PDF export is corrupted at Lulu.com

Question

Level 1

10 points

PDF export is corrupted at Lulu.com

I'm not sure how to title this post. There appears to be a problem with Pages when exporting to PDF. I have tried using the built-in PDF export, the Tiger print-to-PDF, PStill from Stone Design, and even exporting as PostScript and running it through Acrobat Distiller V.3. Every time I get a PDF that contains Embedded Subsets of the fonts. Unfortunately, Lulu.com, where I want to publish the book, can not use PDFs that contain Subsets.

This seems (from discussion on Lulu) to be a problem fairly unique to Pages. It seems to me that this would be a fairly serious flaw in a page composition program, to produce faulty PDF output. Does anyone else have a work-around, or any indication that Apple will fix this problem?

PowerMac G4 1GHz, iMac C2Duo, etc., Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Feb 6, 2008 2:29 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

Magnus Lewan

Level 4

3,663 points

Feb 6, 2008 9:23 PM in response to Mondele

Multiple embedded subsets of fonts in PDFs are perfectly valid - whatever Lulu claims. If they do not support it, they are the ones not supporting standards.

However, that does not make you any happier of course. I think someone found a workaround printing to PS or something like that, but I have forgotten what it was. If you search this forum, you will find a lot of discussions and perhaps even an answer.

Reply

Answer 2

Pamela41

Level 1

5 points

Feb 7, 2008 7:33 AM in response to Mondele

I hope this solution offered me by a friend who did some sleuthing will solve your problem. When you go to PRINT to save it as a PDF, save it as a PDF-X file. Apparently, that should work with Lulu. Please let me know if it works - I ran out of time with my book project and had to use a local printer, but I'd like to check out Lulu as an alternative.

Pamela41

Reply

Answer 3

Feb 11, 2008 12:19 AM in response to Pamela41

Hi,

I tried the PDF-X file solution and got rejected by Lulu. Another way of doing it, is to export your file as PS and then to open it with Preview. Preview converts the file into an apparently acceptable format for Lulu. At least it was not rejected, when I uploaded it.
I don't have any printed results as I was just testing different approaches. I hope this helps.

Reply

Answer 4

Mondele Author

Level 1

10 points

Feb 11, 2008 8:23 PM in response to Mondele

I really appreciate the rapid feedback I've received so far.

1) PDF-X has failed for this particular project. I don't know why, but I have tried it on my FW800 1GHz G4, on my 867GHz 12" PowerBook, and on my Core 2 Duo iMac (2GHz, I believe). In each case, conversion to PDF-X failed with an error message (simply saying that it failed) after chugging for a little while.

2) My initial submission of the file was, I believe, a PDF rendering of a PostScript print job, arranged in Preview. This got the file past the Lulu censors, but didn't print properly. (All text printed as gibberish.) Finally, I repurposed the file in PStill, and got a successful print of the book.

Unfortunately, upon ordering eight copies of the book later, one of them was pristine, and the others all had gibberish on certain pages.

I'm working on a more detailed analysis of the various PDF outputs, but family issues are slowing everything down. That said, I wanted to get a reply up here to let you know that your feedback did not drop into a black hole.

Reply