I have a few pdfs for which images appear when I open them in Adobe Acrobat, but not when they are opened in Preview. Some bug I assume? Any ideas of how to get them to work in Preview? I'm using macOS 13.2.1 (22D68) ventura, even though the options below don't allow me to select that
[Edited by Moderator]
MacBook Pro 15″, OS X 10.11
The premise is sound that PDFs are intended to be cross-platform, but the particular reader (e.g. Preview) cannot open all PDFs due to the age of Apple's PDFKit capabiilties and its limitations with some PDF internals. On the other hand, Adobe is able to keep their PDF handling code current in Acrobat Reader DC and it can reveal PDFs as they are intended to be viewed.
Some PDFs actually have code embedded in them to use Acrobat plug-ins and that dog will not hunt with Apple's Preview which ignores those PDF instructions. Any Adobe Acrobat JavaScript (AcroJS) instructions will also be ignored in Preview.
The premise is sound that PDFs are intended to be cross-platform, but the particular reader (e.g. Preview) cannot open all PDFs due to the age of Apple's PDFKit capabiilties and its limitations with some PDF internals. On the other hand, Adobe is able to keep their PDF handling code current in Acrobat Reader DC and it can reveal PDFs as they are intended to be viewed.
Some PDFs actually have code embedded in them to use Acrobat plug-ins and that dog will not hunt with Apple's Preview which ignores those PDF instructions. Any Adobe Acrobat JavaScript (AcroJS) instructions will also be ignored in Preview.
Is there a diif in the type extension they're saved in?
Or a diff in OS they were created in?
Do they all open in GraphicConverter...
They are all .pdfs that were served by my university library. I have no idea what OS they were created in, but of course pdfs are supposed to be cross-platform. Clearly there is some disconnect between how Adobe products display pdf images and how Apple does it through Preview. I have no idea if they open in GraphicConverter. How might this be useful to Apple in tracking down the issue with their Preview app?
My thinking is if GC has trouble then it's some other problem than a good OS install.
I think you likely have the answer! 👍
Preview.app doesn't show some images that do show up using Adobe Acrobat
