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Level 1

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10.6.7 PDF Creation unreadable in any other OS just readable in Mac

Is anyone else having problems creating PDF's in Mac OS 10.6.7 that become unreadable for anyone in Windows? - This is a major problem for me and my work, I hope a fix comes for this soon 😟

Message was edited by: DarkHorse27

MacBook Pro 2010

Posted on Mar 24, 2011 10:36 AM

60 replies

Apr 5, 2011 12:07 PM in response to DarkHorse27

My organization has 12 iMacs, 2 Minis and 3 Macbooks on site, all of which were recently upgraded to 10.6.7 and all of which are now having problems with PDFs created using the 'Print as PDF' function. Opening any files rendered containing our institutional font, Bryant Pro, which is an OpenType Postscript font, causes Adobe Acrobat to freeze, requiring a force-quit, and cannot be read on a PC. This problem did NOT ever occur for us prior to the 10.6.7 upgrade.

Message was edited by: Repairista

al1200

Level 1

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Apr 6, 2011 11:48 AM in response to etresoft

We are experience this problem across our entire organization. Myriad Pro is our corporate font. Most people did not notice the problem because very few people are using Acrobat. However, they are creating PDFs and sending them off and then they are unreadable by the customer. Any idea when Apple plans to fix this?

etresoft

Level 8

46,476 points

Apr 6, 2011 12:33 PM in response to al1200

al1200 wrote:
Any idea when Apple plans to fix this?

I filed a bug report on it. I suppose they are working on it. The problem is that this change is due to a security update. So, Apple can't just "fix the font issue". They have to roll back the font-related changes from the security update, reimplement those fixes, and then test to make sure both the security issues are addressed and the font issue is now fixed. They can't just roll back the changes since those security issues are now public knowledge.

If you are affected by this, you need to take whatever steps are necessary to work around it. Your options are:
Convert the font to TrueType
Roll back to 10.6.6
Buy Acrobat

Apr 6, 2011 12:54 PM in response to DarkHorse27

Acrobat is not the solution. You cannot drag a Word document into Acrobat and convert it into a PDF. Acrobat does not work that way, it can only convert Postscript files into PDFs, and this issue also affects the OS X Postscript rendering engine as far as I know.

The font foundry that produces our institutional font was gracious enough to create an OpenType TrueType alternative to the OpenType Postscript (OTPS) version for us. After deleting the OTPS version and disabling all other OTPS fonts (including all Asian language fonts that ship with OS X), the issue was resolved for us.

Therefore, the sole resolution to this issue is, for the time being, to disable all OTPS fonts and employ TrueType alternatives.

etresoft

Level 8

46,476 points

Apr 6, 2011 2:33 PM in response to Repairista

Repairista wrote:
Acrobat does not work that way, it can only convert Postscript files into PDFs, and this issue also affects the OS X Postscript rendering engine as far as I know.

That is exactly how Acrobat works. It replaces the built-in postscript/PDF generating software in MacOS X.

Kurt Lang

Level 9

58,260 points

Apr 6, 2011 2:38 PM in response to etresoft

That is exactly how Acrobat works. It replaces the built-in postscript/PDF generating software in MacOS X.

But only for the Adobe apps. They are the only ones which can print directly to the Distiller. If you save a document out of Word or other app as PostScript file, it passes through the OS, which creates the same errors with OT PS fonts. Then when you drop that .ps file into the Distiller, you end up with the same corrupt PDF files.

etresoft

Level 8

46,476 points

Apr 6, 2011 2:56 PM in response to Kurt Lang

Kurt Lang wrote:
But only for the Adobe apps. They are the only ones which can print directly to the Distiller.

It appears you are correct. Adobe seems to have stripped this functionality from Acrobat. I'm glad I wasn't one of the many people who forked over many hundreds of dollars for Acrobat only to see it crippled.

Adobe presents their excuses here: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/509/cpsid_50981.html

Of course, they blame Apple. However, I know for a fact that this is easily overcome. CUPS-PDF encountered the same problem but easily fixed it. I guess that which is impossible for the Adobe Corporation is trivial for other people. CUPS-PDF is not a solution to this problem. I am just using it as example to show that Adobe could have been. Sorry for the confusion.

Kurt Lang

Level 9

58,260 points

Apr 6, 2011 4:49 PM in response to etresoft

Adobe seems to have stripped this functionality from Acrobat.

It is a big nuisance. Supposedly, security issues are the reason Adobe dropped the Acrobat printer in Snow Leopard. Too much work to fix it or something.

I am just using it as example to show that Adobe could have been. Sorry for the confusion.

No problem. It is confusing. 🙂

etresoft

Level 8

46,476 points

Apr 6, 2011 5:05 PM in response to Kurt Lang

Kurt Lang wrote:
Supposedly, security issues are the reason Adobe dropped the Acrobat printer in Snow Leopard.

It was improvements to the MacOS X security architecture. Not really an "issue", just a different way to do things.

Too much work to fix it or something.

Too much work for Adobe maybe. CUPS-PDF didn't release a Snow Leopard fix for several months - not because it was difficult but because it was so easy. All you had to do was change a line in a config file and create a link.

Kurt Lang

Level 9

58,260 points

Apr 6, 2011 6:17 PM in response to etresoft

Too much work for Adobe maybe.

That's my thought on it, too. An outfit as big as Adobe, with so many talented programmers couldn't fix the Acrobat printer for Snow Leopard? This is about the most Adobe says about it:

Technical changes in Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6) prevent Adobe from delivering a PostScript-based printer module. However, the new PDF workflow takes advantage of the PDF-based printing architecture already present in Mac OS X. By choosing Save As Adobe PDF from the PDF menu, Apple-based PDFs are converted to Adobe-quality PDFs using your JobOption settings.
The benefits of a PDF-to-PDF print workflow include the following:
Better performance
Higher quality PDFs
The ability to create PDFs that are compliant with Standards, such as PDF/X and PDF/A
The potential for adding functionality to PDFs, such as bookmarks, hyperlinks and watermarks
Users of non-Adobe PostScript-based publishing applications cannot print directly to Adobe PDF, and must use another PDF creation method.
Some versions of some Adobe Products, such as InDesign and Illustrator CS4 or CS5, do not support use of the PDF menu in the Mac OS X print dialog box. For those cases, either save as (Illustrator) or export (InDesign) to a PDF file, or print to PostScript® file and open that file with Distiller, Acrobat Professional, or Apple's Preview application. For more information see "Error, 'The Save as PDF options in the Printer dialog are not supported' trying to create PDF from InDesign or Illustrator from Mac OS 10.6 Print dialog."

If the folks who maintain CUPS-PDF could figure it out, then Adobe sure should be able to.

Apr 6, 2011 6:40 PM in response to DarkHorse27

PDF's will render if you use TTF (truetype) fonts. Not ideal, but an alternative to installing previous OS version.

srb8521

Level 1

0 points

Apr 10, 2011 7:11 PM in response to etresoft

This fix ('print to Adobe PDF") does not work. Looks like it was a fix for older 10.6 issues when Acrobat 9.0/9.1 were in use. With Acrobat 9.3.4 and OS 10.6.7 using "print to Adobe PDF" yields the same freezeup when using non TT fonts.

Message was edited by: srb8521

md02

Level 1

0 points

Apr 10, 2011 8:55 PM in response to etresoft

I'm glad I still have a windows machine on standby. I may be moving the windows box to primary for the foreseeable future. If you consider the productivity cost (loss) vs. the actual cost of purchasing a windows box and the necessary software to avert a disaster such as this, it's relatively inexpensive. I don't want to ever be over a barrel due to a platform specific issue. If situations such as this cause you to incur a significant loss then this is my suggestion. One completely configured windows box = 2 billable hours for me. Apple can sort this out while I keep working, or not.. I've been on mac for 5 years now, but when things like this happen I have to wonder if they will ever truly be a real business solution.

Apr 27, 2011 11:11 PM in response to DarkHorse27

Finally Font Update came out and fixed the issue. I think that some people should take their Apple goggles of and see a wider scale on a problem. If more and more of users are facing same problem, I think there is no need to make excuses for Apple.

This issue rendered some of our systems inoperable and we had to roll back to 10.6.6. Not a smart solution to fix a bug caused by short-sighted engineering...

Kurt Lang

Level 9

58,260 points

Apr 28, 2011 6:31 AM in response to AKolmakow

By "not work", do you mean PDF files you already created in 10.6.7 before the fix won't open? If so, you can't judge by that. The PDF files themselves are damaged. Recreate them.

10.6.7 PDF Creation unreadable in any other OS just readable in Mac