Apple Devices showing blank pages in pdfs exported from Indesign

Question

Apple Devices showing blank pages in pdfs exported from Indesign

Hi everyone,

I'm having some issues with Apple devices not displaying certain pages of a pdf I've exported from Adobe Indesign (v18.2.1).

On Macs and iPhones, pages 5, 8, 18, 23-26 and 35 are only shown as blank pages, the content is missing.

What I've found out so far:

- The pdf works fine in Adobe Acrobat on all platforms (Mac, Windows, iOS 16).

- The pdf also has no issues when viewed inline in Safari on macOS Ventura.

- the pages mentioned above are shown blank when viewed inline in Safari in iOS, and als in the Books app in iOS 16.

- they are also blank in the Preview app on macOS Ventura.

I've already tried resizing the images on these pages in Indesign, to no avail. I'm exporting pdf 1.4, the images are downsized to 200dpi.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Gebhard

[Link edited by Moderator]

Posted on Apr 28, 2023 5:43 AM

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Answer 1

etresoft

Level 9

58,274 points

Apr 28, 2023 6:28 AM in response to Gebhard Sengmüller

I know that Apple PDF software has difficulty with JPEG2000 images. Do these pages contain embedded JPEG2000 images?

In addition to that one problem, Apple's PDF support is simply not very good, and getting worse. How important is it to see these PDFs on Apple devices? Are there any options you can choose during export to change how the PDF is structured?

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Answer 2

Apr 28, 2023 6:49 AM in response to etresoft

Thanks! No, no JPEG2000 images here. I've tried exporting with newer pdf standards (1.5, 1.6, 1.7), which helps. I'm just not sure how compatible these newer standards are, since Indesign has 1.4 as a default.

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Answer 3

VikingOSX

Level 10

127,122 points

Apr 28, 2023 6:10 AM in response to Gebhard Sengmüller

Just understand that Apple's PDF viewing and generation capability is not in lock step with current PDF capabilities in Adobe Acrobat Pro, Reader DC, or other Adobe products.

There are some types of PDF content that Apple's Preview cannot display or display correctly, but as you have discovered, Acrobat can handle. Any PDF page that incorporates internal references to Adobe Acrobat plug-ins, or uses Adobe's Acrobat JavaScript (AcroJS) for form/page support or custom PDF aging — will be ignored by Apple's Preview.

I edited a PDF with what was then PDFpenPro 11 (now Nitro PDF Pro) to use AcroJS to prevent opening a PDF if it was past a specific date. Works fine in Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, and ignored in Apple's Preview.

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Answer 4

Apr 28, 2023 6:47 AM in response to VikingOSX

Thanks! Thing is, I'm aware of that and have tried making my pdf as "vanilla" as possible. I'm using pdf v1.4 for export, which dates back to 2001. Also, the blank pages (as all the others) contain no interactive elements, plugins, forms or JS; just a bounding box with an RGB image.

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Answer 5

Apr 28, 2023 5:49 AM in response to Gebhard Sengmüller

OK, the moderator just removed the link to my pdf, not sure what to do now.

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Apple Devices showing blank pages in pdfs exported from Indesign

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