Q: Font problems after 10.6.7

@etresoft & @Kurt Lang

I must have been imprecise. The file has been produced by a reputable Press called Springer and may be downloaded by anyone with a subscription from SpringerLink (www.springerlink.com/content/0039-3215). They have thousands such files in their repositories. I'm neither the creator nor the author of that particular paper. (Which of course also means that I have no idea how the file was exported; but the creator was certainly not running 10.6.7.) Please do NOT submit this paper. You may take one which is in open access: http://www.springerlink.com/content/0039-3215/open/

What happened is that I downloaded the file in question last week, while I was still running 10.6.7. Merely opening and reading the file—and I think saving it once—was enough to render it UNREADABLE for anyone running 10.6.6. Of course, if you download the file while you’re on 10.6.6, everything’s fine. Rather extraordinary, methinks...

schmidhauser wrote:
What happened is that I downloaded the file in question last week, while I was still running 10.6.7. Merely opening and reading the file—and I think saving it once—was enough to render it UNREADABLE for anyone running 10.6.6. Of course, if you download the file while you’re on 10.6.6, everything’s fine. Rather extraordinary, methinks...

I think you have to give more details about the "saving" step: Preview or something else, did you edit the file before saving (if you did not, why re-save it?) etc.

I would not try to do anything with the document as far as submitting it. Heck, I can't even read it. Neither Preview or Acrobat will display the PDF in 10.6.6. I only downloaded it to see what would happen.

I asked how it was saved because if they just went through the normal Print dialogue and used OS X's Save as PDF in 10.6.7, then it doesn't matter that it came out of InDesign. It will still be a corrupt PDF since the file would be output through OS X.

In order to create functioning PDF files in 10.6.7 from InDesign is to go directly through the Distiller via the File > Adobe PDF Presets menu.

schmidhauser wrote:
I must have been imprecise. The file has been produced by a reputable Press called Springer and may be downloaded by anyone with a subscription from SpringerLink (www.springerlink.com/content/0039-3215). They have thousands such files in their repositories. I'm neither the creator nor the author of that particular paper. (Which of course also means that I have no idea how the file was exported; but the creator was certainly not running 10.6.7.) Please do NOT submit this paper. You may take one which is in open access: http://www.springerlink.com/content/0039-3215/open/

OK. This is a document you've mucked around with. I have asked the hosts to edit your original post and remove that link. I wouldn't want you to get into any copyright trouble by distributing something that you don't have rights to. In the future, use e-mail for any such files that shouldn't be public. Some of us do that all the time.

What happened is that I downloaded the file in question last week, while I was still running 10.6.7. Merely opening and reading the file—and I think saving it once—was enough to render it UNREADABLE for anyone running 10.6.6. Of course, if you download the file while you’re on 10.6.6, everything’s fine. Rather extraordinary, methinks...

Saving the file is the key part there. Just opening the file on 10.6.7 isn't going to change it. if you make some annotation or something, and re-save it, then it will be different. The system has to extract those embedded, compressed fonts in order to render the PDF. Then, after you edit and re-save, it will create the PDF with its own embedding and compression methods that are, alas, incompatible with anyone else is there are any OpenType Postscript fonts used.

In 10.6.7, you shouldn't create any PDFs that contain OpenType Postscript fonts. That also implies that you shouldn't edit or annotate them either. Anything you get from a source such as this one is always going to have Postscript fonts.

I will update my bug report to include the annotation problem (which I can easily reproduce). I won't do it until I get a chance to test on 10.6.6. Perhaps the fact that it also breaks under 10.6.6 will light a fire under someone at Apple.

Kurt --
When I'm using InDesign, I select "Export," and then choose "PDF."
I don't need Distiller at all, AFAIK.

Hi ~Bee,

Thanks for jogging my brain. I had completely forgotten the Export method as I always use the Distiller link in InDesign's menu. Yes, you would likely get working PDF files that way in 10.6.7. Can't say for sure since I didn't test that.

When I mentioned the regular Print command above, I was thinking just the plain ol' Command+P out of InDesign. From there you can click the Printer... button at the bottom of the first dialogue box, and then you have access to the same Save as PDF button through OS X.

I fear it is not just schmidhausen's particular machine that is affected.
The same problem has affected many hundreds of Macs here, whose only common features is that they have been upgraded to 10.6.7
And it's not just Adobe products that can't open the malformed Preview-generated pdfs.
It also includes all Office 2011 products we know of (Word, PPT, Excel, etc.)
That's a pretty large user base, as I understand it.

Hi,
I got around to installing Adobe Acrobat Pro v 9 (CS4 version) and updated it using th Adobe Updater, and I went to use the newly installed Adobe PDF 9.0 driver to make a PDF as a “work around” for the Apple Bug, but I still do not have the workflow that was mentioned earlier.

In the printer dialog, under the pop up that gives you the optional settings I have the following:

-ADOBEPDFPDE900- with strike through

The bundle “ADOBEPDFPDE900“ couldn’t be loaded because it doesn’t contain a version for your current architecture.

Contact the Bundle’s creator listed here for the latest version. Adobe PDF 9.0

So anyone care to wax eloquent?

Thanks in advance, and so long for now, TOM

I went to use the newly installed Adobe PDF 9.0 driver to make a PDF as a “work around” for the Apple Bug

Version 9 is what I'm also using. It won't help if you're using any PDF creation that passes through OS X, 10.6.7 with OpenType PostScript fonts.

So anyone care to wax eloquent?

According to one support person I spoke to, that message means the program displaying the strikethrough hasn't been updated to work with that version of Acrobat Pro. Also said that it may also mean the program is looking for the Adobe PDF Printer, which no longer exists in Snow Leopard.

Thanks Kurt.

I guess we just disable all the OT fonts and wait.

So long for now, TOM

I guess we just disable all the OT fonts and wait.

If you can, downgrade to 10.6.6 and everything will work as expected. If that's not feasible, then you can still print directly to the Distiller out of InDesign. Quark can also create PDF files with its own built in generator. PDF files created either of these ways do work in 10.6.7.

Hi Kurt,
I double checked my Acrobat Pro install, and the upgrade I had done didn’t “take.” I think because I had failed to launch the program. So I launched it, and updated from within the program itself.

So now I have in place the PDF workflow “Save as Adobe PDF” so my question is this:

Can I reactivate my Open Type Fonts and have things working using that workflow (as I thought from other posts in this thread)? Saving PDF with OT fonts using “Save as Adobe PDF using the Adobe PDF 9.2 Printer?

Thanks, and so long for now, TOM

Kurt --

When in InDesign, when you click on the Plain ol' Command P, click on printer, you do NOT get an option to print as a PDF.
That's what's confusing.
As far as I've been able to figure out, you cannot use the Print option to do a PDF in InDesign.

Hi Tom,

No. Save as Adobe PDF stills runs the creation through OS X. So you will still see the problem with OpenType PostScript fonts.

With Acrobat Pro in place, you can still correctly create PDF files in InDesign by user the flyout menu choice it adds to the File drop down where you can directly choose the Distiller presets.

For Photoshop or Illustrator, you can save PDF file directly from them. These will also work. You can also save a PostScript file out of any of the three and drop the resulting .ps file into the Distiller.

Quark 8.x has its own PDF generator, which also produces correct PDF files.

Everything else runs its file creation through OS X. Word, Excel, TextEdit, you name it. Nothing with OT PS fonts will work.

I never got as far as testing output to any PostScript printers before downgrading to 10.6.6. So I don't if printing out of InDesign or Quark will work to your PostScript printers using OT PS fonts. Or even if you first save a working PDF file of your document and then try to print that. My guess would be it won't, as OS X then processes the fonts on the way to your printer or RIP.

Hi ~Bee,

You do, but as I mentioned above you first have to click the "Printer..." button at the bottom of the first dialogue box that comes up when you do Command+P. The next box that comes up then does have the standard PDF button in the lower left.