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Urgent help needed with iPhoto/pdf preview for book order - mysterious pixelated areas show on PDF but not in iPhoto

Hello. I ordered an iPhoto book last week to give to my parents for their 50th wedding anniversary. Tonight, I just checked on the order status and found that my book is cancelled. I received no notification about it, and all I could do was fill out the online form, so customer service will get back to me on Monday via email (if I'm lucky...). There is no telephone number for me to call about this. I decided I'd best do some searching to try to figure out what had happened.


I had thought that the preview I saw in iPhoto was the preview of the book. I found out I was wrong. So I created a PDF preview of the book and found some craziness that I don't understand. In iPhoto (and any other program, i.e. PhotoShop), my photos are fine. They are mostly TIFF format and high resolution with a few high res JPEGs. However, when I view the PDF, there is a band of black and white pixelation about 1/2-inch across the bottom of some pages - not all. The photos in that area are messed up in that band zone. The other photos are totally unaffected. This affects both TIFF and JPEG photos, and both black and white and color.


Has anyone else had this problem, and what was your solution? I would be extremely grateful to anyone for advice or information about this! The anniversary party is less than a week away and I'm beyond my limit of stress right now...

iBook, Mac OS X (10.6.7), 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

Posted on May 6, 2011 10:22 PM

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Posted on May 6, 2011 10:51 PM

How did you preview - the correct way is using this method - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1040 - and save the resulting PDF for reference - the delivered book will match it.



This affects both TIFF and JPEG photos, and both black and white and color.


What color profile are your photos? If they are not RGB (preferable sRGB) they will not work


http://www.apple.com/support/photoservices/preparation_tips/


What image settings should I use when preparing my images for printing?
Although iPhoto and Aperture accept other file formats, your images should be in JPEG/JPG file format for the best results when ordering photo products using iPhoto or Aperture. You can use an image editor to convert your image file into this common file format. Also, the image should be in RGB mode, not CMYK. There is no maximum size limit for image files, however larger files can take longer to transfer, and there is a greater chance the image might be corrupted during the transfer process. There is no benefit to submitting larger file sizes.



LN

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Question marked as Best reply

May 6, 2011 10:51 PM in response to JupiterB

How did you preview - the correct way is using this method - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1040 - and save the resulting PDF for reference - the delivered book will match it.



This affects both TIFF and JPEG photos, and both black and white and color.


What color profile are your photos? If they are not RGB (preferable sRGB) they will not work


http://www.apple.com/support/photoservices/preparation_tips/


What image settings should I use when preparing my images for printing?
Although iPhoto and Aperture accept other file formats, your images should be in JPEG/JPG file format for the best results when ordering photo products using iPhoto or Aperture. You can use an image editor to convert your image file into this common file format. Also, the image should be in RGB mode, not CMYK. There is no maximum size limit for image files, however larger files can take longer to transfer, and there is a greater chance the image might be corrupted during the transfer process. There is no benefit to submitting larger file sizes.



LN

May 7, 2011 9:55 AM in response to LarryHN

I really appreciate you taking the time to reply, Larry! I did preview per the instructions and I did output a PDF file. Both the preview and the PDF export show a glitchy band of pixelation at the bottom of most pages. Apple customer service responded and said there's some type of corruption and to check my font. I used Gil Sans, which is on the list of okay fonts for any theme, so I don't think it's the font. I believe the photos are RGB, but I'm not sure if they are sRGB. I just downloaded a trial copy of Photoshop and will go through and check them just in case sRGB is the answer. Thank you for the suggestions!


Does anyone know if iPhoto books get printed on the weekends? I'm really racing against the clock here!

May 7, 2011 10:32 AM in response to LarryHN

I will look at Preview and see if I can figure out how to change color profiles there.


So far all my photos are sRGB. One thing I have noticed is that the pages that are not pixelated at the bottom all have text at the bottom. It is only the pages with no text at the bottom that have the band of pixelation. I did double-check on the page numbering to ensure that isn't causing a conflict, but the option to have page numbers is grayed out so I'm guessing that particular theme (Picture Book) doesn't offer page numbers. Do you know if that's a correct guess? I did try to reformat a test page to contain text at the bottom, but it still had some pixelation at the bottom of the photos on that page so adding text at the bottom to every page won't fix the problems.


Also, I found that a few of my b&w photos were not in RGB - so maybe the few that weren't caused the entire book to become corrupt?

May 7, 2011 11:31 AM in response to JupiterB

Launch iPhoto with the Option key held down and create a new library. Import enough photos for a book (use some of those in the current book) create a new book and preview as a PDF. If you don't see the problem then it's limited to your library which may be damaged. If that's the case make a temporary, duplicate copy of the library and try the two fixes below in order as needed:


Fix #1


1 - delete the iPhoto preference file, com.apple.iPhoto.plist, that resides in your Home/Library/Preferences folder.

2 - delete iPhoto's cache file, Cache.db, that is located in your Home/Library/Caches/com.apple.iPhoto folder.

3 - reboot, launch iPhoto and try again.


NOTE: If you're moved your library from its default location in your Home/Pictures folder you will have to point iPhoto to its new location when you next open iPhoto by holding the the Option key. You'll also have to reset the iPhoto's various preferences.


Fix #2


Launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys depressed and follow the instructions to rebuild the library.


Select the options identified in the screenshot and the option to rebuild the small thumbnails.


User uploaded file

Click to view full size


If you get the same problem in the test library then log into another user account on your Mac, create a test library and try it there. If the problem shows up there a reinstall of iPhoto is indicated. To do so you'll have to delete the current application and all files with "iPhoto" in the file name with either a .PKG or .BOM extension that reside in the HD/Library/Receipts folder and from the /var/db/receipts/ folder,


User uploaded file


Click to view full size


If you don't encounter the problem in the other user account then it's something in your account that's the culprit. Post back with the results.


OT

May 7, 2011 8:21 PM in response to Old Toad

Thank you so much for all the help! I have been fiddling with this almost all day. I downloaded Aperture, which seems to work just fine. So I figured that my iPhoto 11 might have been corrupted and I deleted and reinstalled it. I had just downloaded the 11 version as I had an older version. I followed your advice on creating a new library and also signing in as a different user. None of that worked, however... I changed the theme of the book and there's no corruption in the PDF. I tried several different themes of books in iPhoto and they all showed up fine in the previews.


It's the theme that is causing the corruption! I don't know how to fix it so I am just going to redo the book in a different theme since as far as I can tell the other themes aren't causing problems.


Larry & Toad, I really really really appreciate your kind replies and assistance.


PS - I accidentally marked one of my posts as "helpful." So Larry and I show up as "helpful answers" but not Old Toad - do either of you know how to change this so I can give you both credit for being so helpful?

May 9, 2011 11:44 AM in response to Old Toad

This book project has hands down been the most difficult experience I've ever had on a computer. Between the mysterious corruption and pixelation, the constant crashing of iPhoto, all the installations and reinstallations of various iPhoto versions, messing with the photo libraries, and to top it all off Apple could not verify my identity (and I tried to troubleshoot that but never was able to get it resolved) so I had to create a new account just to get the order placed, this has been an unholy mess!


In the end, I was wrong about the theme being the cause as the other themes ended up producing corrupt PDFs after the project was put together. The only way I could resolve the problem was to uninstall iPhoto 11 and reinstall iPhoto 09. Once I got a working version of 09 installed and recreated the entire book, I had no problems with the previews/pdfs.


Are other people unable to use iPhoto 11, or is it just me? At this point, I feel like I should just wipe my iMac clean and start fresh and hope it acts decently or else buy a new Windows-only PC.

May 20, 2011 1:14 PM in response to JupiterB

I have a very similar problem. I have installed Snow Lepard recently and iLife 11. It is the first time I have created a photobook. I created it no problem, ordered it no problem, but didn't realise I had to preview it before sending it so uploaded it anyway. Apple cancelled my order a few days later due to the quality, see below:


User uploaded file


The dust cover and cover look fine but the rest of the 30 odd pages have this all over them. I've done a software update so everything is up to date. The theme is photo essay I believe.


I have plenty of memory and hard drive space, its an intel 2gig processor so doubt its lack of power. The images are rgb jpegs created in photoshop. I'm just changing the theme now and creating a preview to see if it makes a difference.....no still the same using a the picture book theme. I'll try another....YYYYEEEESSSSS!!!!! I changed it to modern lines theme and the preview is perfect!


folio, picture book and photo essay don't work for me!

May 20, 2011 1:40 PM in response to richarddane

Did you try switching back to the original theme after going to the Modern Lines theme so see if the problem persisted?


To determine if it's a theme issue and not a library issue launch iPhoto with the Option key held down and create a new, test library. Import some photos and create a book with the theme that gave you problems previously. Then do a preview and see if you get the same image degradation.


Message was edited by: Old Toad

Urgent help needed with iPhoto/pdf preview for book order - mysterious pixelated areas show on PDF but not in iPhoto

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