📖 Table of contents
Why does this happen?
Why does this happen?
You may notice that some text fields appear cut off or cropped when viewing your signed document on a Mac.
This issue is caused by Apple Preview, the default PDF viewer on macOS. It doesn’t always respect the fonts embedded in the PDF, even though they were correctly set by Yousign.
This is a rendering issue specific to Apple Preview, not a problem with Yousign or your document.
When generating a signed document, Yousign automatically embeds the fonts used in the fields to ensure the PDF looks the same for everyone. But Apple Preview sometimes replaces these with system fonts, often Monaco, which don’t have the same character width. That’s why your text might overflow or appear cropped.
How can I check if this is the issue?
To confirm if Apple Preview is causing the problem:
Open your signed PDF in Apple Preview
Then open the same file in Adobe Acrobat Reader
If the text looks fine in Acrobat but not in Preview, then it's a rendering issue from Apple Preview.
This is a known behavior. See discussion in Apple Support
How to fix or avoid the issue
1. Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat Reader (recommended)
For the best experience, we recommend opening your signed documents in Adobe Acrobat Reader, a free and widely used PDF viewer that:
Correctly displays embedded fonts
Preserves the intended layout
Is trusted for legal and professional use
You can download it for free from adobe.com/reader.
2. Using Apple Preview anyway? Use standard PDF fonts or Monaco
If you or your recipients prefer to use Apple Preview, you can reduce the risk of layout issues by choosing fonts that are less likely to be replaced.
Recommended fonts for text fields:
Helvetica
Times
Courier
(These are part of the “Standard 14” PDF fonts and render consistently across viewers.)Monaco
(Not part of the standard, but Apple Preview uses it by default — so using it from the start avoids substitution.)
Why does this help?
The first three, Helvetica, Times, and Courier, belong to the Standard 14 fonts in PDF, also known as the Base 14 or Standard Type 1 Fonts defined in the PDF specification (ISO 32000)
They are a core set of typefaces that every PDF viewer is required to support. This means PDF files can reference these fonts by name without embedding them, ensuring consistent rendering across platforms.
A note about Apple Preview (macOS Auto Save)
Apple Preview may automatically save changes to a PDF, even if you don't press Save (⌘+S).
This is due to Auto Save, a macOS feature that silently overwrites files. It can be triggered by:
Clicking inside a text field
Selecting a tool (like highlight or annotate)
Simply keeping the file open for a while
Once saved this way, Apple Preview may alter the font or remove the embedded fonts, and the file might even look broken in Adobe Acrobat Reader afterward. These changes are often irreversible.
What you can do
Re-download your original PDF from Yousign to restore the correct version. Go to your document list, locate the file, and download it again.
Open the file in Acrobat Reader instead of Apple Preview. This ensures the fonts and layout are displayed exactly as intended.
Are you using the API?
If you're using Yousign’s API, you can specify the font used in each text field when creating your document by setting the font parameter when creating a text field.
Learn more in our API documentation on text field customization.