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Question

Indesign Book

Forum|Forum|4 months ago
September 30, 2025
3 replies
569 views

Hello.

Upon opening the most recent version of my InDesign book,
I get the Book Panel window. Choosing a chapter, I try and open
that Chapter. An InDesign window pops up telling me it is opening with
one button to cancel. However, it never opens and if I click
"cancel", cancel never occurs or finishes. It shows a progress wheel that
never ends, completes or stops.

If I "Force Quit" InDesign, then close down Mac OS or restart, that
window is gone. I cannot close InDesign when that window is open. When I try and open a chapter from the Book Panel window, I get the same result.
I do not know what the problem is. Any suggestions from anyone
about this sort of thing?
Each book version has its own dated folder.
The version before this most recent one has all my images and fonts in it but I have already embedded my images, so if I understand this, once embedded, a new version, in a new folder, should not have a problem if images are embedded and remain in the last folder.

But that may not be why I get this "opening" window that never completes.

Thanks

Performance

Mike Witherell

Community Expert

When a customer gives over InDesign files and their related Linked graphics and fonts, that reflects an old practice.

Maybe that is what they mean when they say to embed the graphics. But it sounds like someone at your printery is new and does not know how to advise you.

Most customers export from InDesign a PDF/X4 which already has everything inside the one file. They give this one PDF to the commercial printer to be printed.

Did someone coin the term pPUB meaning a prepress printing PDF? I have never heard that before. Again, it sounds like someone who is making stuff up while in a technical prepress job.

This is a wide-ranging industry and a deep art. There is so much to know, and most people who work in this craft of making InDesign documents for prepress have absorbed extensive training.

What patch version of InDesign 2025 are you operating?

Mike Witherell

M

M.E.310814321c2qAuthor

Known Participant

Hi.
Looks like Indesign is 20.5 if that's what you mean by "patch". Not sure
what the word patch means anyway.
I'm assuming that when I get the drop down/window after clicking "Export",
that the choice you mention (PDFX4) should be at the top where High Quality
Print is located. ??
Let's see:
The printer at Booklocker, Lulu, DiggyPod to name a few.

Booklocker uses the terms ePUB for Electronic Publication and
the term pPUB for Print Publication. That is where I got those terms from.
Coming from them, they did not mean "preprint" as best I can tell,
but hey, maybe that is what they meant.

If they are not understood when those names in the field do not understand
them,
then how in hell is one supposed to communicate effectively with others in
the field?
Just asking.

I don't know what to say. Those I named are in this printing publishing
business and those
are the terms they have used with me and are in the FAQ docs they supply.

Last, are you saying that "most customers export a PDFX4" is all I need to
choose to convert into a PDF that has embedded graphics and embedded fonts
and I have to do nothing more send them the PDF?

Thanks

Peter Spier

Community Expert

Most up-to-date printers can handle PDF/X-4, but not all online printers will accept that standard.

X/4 files leave transparency live and colors unchanged, but tagged with their color profiles, leaving it up to the printer to convert the colors for their press conditons and to flatten the transparency, as ideally it should be. When using PDF/X-4 it is generally considered best practice to leave your images in the original RGB color and convert at the printer to the correct device-specific CMYK profile.

I'm prepping a file now for a client that is using a vendor who is specifying that the file be submitted as CMYK. When I check with the vendor, they are unable or unwilling to provice any guidance as to the corect CMYK profile, which is not uncommon with online printers who want to put the blame for any problems on you instead of themselves. In cases like this I tell the client that we casnnot guarantee perfect color matching for their identity colors, nor for photos, though that's generally less of an issue. This is a very common situation with magazine ads and such, but is very annoying for one-off kinds of projects like this one.

Your printers that you've mentioned should all have SOME sort of file prep info page and you need to look at it for the format specifications. In my experience, calling the help line connects you to someone in sales who knows absolutlely nothing about printing, and who will refuse to connect you with anyone who does.

Peter Spier

Community Expert

This sounds to me a lot like there is a modal dialog open somewhere off-screen that is waiting for a response, but you also say you've embedded the images, which is really NOT a good practice if you mean they are now embedded in the file rather than linked using the File > Place... command as it swells the file size immensely leading to processing slowdowns as well as potential file corruption. Can you clarify what you mean? How large are these files on disk?

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @M.E.310814321c2q,

Thanks for sharing the details. Could you let me know which version of InDesign and macOS you're working with? It would also help to know if this happens with all book files or only this specific one. In the meantime, please try resetting InDesign preferences after creating a backup: https://adobe.ly/4747uKY. It would also be useful to test once in a new user profile and again in safe mode to rule out anything specific to your account or a third-party conflict.

New user profile on Mac: https://adobe.ly/4747niw

Safe mode on Mac: https://adobe.ly/4pMEv5J
Please give this a try and let me know your update.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Abhishek

M

M.E.310814321c2qAuthor

Known Participant

Sorry about the late response.

I am using Mac OS Sequoia, 15.6.1 and Indesign 2025

And, it just happened again (today 10/30/25)

Was getting doc ready for upload for print to a publisher. Changes were made and a new, newer or newest version created or perhaps saved. Indesign asked where?, and I created a new folder, dated for today. All images embedded as the priinter desires, getting ready to embed my fonts. That was a little confusing as I did not see a clear choice for embedding fonts but but think I got it but am still not sure. Then, changed subset fonts to 0%. Again as the printer suggested. This time I did a pre-flight check, found a problem and was able to fix it and Indesign says 'no errors". But, in the Book Panel window, the first 1/2 of my chapters all have a round green button next to them and the last 10 chapters have nothing. This came about when or during doing the pre-flight. Not sure what the green button means. I included all documents in the pre-flight check.

Anyway, I had done one export, created a PDF, then closed out, opened the PDF and checked it for any errors. Found one, trashed it and went to open my Indesign Book (INDB), and it wouldn't open. Said it could not. So I tried previous versions and none of them will open with the same message "Cannot open it" I believe, "as an Indesign Book "

One last thing that is still confusing to me from mixed messages I get: 1. Do I export as a PDF and 2. Do I package as a PDF and upload either one of those? Thanks for any help, direction, suggestions. My learing curve is steep but still a wonerful program.

tanX

leo.r

Community Expert

One last thing that is still confusing to me from mixed messages I get: 1. Do I export as a PDF and 2. Do I package as a PDF and upload either one of those?

By @M.E.310814321c2q

You export as a PDF. PDF is a single file that you send to the printer.

When you package the book (or an InDesign file), you basically copy it along with all its assets (links and fonts) to a folder. Your printer doesn't need the packaged job (just like most printers.)

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