Fonts bitmapped when printing from Microsoft Visio 2007

[huusa]

When I print from Microsoft Visio 2007, fonts appear to be rasterized in the PDF output. I would like text to be selectable in order to create a link to a PDF attachment. I am using PDF-XChange 4.0.208.0. The font I have used in Visio is Arial. I have configured PDF-XChange to embed fonts, but this does not affect the result. Is there a way to work around this problem?

For reference, Adobe PDFMaker is able to create vector fonts when printing from Visio 2010, so it is possible, although I have not tested whether PDFMaker would also work with Visio 2007.

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]

Hello huusa,

Are you Using the Add-in button or File-> Print in Visio 2007 to send the desired information to our printer for conversion to PDF?

Best,
Stefan

[huusa]

I forgot to specify that the choice between these two methods makes no difference in the output. Both result in bitmapped fonts.

Edit: I discovered a partial answer to my question. It seems that if I use Microsoft's publish as PDF, then the output PDF has vector fonts. However, I would still like to know, is it possible to make also PDF-XChange produce vector fonts. Sometimes it may occur that Word documents, which contain Visio diagrams, need to be converted to PDF with PDF-XChange, and this bitmapping problem also occurs in that process.

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]

Hello huusa,

Please try using some unorthodox DPI setting (e.g. 301 instead of the default 300) - and see if the rasterization still occurs.

Best,
Stefan

[huusa]

Setting Graphic Resolution to 301 in the PDF-XChange 4.0 Properties window did not solve the rasterization on part of the printer. However, fonts are not rasterized in a PDF created with the Convert Document to PDF button if the resolution is set to 301 DPI. Hopefully the unorthodox DPI value will not lead to other problems. Thanks for your help!

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]

Hi Huusa,

No it should have no negative effects - and did you make sure to change the DPI settings twice - once for the Add-in and once when using File -> Print - as they are stored separately and you could well have changed them only for the add-in.

Best,
Stefan

[huusa]

and did you make sure to change the DPI settings twice - once for the Add-in and once when using File -> Print - as they are stored separately and you could well have changed them only for the add-in.

That is a probable scenario. However, I do not fully understand the way in which the Resolution control works. If I set it to 301, it seems that when I File Print, I need to print twice before the new DPI setting is in effect. How can that be?

[Paul - Tracker Supp]

Hi huusa,

it shouldn't need to be set twice. If this is consistent and can be reproduced I guess we could try recreating the problem here. That will take a bit of time as we'll need to emulate your exact environment etc. Can you confirm for us, before I go do this, if it definitly is reproducuble at your end and whether the settings were set both in the Add-In and the Printer independently?

One thing that comes to mind also is that while we want to look at what the fonts are being rasterized - you don't need selectable fonts to make a link. In fact it makes no difference at all. You said in your original post

I would like text to be selectable in order to create a link to a PDF attachment.

In a PDF there is no real 'hypertext' in the true sense of the word (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertext) as the links are defined by a bounding box that is coordinate based.

Regardless of that we would still like to know if this is for sure reproducible and worth setting up a test box here

[huusa]

Can you confirm for us, before I go do this, if it definitly is reproducuble at your end and whether the settings were set both in the Add-In and the Printer independently?

I took the time to make a screencast which turned out rather large because I do not have a suitable codec. This is made with VLC avc1. The screencast demonstrates the printer driver part.

you don't need selectable fonts to make a link. In fact it makes no difference at all. IN a PDF there are no real 'hypertext' in the true sense of the word (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertext) as the links are defined by a bounding box that is coordinate based.

Quite right. I was looking for something that would automatically highlight text to imitate the customary HTML link appearance. Thank you for the support.

[huusa]

Can you confirm for us, before I go do this, if it definitly is reproducuble at your end and whether the settings were set both in the Add-In and the Printer independently?

The Convert Document to PDF button works as expected: the new resolution is in effect immediately when I set the resolution using the Configure Preferences for PDF Creation Process button.

[Paul - Tracker Supp]

Thanks huassa,

I've watched the video and will see if I can reproduce this here. Have you tried PDF-Xchange Printer 2012 to see if it does the same thing? If I can reproduce this I will pass it on to the developers to investigate.

hth

[huusa]

Have you tried PDF-Xchange Printer 2012 to see if it does the same thing?

Hi Paul,
yes and yes, unfortunately.
Have you tried it?

[Paul - Tracker Supp]

Hi huusa

Have you tried it?

I just tried with build 269 (V5) released just the other day and couldn't reproduce this. Can you test this new build too please?

Thanks