iBooks on iPad not showing images in PDFs

Question

Level 1

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iBooks on iPad not showing images in PDFs

I have a bunch of PDFs that are synched to my iPad.
On Preview, the PDFs look perfectly fine.

However in iBooks, on the iPad I find that about a third of the PDFs show all the text, but none of the images.

Anyone have an idea what could be going on here?

Posted on Jun 26, 2010 3:16 AM

Answer 1

Scott Nimmo Author

Level 1

0 points

Jun 26, 2010 6:05 PM in response to Scott Nimmo

Okay, Stanza and Goodreader show the same problem with the files.
Converting to epub in Calibre is useless.

It is obviously an issue with the PDFs, but Preview and Acrobat reader on my work laptop show the images.
It only occurs with these files on the iPad, I will now test it with my iPhone...

Answer 2

Jun 27, 2010 11:04 AM in response to Scott Nimmo

i'm seeing the same problem with my ipad. sync'd pdf book files downloaded from safari, they work fine on my macbook. most of the books show illustrations & images, but one book in particular shows some but not all. downloaded it from safari a second time, but problem remains.

Answer 3

Jul 6, 2010 3:47 PM in response to Scott Nimmo

Same problem here.
Added PDFs to iPad by send file via email and using "Open in iBook" option. Original document is PPT converted to PDFs. Everything looks fine on the computer but SOME images/charts do not show up in iBook? Also tried GoodReader with same problem. 😟 I'm also getting these random white horizontal lines over solid blocks of color?? Any help would be appreciated! THX

Answer 4

S_eye

Level 1

15 points

Jul 9, 2010 10:09 AM in response to saminla88

I have the same problem. After a bit of investigations I noticed that it has to do with the way the iPad is handling transparent layers. In practice if you have Acrobat Pro, you might save again the file making it compatible with Acrobat 4 (I didn't try with Acrobat 5, but I think it should work as well).

It's quite an annoyance. I think apple should give it a fix.

Answer 5

Jul 9, 2010 10:59 AM in response to Scott Nimmo

UPDATE: Since my post earlier this week, I've done some testing... When I optimize the file (in Acrobat Pro... Advance Tab -> PDF Optimizer...) it appears to fix the problem. jpegs, transparencies, and charts/graphs (only tested PDF created from PPT source file) all show up on the iPad (using iBooks).

Since I didn't need any additional functionality, I checked all the boxes in the "Discard Objects" menu (in the PDF Optimizer).

Answer 6

Roy B

Level 3

570 points

Jul 9, 2010 11:34 AM in response to saminla88

Can you please email me an affected (pre-optimization) PDF file?

Thanks,
Roy
<royb@apple.com>

Answer 7

S_eye

Level 1

15 points

Jul 10, 2010 2:49 AM in response to Roy B

Hi Roy,

I just sent you a file (sample.pdf). On the iPad I cannot see any images.
On a Mac instead everything is fine, both with Preview and Adobe Acrobat.

Cheers
Luca

Answer 8

ort3

Level 1

0 points

Jul 15, 2010 9:23 AM in response to Scott Nimmo

Hi there, long time view, virgin contributor!

Anyway, my status aside, I can confirm that optimizing and saving in a version compatible with Acrobat 4+ seemed to do the trick! PDFs on my iPad are now rendered correctly! Thanks for the tip!

Answer 9

Jul 15, 2010 12:09 PM in response to Scott Nimmo

More update... PDF optimizer alone did not solve problem. On further testing, I find that larger files (15MB+) is less stable. Most of the images would show up but not all... FYI, my documents are mostly text intensive and some graphic charts/diagrams. Last test was With over 1500 pages. Looking at the space audit, more than 50% is for the content stream. On smaller files, everything seem to work ok???

Answer 10

Puchito

Level 1

0 points

Jul 20, 2010 10:42 PM in response to Scott Nimmo

fwiw, same problem with a couple of PDFs (not all)

Answer 11

Jul 21, 2010 10:06 AM in response to Scott Nimmo

I'm encountered the same problem as well. iBooks app isn't displaying images in any of the PDF ebooks I've purchased from Apress. On the other hand, PDFs purchased from O'Reilly Safari are displaying images just fine.

Answer 12

Jul 21, 2010 7:31 PM in response to Michael Jay Thrash

I noticed this as well on both ibooks and goodreader.
GoodReader's website has a great explanation of this.
It has to do with images in the PDF that are saved in the JPEG2000 format. Apparently the iPad doesn't display that.

Mac Users can fix this for free by opening the pdf in Preview, then doing a Save As.
I tried this and it worked fine for me.

Answer 13

S_eye

Level 1

15 points

Jul 22, 2010 12:59 AM in response to BasementJack

Thanks BasementJack, it's a very good tip.

Nevertheless, the drawback of the Preview method, is that if your pdf has a lot of images, the size of the resulting file saved by Preview can be fairly big (up to 3 times the original file for scanned pdfs).

I prefer to save the document with Acrobat removing the jpeg2000 as explained in the GoodReader help section. http://www.goodiware.com/gr-man-trouble.html#pdfblankpages

Answer 14

Jul 28, 2010 2:16 PM in response to BasementJack

Thats a good tip but unfortunately my pdf went from about 12meg to over 150...and I was emailing it to myself! I expect a cure from head office soon..

Answer 15

Mojtaba

Level 1

5 points

Aug 6, 2010 12:43 AM in response to Scott Nimmo

The problem is in image formats in PDF not PDF size!
In order to solve the problem you should open your file with Preview app (MAC) then save the file with Quartz filter named "Create Generic PDFX-3 Document"! Then replace the new file on iPad using iTunes.