Acrobat Reader gives error "Cannot find or create the font 'Arial'"

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Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED)
Acrobat Reader installed from SLED distribution.

Situation

Acrobat (PDF) document received through email or some other means. Document most likely generated on a windows system. When opened the error: "Cannot find or create the font 'Arial'" is displayed. The document is displayed with dots rather than characters.

Resolution

On a Windows system copy the file "C:\Windows\font\arial.ttf" to the SLED system under the directory"/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/truetype". This can be done on a flash drive, CD, or some other common directory area which can be accessed from both systems such as an FTP server, shared Windows (samba) drive, etc.

Once the file is copied over to the SLED system, run the following command as the root user to make the new font available to the system:

SuSEconfig --module fonts

At this point, Acrobat Reader should be able to open the PDF file without problems.

Disclaimer

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