# Adobe Pro question - editing pdf's



## macmac (Oct 22, 2006)

Hi all, I have a pdf file, with some minor graphics and lines, but mostly text on it. It is a lesson plan a friend gave me. I want to maintain most of the original doc, except for a couple words i want to change around. Simple text. Anyone know how this can be achieved? I just keep running into road blocks everytime I try something. I tried saving it and later opening it as a ms word file, but I got this message:

"Bad PDF; could not read page structure. <Bad PDF; error in processing fonts: unsupported Type2 font> [1]"


How do you change simple text in a pdf? I have adobe 8 pro, if it can do it somehow, thanks


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## HowEver (Jan 11, 2005)

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## macmac (Oct 22, 2006)

Thats how I initially opened it up. You can change words around via preview?


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## EvanPitts (Mar 9, 2007)

^^^
You need to use Adobe Acrobat. (Not Acrobat Reader or Reader).

You shouldn't be using MS Word or anything because those programs can not edit PDFs, and hence, any attempt at editing a PDF with these programs is leading to the errors

Adobe 8 is non standard on most platforms - so you should dig through the preferences in Acrobat to make sure that you output to a more standard format. Version 5 is widely supported, and it makes not one iota of difference when it comes to straight up text. (8 adds embedded movies and such, which you propbably do not need; at the cost of making files that are unreadable by most systems). I would never use anything higher than 7, since the bulk of machines in use can not even run Reader 8.


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## johnnyspade (Aug 24, 2007)

Do you have Acrobat or just the reader? In Acrobat, go to Tools > Advanced Editing > Touch Up Text Tool. Assuming you have the fonts used in the document you can edit copy by selecting it. Works well for small text revisions but not great for replacing entire paragraphs.


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## macmac (Oct 22, 2006)

johnnyspade said:


> Do you have Acrobat or just the reader? In Acrobat, go to Tools > Advanced Editing > Touch Up Text Tool. Assuming you have the fonts used in the document you can edit copy by selecting it. Works well for small text revisions but not great for replacing entire paragraphs.


i did exactly as you said. Nothing happened when i selected 'touch up text tool', but i moved the cursor over to the text anyways, and this was the message i got.



_All or part of the selection has no available system font. You cannot add or delete text using the currently selected font._

I have the entire adobe professional suite version 8


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## macmac (Oct 22, 2006)

EvanPitts said:


> ^^^
> You need to use Adobe Acrobat. (Not Acrobat Reader or Reader).
> 
> You shouldn't be using MS Word or anything because those programs can not edit PDFs, and hence, any attempt at editing a PDF with these programs is leading to the errors
> ...


Well 8 is what i have. So how do I make small editing changes and re-arrange a few words around?


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## acc30 (Apr 26, 2006)

macmac said:


> i did exactly as you said. Nothing happened when i selected 'touch up text tool', but i moved the cursor over to the text anyways, and this was the message i got.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


You can only edit text which you have the fonts for in your system, in this case, you don't have them


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## eMacMan (Nov 27, 2006)

Try to remember that the entire point of a pdf file is to have it show up on someone elses computer, whether it be Windows, Linux or Mac, exactly as it appears on yours. 

To edit; you should work from a copy of the original file which was used to create the pdf file. You will also need the same application and fonts that were used to create the original file.


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## macmac (Oct 22, 2006)

acc30 said:


> You can only edit text which you have the fonts for in your system, in this case, you don't have them


I thought that might have been a problem, but I was unable to find Type 2 font. Assuming that is the one I am missing. If that is the font, is it available for free anywhere?

I thought fonts were generally free for downloading, but that doesn't appear to be the case for this one.

Are there any other options?


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## chuckster (Nov 30, 2003)

Editing pdf text is a real pain if you did not originate them. Sometimes even then. The best route I have found is to open the pdf in Illustrator and edit that way, then re-save as a new pdf. It will tell you that the missing font isn't in your system usually, but once in Illustrator you can use your own fonts to replace the missing ones in the "Find Font" drop down menu. Be sure yours get embedded when you save.
If it breaks your text into line-by-line text (another pain) simply shift-click copy all the broken text, then using your text tool click and paste and you've got continuous (though un-formatted) text again.
If this seems a bit much, I get pdfs from different sources all day and this method has served me best. Especially if you've already got Illustrator.
The Pitstop plug-in for Acrobat is great too (if money is no object), but if this text editing isn't a regular thing and you already have Illustrator, I suggest using it.


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## EvanPitts (Mar 9, 2007)

macmac said:


> Well 8 is what i have. So how do I make small editing changes and re-arrange a few words around?


You must be missing the correct font. Plus, the source machine looks like it is using some kind of obsolete "True Type" font; and the creator did not click on the option to embed that font into the document. Who knows what font may have been on the originating machine, there are literally thousands of fonts of various qualities.

As you can not seem to be able to edit the document - I am apt to think that the original user happened to save the text as a graphic, which is certainly possible to do with PDFs. Thus, there is no "text" to edit, just a graphic image.

It may be easier just to lay out a new form, if it isn't too complex, and save it in a proper format. And to make things easier, if you do use Adobe to lay out the form, make sure to save it in a compatible version of PDF, like Adobe 5 or something. With Adobe 8, you have too limited support on other machines.


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