 pcs, 2 are Windows 10 PC, one is Windows XP, and all are same when open a PDF file.