You send a polished CV from your laptop. The recruiter opens it on her phone and the layout has drifted; one heading is now in Times New Roman. The whole point of PDF was that this wouldn't happen. So what's going on?
Fonts that weren't embedded
If the PDF doesn't include the fonts it uses, every device picks a fallback. Your fancy headline font becomes whatever the viewer has handy. The fix is on the export side: when saving from Word, Pages or Google Docs, choose 'embed fonts' or use 'PDF/A'. If it's too late and the PDF already exists, open it in Flint and use a system font for any text you add so the file stays consistent on other devices.
Different viewers, different defaults
Adobe, Preview, Chrome, your phone's built-in viewer — each renders PDFs slightly differently. Anti-aliasing, default zoom, and form rendering vary. The content is the same; the pixels aren't. For anything that matters (job applications, contracts), preview in two apps before sending. Or convert tricky layouts via convert PDF to JPG so the page is just an image — pixel-identical everywhere, but no longer editable.
Colour profiles and screens
A logo that looks navy on your calibrated monitor can read black on a phone in sunlight. PDFs can carry colour profiles, but most consumer viewers ignore them. If colour accuracy matters, convert to print-ready PDF/X from your design app, or accept that screens lie and provide a hex reference separately.
FAQ
Will embedding fonts make my PDF bigger?
Yes, slightly — usually 100–500 KB depending on how many fonts and characters. Worth it for important documents. If size matters more than fidelity, compress PDF afterwards.
Why does my form look fine in Adobe but broken in Chrome?
Chrome's built-in PDF viewer doesn't fully support PDF form features. For form-heavy files, open in a proper PDF app rather than the browser preview.
Do I need to worry for normal documents?
Not really. Plain reports and letters travel fine. The drift only matters when fonts, branding, or precise layout are part of the message — CVs, invoices, design proofs.
PDFs are portable, just not perfect. For anything that has to look right everywhere, embed fonts at export and preview in two viewers — or pop the file into Flint and check it there first.