Fix PDF Text Printing as Garbled Characters or Symbols
PDF text that prints as random characters, boxes, or symbol strings is a font embedding problem. Here are the causes and step-by-step fixes.
When a PDF prints correctly on screen but outputs garbled characters, boxes, or symbol strings on the printed page, the problem is font handling in the printer pipeline. This is different from the PDF being corrupted — the content is fine, but the rendering chain between the PDF and the printer is dropping or misinterpreting font data.
Why Fonts Go Wrong Between Screen and Printer
Screen rendering and printer rendering use completely different pipelines. On screen, the PDF viewer uses the embedded font data directly. For printing, many setups go through a PostScript conversion — the PDF is translated to PostScript, sent to the printer driver, converted to a raster image, and printed. At each conversion step, font data can be mishandled: a PostScript printer may substitute a system font that has different glyph mappings, the driver may fail to include the full font character set, or a font using a custom encoding (common in academic and technical PDFs) may be interpreted with a different glyph mapping.
Fix 1 — Print as Image
In Adobe Reader: File → Print → Advanced → check "Print as Image" → OK. This bypasses PostScript font conversion entirely — each page is rasterised to a bitmap that the printer treats like a photo. No font handling, no PostScript, no glyph mapping — just pixels. The garbled text will print correctly because the rendering happens in the PDF viewer (which handles fonts correctly) rather than in the print pipeline. This is the fastest fix and works in virtually all garbled-text cases.
Fix 2 — Download and Install the Missing Font
If specific characters print incorrectly while others don't (e.g., some accented characters are wrong, or specific symbols are replaced), the printer is substituting a system font that's missing those glyphs. Check what font the PDF uses: in Adobe Reader, File → Properties → Fonts tab. If a font shows as "Substituted" rather than "Embedded," your system doesn't have it. Find and install the font, then re-print. For corporate documents using proprietary typefaces, contact your IT department to install the font on the print server.
Fix 3 — Re-process Through FixMyPDF
Running the PDF through FixMyPDF's compressor at Low compression re-processes the font embedding. The compressor standardises font encoding to industry-standard mappings (Identity-H for Unicode, WinAnsiEncoding for Latin) that PostScript drivers handle correctly. This fixes garbled text caused by custom encoding vectors that don't translate properly through PostScript conversion. Download the re-processed file and print — fonts will now pass through the print pipeline cleanly.
Fix 4 — Update or Replace the Print Driver
Outdated PCL or PostScript printer drivers are a common source of font rendering problems. Go to the printer manufacturer's website and download the latest driver for your printer model. Uninstall the current driver (Control Panel → Devices and Printers → right-click printer → Remove Device) and install the new one. Alternatively, switch from PostScript to PCL driver or vice versa — the two printer languages handle PDF font conversion differently and one often works where the other fails. For network printers, ask IT to update the print server driver.
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