PDF troubleshooter
These are the TOP 10 problems when using PDF in graphic arts. Don’t take my word for it, this list actually comes from Adobe.
- The resolution of images is too low.
- Fonts are not embedded in the PDF.
- The wrong color space is used.
- The information about trim or bleed are incorrect.
- There is an inconsistency with the native file. The original page, as viewed in QuarkXPress or InDesign or whatever other application looks different from the PDF. Hairlines might be different or gradients have changed.
- A spot color is misnamed or it is accidentally converted to a process color.
- Images are compressed too much. This causes a quality loss and in some cases artifacts appear inside or around the images.
- The page size is incorrect.
- There are problems with transparent objects.
- ICC profiles are missing or incorrect.
One of the reasons why many of these problems go undetected is that designers have the habit of making proofs from their lay-out, checking those proofs and then creating PDF files. These PDF files don’t get looked at, they are sent straight to the agency or printer. It would be far better if designers created PDF files and then made a proof of these files. This way the consistency between supplied file and proof is much better!
Next to PDF files having some kind of issue, it can of course happen that a PDF cannot be ripped or rendered at all. Here are some typical things to try when this happens:
- Use PitStop or another tool to get rid of any irrelevant data in the PDF file. Delete OPI comments, forms, scripts, animations,… and then use ‘Save As’ to create a new clean PDF file.
- Refry the PDF file if you don’t have access to the source file(s).
- If you have the source files, try recreating the PDF using a different procedure: if the problem file was creating by exporting to PDF, try creating a PostScript file and distilling that. If the problem file was created using Distiller or Normalizer, try using ‘Export to PDF’.
- If you have access to the source file: clean it up and recreate the PDF: Make sure that any spot colors that are not printed as spots are converted to CMYK in the original file. Delete any unused data (stuff on the paste board, elements hidden underneath others, unused pages,… )You also may want to merge layers, paths or channels. Then do a ‘Save As’ to create a clean source file.
- If everything else fails, try opening the PDF in Photoshop and saving it as an image. This operation converts all text to bitmap so it really has a huge impact on the quality of the output but if everything else fails, this is your last resort.
30 March 2008
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Some of this info are well known specially when you use pdf files for printing.
what do you advise?
thank you
The idea is that each of the 10 issues is turned into a link which takes you to a page with possible solutions. Give me a bit of time to work on this….
Hi Laurens
Good idea, …I’m new to this site (I saw your post on PP forum) but I have a query
do you know of a way of checking what ‘flavour’ a PDF is? ie can you tell if a PDF is x-1a or print quality etc etc
The Document Properties window of Acrobat Professional tells you which PDF version a PDF file is and which the originating application (PDF Producer) is. I think you can also see if a file is a PDF/X file but I usually use PitStop to preflight incoming PDF files. Preflight tools like PitStop tell you everything there is to know about the resolution of images,… The preflight tool that is built into Acrobat Professional also isn’t too bad for basic checks!
I don’t know that this is the right place to ask but here I go. I have a pdf document and “sometimes” get the following error message when I try to print. I can preview the document alright, but it won’t print.
ERROR: ioerror
OFFENDING COMMAND: StartData
STACK:
57
(Hex)
-savelevel-
Do you know what the problem is?
Thanks, Elise
<p>That is actually a PostScript error, probably related to a network /driver/storage issue on your system. Maybe updating your printerdrivers might help – see http://www.prepressure.com/postscript/troubleshooting/errors/startdata
Hi Laurens,
We’ve had this problems for over a month now, intermitently. Searching the web, I read, somewhere, that it could be due to a faulty cable connection. Although we could print any other kind of documents without any problem, I checked the cable just for the heck of it (pushing it tightly)….
I printed the same pdf document, a colleague also tried, and both worked just fine. Sometimes, it’s just a mystery to me.
In any case, thanks for your answer!
What are -custom halftones- and should they be removed from a pdf?
I have a customer supplied PDF that has several bands of color butting up against each other across the page. The PDF is fine on screen––of course––but when I proof it on a small phaser printer I––and the customer as well–– get these blobs and streaks on the file. Does any of this make sense or sound familiar to anyone?
I have an excel file with photos in each line of the table.
When I make a PDF of it the photos shift down.
The photos at the bottom are more shifted than the ones at the top.
any suggestions? Thanks
Hi. I’m having trouble when exporting my InDesign leaflet to PDF. One PSD image goes white (the shape of the image is there, but the details disappear – the background was removed with Background Eraser tool in PS). I have a layer (filled with a grey pantone colour) underneath this image. When I remove the grey layer, the image prints fine in PDF, but I do need the grey area to be there….!
Error: undefined; OffendingCommand: setdistillerparams; ErrorInfo: CalCMYKProfile U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2
Try the Enfocus Pitstop Pro software in order to check PDF files BEFORE sending them to the imposition software. You can use some of the PDF profiles already included in the software, but it would be best if you create your own PDF profile.
please assist me, i need to change the dates on my documents that were created in indesign, they are pdf files.
thanks,
melinda
Acrobat Professional has limited text editing capabilities and there are a few plug-ins that offer more powerful editing tools. PDF isn’t meant to be an editable file format, so it is always a better idea to alter the actual source files.
To avoid high printing costs on an MF450 colour copier, is there any way I can check using either InDesign or Acrobat that I’m as close as possible to 5% Page Coverage before going to print?
We had this problems when we are printing. This error get print out
” Error: undefined
Offending Command: Tg8
Stack:”
We are printing out on Xerox pro 238 and pro 255.
Can some help me??
Thanks
Hjelmen
%%[ Error: undefined; OffendingCommand: setdistillerparams; ErrorInfo: CalCMYKProfile U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2 ]%%
%%[ Flushing: rest of job (to end-of-file) will be ignored ]%%
Error accessing color profile: U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2
%%[ Warning: PostScript error. No PDF file produced. ] %%
That is a fairly common error – more information on it is available on this page.
we had the same problem as sokchea. in our case the drivers in the c:\windows\system32\spool\driver\color directory were corrupt.
We have been having issues with text and formatting being dropped out when distilling Word source files. We’ve used the Acrobat/Create PDF option. We’ve used the server group distiller. We’ve printed to a post script file and distilled.
This activity is sporatic and not the same text and formatting is dropped.
Is there any way to control the size of a final PDF x1a file? My job requires that I send publication material globally and sometimes there are language barriers, so e-mailing a PDF is the most fool proof way of doing this but sometimes the PDF x1a files end up being too large to e-mail.
Nothing stops you from (re)compressing a PDF/X-1a file to make it smaller. This risk is however that the quality of images suffers so I cannot really recommend this. If you want to stick to e-mail instead of FTP or some portal solution, cutting the file into separate parts which all get mailed separately also keeps file sizes down. What I did experience recently is that many companies seem to have eased up on the maximum size of attachments. People that in the past could only receive 5 MB attachments suddenly have no problems receiving 40 MB files.
The PostScript file “Untitled-1.ai.ps” could not be converted to a PDF file.
How do I resolve this error
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