Why does my PDF look different on another device?
A PDF that looks perfect on your computer and different on someone else's — different font, text wrapping differently, or elements shifted — almost always comes down to fonts not being embedded in the file.
The cause
A PDF can either carry its fonts inside the file (embedded) or just reference them by name, expecting the viewing device to already have that font installed. If it doesn't, the viewer substitutes something else, which has different letter widths and shifts the whole layout.
The fix if you created the PDF
Re-export from the original source (Word, PowerPoint, etc.) with font embedding turned on — this is usually the default in modern software but worth checking in the export settings.
The fix if someone sent you the PDF
You can't add missing fonts from the reader's side. Try a different PDF viewer, since some substitute fonts more gracefully than others, or ask the sender to re-export with embedded fonts.
Colour differences
Screens are calibrated differently, so slight colour shifts between devices are normal and not a file problem — this matters most for print-bound documents, where a colour-managed workflow is worth setting up separately.
Preventing this before it happens
If you regularly send PDFs to people using different devices and software, testing your export on a second device before sending widely catches font problems early. Re-exporting from Word to PDF or PPT to PDF with font embedding confirmed on usually resolves the issue at the source.
A workaround for one-off sharing
If you need the document to look identical everywhere and can't fix the font embedding, converting each page to an image with PDF to JPG guarantees visual consistency, at the cost of the text no longer being selectable.
