Why Acrobat Changes Custom Font Size to Default Size in PDFs
Question details
The user wants to apply a specific, manually entered font size (like 29 points) to PDF text, but the software automatically reverts it to the nearest standard default size.
- Product
- Adobe Acrobat
- Device & OS
- not provided
- Scenario
- Editing existing text within a PDF document and attempting to format it with a non-standard custom font size.
- Observed behavior
- Manually entered font sizes are automatically changed to the nearest available default font size, preventing precise text scaling.
Verify whether the font used in the PDF is fully embedded or installed on your system, as subsetted fonts often restrict editing capabilities.
Select the Complete Text Block
Selecting the entire text block's bounding box instead of highlighting partial text can bypass certain font-size restrictions related to embedded formatting.
Acrobat sometimes struggles to apply custom font sizes to inline selections due to underlying font embedding constraints or hidden formatting tags. Applying the size to the entire object block forces the software to recalculate the bounding box attributes.
Open your document in Adobe Acrobat and click on 'Edit PDF' in the right-hand tool pane.
Instead of highlighting specific words, click on the edge of the text block so the entire bounding box is selected.
Navigate to the Format panel on the right, type your desired custom font size (e.g., 29) into the font size field, and press Enter.
Change the Font to a System Font
If the original font is only partially embedded (subset), it may not contain the necessary rendering data for arbitrary sizes. Switching to a standard system font usually resolves this.
Use WPS PDF to Freely Adjust Text and Font Sizes
WPS Office includes a robust PDF editor that gives you full control over text formatting. You can seamlessly manually input any custom font size without dealing with restrictive default resets.
- 1. Open your PDF: Launch WPS Office and open the PDF document you wish to format.
- 2. Access Edit Mode: Click the 'Edit' tab located on the top toolbar and select 'Edit Text'.
- 3. Apply Custom Font Size: Highlight the text, type your exact desired font size into the formatting menu, and press Enter to instantly apply it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are custom font sizes missing from the dropdown menu in PDF editors?
Dropdown menus typically display standard typographical font sizes (like 12, 14, 18, 24) to save space. However, most professional PDF editors allow you to click inside the font size box and manually type any specific number you need.
Does embedding a font affect how its size can be changed later?
Yes. If a font is embedded as a 'subset', the document only contains the specific characters and sometimes sizes used during the initial creation. The software may struggle to render new, non-standard sizes unless you switch the text to an installed system font.
Can I change the font size of a scanned PDF document?
No, because a scanned PDF is essentially a flat image. To change the text size, you must first run OCR (Optical Character Recognition) to convert the scanned image into editable text, after which you can adjust the font size freely.
