How to Fix Unclickable or Uncopyable URLs in PDFs with CID Fonts
Question details
The user is unable to click on or correctly copy URLs from a PDF document that was created using CID fonts.
- Product
- PDF Documents
- Device & OS
- not provided
- Scenario
- Interacting with hyperlinks or copying text from a generated PDF file.
- Observed behavior
- URLs appear as text but do not function as clickable links, and copying the text results in incorrect characters or formatting due to CID font encoding issues.
Verify whether the issue occurs only with specific documents by testing the PDF in multiple viewers, and check if you have access to the original source file (like Microsoft Word or Adobe InDesign) to recreate the PDF.
Add Manual Hyperlink Annotations Using a PDF Editor
Bypass the font encoding issue entirely by manually adding invisible hyperlink boxes over the URL text using a dedicated PDF editor.
Since the underlying text cannot be properly recognized due to the CID font encoding, the automatic link detection in most PDF readers will fail. By manually inserting a hyperlink annotation over the text, you force the area to act as a clickable link.
Launch your preferred PDF editor and open the affected PDF document containing the unclickable links.
Navigate to the 'Edit' or 'Insert' menu on the main toolbar and select the 'Link' or 'Hyperlink' tool.
Click and drag your cursor to draw a rectangle directly over the visible URL text.
In the link properties dialog box that appears, set the action to 'Open a web page' and type or paste the correct destination URL.
Click 'OK' and save the document. The URL area will now be fully clickable regardless of the font encoding.
Recreate the PDF Using Unicode-Compatible Fonts
Change the document's font in the source application to ensure text is correctly extracted and recognized as a URL by PDF readers.
Fix Unclickable PDF Links with WPS Office
WPS Office provides a powerful built-in PDF editor that allows you to easily add, edit, or fix hyperlink annotations on any PDF document, bypassing font encoding issues like CID font errors completely.
- 1. Open your PDF: Launch WPS Office and open the problematic PDF file.
- 2. Navigate to the Edit Menu: Go to the 'Edit' tab located on the top ribbon.
- 3. Select the Link Tool: Click on 'Link' and select 'Add/Edit Link' from the dropdown menu.
- 4. Highlight the URL: Drag a selection box around the unclickable URL text in your document.
- 5. Enter Web Address: Enter the destination web address in the popup window, click 'OK', and save your PDF.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a CID font and why does it cause issues in PDFs?
CID (Character Identifier) fonts are typically used to handle large character sets, such as East Asian languages. If the PDF lacks a proper character map (ToUnicode table) when exported, PDF readers cannot translate the visual characters back into actual text data. This prevents URLs from being automatically detected as links or copied correctly.
Why can I read the URL on the screen but not copy it?
PDFs store the visual representation of text independently from the underlying text data. If the font encoding is broken or missing, your PDF viewer renders the shapes correctly so you can read it, but copies 'garbage' or random characters because it doesn't know what actual letters or numbers those shapes represent.
Can I fix the font encoding without having access to the source file?
Fixing the encoding natively within a finalized PDF is extremely difficult without professional prepress software. The most practical workaround is to use a PDF editor to manually add an invisible hyperlink overlay on top of the text, or use an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) tool to recognize and convert the document text into standard fonts.
