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T
Teddy_Boi_Toronto
Participant
June 1, 2010
Question

Problems making a PDF from Indesign CS5

  • June 1, 2010
  • 46 replies
  • 74901 views

Hi friends. I have recently switched to CS5 and I find that I usually need to close the program and then reopen it before I can make a PDF. It says it is working in the background but all it does is spin without creating the PDF. Anyone else having this problem? 

TED

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    46 replies

    B
    blisimo
    Participant
    June 6, 2012

    Hello guys,

    I was looking for answers concerning several problems arising wih my documents on Indesign CS5, so if it happen your indesign cannot generate PDF , do check for importing elements on your artwork whether you are working with EPS,becuse the main source come from here.

    Hope this will help you.

    P
    Panu_79
    Participant
    August 20, 2012

    Hi all

    I have spent couple of nights with this tedious problem. After hard research I solved it! I know this may be quite complex issue (in fact I am not sure about that anymore) and vary between different operating systems but I got it work. My set up is win 7 64bit and I am using Indesign 5.5.

    My problem was in sertain pages and as I removed these 3 pages exporting worked like charm. The problem wasn't so mysterious after all. Luckily my document is only 24 page so it wasn't so hard case to find these buggy pages. Page number 6, 13 and 14 was "infected" somehow.

    Hope this helps!

    Ps. using range in export settings help when you try to rake up the pages with issues.

    What's cousing the issues in thes pages is another guestion. Can't answer on that, yet!

    T
    TimeCruncher
    Participant
    August 20, 2012

    Thanks for your response. Actually I'm attaching a file that shows how I

    solved the problem, just in case this may come in handy for you. Your

    problem was not the same as mine. I used it and haven't had a problem since.

    P
    PagePenna
    Participant
    July 22, 2011

    I have also recently upgraded to CS5 and am having the identical issues with making a PDF, small or Print quality, from InDesign. Background tasking seems to take over and I cannot even quit the document to clear things out, so I have to force quit.  I have gone to Software update, but no updates are noted.  The weird thing is that I noticed your posting is a year ago and surely there would have been an update by now.  InDesign version is 7.0.0.355; Acrobat Pro is 9.4.5.  Any thoughts....anyone?

    claidheamdanns
    claidheamdanns
    Participating Frequently
    July 22, 2011

    We use a third-party plugin (part of a very expensive suite) that disables background PDFs, and haven't had a problem since. Adobe has not addressed this issue. Nor do they have any option for turning off background PDF in preferences. There are several non-Adobe options for doing this, though. Look on this forum; you will find some less expensive options to turn off background PDF, and I'm convinced that is the key to the whole thing.

    G
    GreyCatDot
    Inspiring
    August 25, 2011

    OK, I upgraded to CS5 in March and started having this and various other problems. I did also upgrade to SnowLeopard at the same time. Yeah, I know late adopter. Figured all problems would be fixed by then. No such luck.

    I am told by a mac tech friend that it doesnt happen to everyone but when it does, it is chronic. oy.

    I have tried everything you all have suggested including dumping prefs for Acrobat, ID and QuickLook and turning Spotlight off. (something to do with Spotlight because other non Adobe stuff was being affected too). I even tried dumping master page guides. That worked. For now. I won 5.5 at a local meetup so I am really hoping this got fixed. The question is, did it get fixed with either 5.5 or Lion?

    Thanks for your patience and help, yall.

    Dot

    M
    Adobe Employee
    MatthewLaun
    Adobe Employee
    March 23, 2011

    For those of you who are successfully able to export to PDF using the script or Booked document to prevent the background, threaded export, please consider this...

    After not being able to  reproduce a crash with some of the files I've been provided, I worked  with a customer to get a crash log from his background PDF export failure. The  crash log appeared to indicate an impact from the Extensis font  auto-activation plug-in. If you are using any of the Extensis tools in  conjunction with InDesign CS5, and are experience failures to export to  PDF in the background, please disable the Extensis toolset, restart  InDesign, then try to export again and see if the export is successfull.  Please report results here, including the exact Extensis product and  version.

    Sincerley,

    Matthew

    C
    ChrisH94
    Inspiring
    March 24, 2011

    I loaded the CS5 suite as a clean install on a new computer (Win7, 64 bit) and also installed Extensis Suitcase Fusion 3 (showing version 14.0.5.93). This installed auto activation plugins in several of the CS5 applications, including Indesign. At that point there was very little on the computer: CS5, Suitcase, Office 2010.

    Despite assurances from Extensis that the application was 'good', the plugins caused *all* my CS5 applications to crash - actually, they refused to start up - apart from Photoshop 64 bit (the 32 bit installation also failed). Removal of the plugins from all CS5 applications enabled them to start and run properly (ignoring the fact that bits of Indesign don't work as they should, which is the subject of this thread).

    In my case, these plugins caused a failure in the software, as opposed to a crash once the software was running. None are now installed, though Suitcase (other than this factor) appears to run correctly.

    Chris

    BobLevine
    Community Expert
    BobLevineCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 24, 2011

    There were known issues with the original release of Suitcase Fusion 3 on 64 bit Windows. I ran into it myself.

    I'm running the same version as you on 64 bit Win 7 Ultimate with no issues at all. The only difference is that I have Office 2007 but I can't see how that would make any difference.

    Bob

    M
    Adobe Employee
    MatthewLaun
    Adobe Employee
    March 16, 2011

    All,

    For failures that only occur when exporting with the default Print PDF path, the recommendation is that you submit your document to me to enable us to reproduce the issue and find the root cause and solve it. Until all root causes are resolved, use the solutions documented in the following KB doc, or utilize the forementioned script to force PDF export into the foreground:

    http://go.adobe.com/kb/ts_cpsid_87876_en-us

    Sincerely,

    Matthew

    J
    jdnorman
    Participating Frequently
    March 17, 2011

    Hi Matthew -

    Could you let me know what e-mail address or private method I can use to send you a link to download a document that is giving me consistent trouble? It is a somewhat proprietary document for a client and I'd rather not post the link in this forum.

    I've tried disabling preflight, and also did this, which was recommended to me previous by Adobe support, to no avail:

    1. Delete the "Datastore" folder located here:

    2. HD / Library / Application Support/ Adobe / SING / Mark II / Datastore

    3. Relaunch InDesign and test.

    I have an open case number for this issue with Adobe support - it's 181910243. Using the script for exporting a pdf in the foreground is the only method that works for me. Attempting to export an idml of the same document also crashes InDesign, though a homemade Applescript which forces the export in the foreground works:

    set this_file to choose file

    tell application "Finder" to set file_name to (name of this_file)

    set posix_this_file to POSIX path of this_file

    set file_name to ReplaceText(file_name, ".indd", ".idml") of me

    -- display dialog file_name

    tell application "Adobe InDesign CS5"

    open this_file

    tell active document

    export format InDesign markup to choose file name with prompt "Save IDML Where?" default name file_name default location posix_this_file

    end tell

    end tell

    on ReplaceText(theString, fString, rString)

    set current_Delimiters to text item delimiters of AppleScript

    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to fString

    set sList to every text item of theString

    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to rString

    set newString to sList as string

    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to current_Delimiters

    return newString

    end ReplaceText

    thank you -

    Josh

    M
    Adobe Employee
    MatthewLaun
    Adobe Employee
    March 17, 2011

    @Josh,

    To send me private information, click on my name under my avatar, then on the right side of the page you'll see a link that says "Send Private Message".

    Cheers!

    Matthew

    T
    Teddy_Boi_TorontoAuthor
    Participant
    March 6, 2011

    Hi Everyone

    Well, as annoying as this pdf problem is, the solution is as annoying. Yes there is a solution, the only trouble is, I have no idea what it is. All I know is after one of the updates (a few months back) the problem simply went away. Now I have no problems making PDF in CS5 in the background. It doesn't freeze. Thanks for fixing it, whatever it did) but obviously there are still a lot of people suffering with the same problem.  I wish I could share my secret with everyone who tried to help, but the truth is, I have no clue. I am happy, that it is fixed.

    TED

    J
    jdnorman
    Participating Frequently
    March 6, 2011

    To my knowledge, there has been no update or further information since a forum user supplied a problematic file earlier in this thread?

    Peter Spier
    Community Expert
    Peter SpierCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 6, 2011

    The 7.0.3 update addresses what Matthew was able to identify as a primary/common cause of trouble. Obviously there are still some other issues, but anyone who has NOT installed 7.0.3 should do so.

    S
    suzyq011
    Participant
    March 6, 2011

       I've had ALL of the problems listed in this thread! And I've tried all of the tricks! Recently I took a CS5 created file and tried making the infamous PDF. I tried CS5, CS4 & CS3 and the program was literally shut-down each time. Finally in desperation, I thought to try the "old-fashion" fix that we used to do. Print the file to a PS file. Then use distiller to make the PDF file. Guess what - CS5 has no option to print to file! Well that was frustrating! Then I looked at my list of printers and interestingly I had a print driver for ADOBE PDF. I printed to that and low-and-behold it created a PDF for me! It didn't give me any options for the PDF, but I can go into the PDF properties and pretty much fix anything I need to do!    Hope this helps others. I don't look at this as a fix for the CS5 software. It needs to be figured out, but I'll use this in the mean time. I will also be looking around for other software that can do the book typesetting for me without all of these issues - one that truly handles files that have hundreds of pages, makes creating a  TOC a breeze and actually does an accurate and complete Index. Does anyone have any recommendations?  - Sue

    C
    camiczoernie
    Participant
    February 15, 2011

    I began experiencing the same type of hangup everyone else seems to have when I installed CS5. I finally took the advice of an earlier poster and installed a scripting solution written by Uwe Laubender for exporting PDFs in "foreground" that seems to have solved the problem. My only gripe now is with Adobe for ignoring the issue.

    M
    Adobe Employee
    MatthewLaun
    Adobe Employee
    February 15, 2011

    @camiczoernie,

    We here at Adobe are definitely not ignoring these kinds of issues. Our InDesign 7.0.3 release contained a fix for one cause of hanging PDF export background tasks, there could be others. I would welcome any files and information that can reliably reproduce a crash or other failure in PDF export. Please feel free to send me a direct message and we can work off list to understand the failure and get it reproducible in house for our engineering teams to look into.

    Sincerely,

    Matthew

    claidheamdanns
    claidheamdanns
    Participating Frequently
    February 15, 2011

    Matthew,

    I am glad to see that someone there is paying attention. A lot of times it doesn't seem this way.

    I do know that this problem is pretty wide-spread. I am hearing it from every sector. I heard our prepress manager roundly cursing out InDesign CS5, and calling it nothing more than a public beta this morning.

    I'd be happy to send you some files. However, I don't think it is file specific. For me, for instance, yesterday, every second file would hang. And it didn't seem to matter at all which file it was. All day the first file upon opening CS5 would work fine, and then the second one would hang, and I would have to force quit the app on the second export. When InDesign would boot up again, it was the same thing again. The file that had previously crashed would make its PDF in a matter of seconds and then the next file opened would hang, and the program would have to be force quit.

    Today, things have been running pretty smoothly. I've only had to force quit twice today, I think.

    Gavin

    A
    Anonymous
    December 22, 2010

    Hi,


    I've to make pubblic amend because as the newbiest noob i didn't looked for the most logical solution before posting here. I'm so used to investigate bugfixes on forums that I didn't check if there was an update available and..there was actually. Updating to 7.0.3 solved the pdf export issue.

    Thanks Matthew for your concern!

    Cheers

    Massimiliano

    M
    Adobe Employee
    MatthewLaun
    Adobe Employee
    December 22, 2010

    @Massimiliano,

    I'm so glad to hear it. Happy holidays!

    Matthew

    claidheamdanns
    claidheamdanns
    Participating Frequently
    February 11, 2011

    I am experiencing the same issue. All day long, it will export one PDF fine, then the next document I open, it doesn't matter what, it will hang on the export ... after several minutes, I have to crash out of the program and restart. It will then PDF the same document that was hanging, in a matter of seconds. And then it hangs on the next document.

    Some days are worse than others. Some days it will go for quite a number of PDFs without hanging.

    I am running Leopard. CS5, with everything consistently updated to the latest version.

    I had thought perhaps it was a memory issue, but I have a 2x3 GHs Dual-Core Intel Xeon, with 10GB 667 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM Ram, so this shouldn't be a problem.

    Extremely frustrating. I can open up the same docs in CS4 and PDF all day long, faster. Even the docs that do PDF out of CS5 seem to take twice as long.

    H
    Hamb1e
    Participant
    December 22, 2010

    You know, I used to always defend Adobe when people said they were frustrated by them, but its getting harder and harder. Last week I had a fully functioning CS3 + Acrobat 9 system, which I foolishly upgraded to CS5, thinking that months after it's release all issues would have been resolved by now and it would be better and faster and all the things one would expect from an upgrade. But have they? Nope.

    Quite aside from the ridiculous lag that InDesign now exhibits in everyday use, on a 2x3Ghz, 8GB Quad-Core Intel machine, there's a slew of stupid new features that can't be turned off. Background pdf creation? That stupid rounded corners yellow box? Automatic guides popping up all over the place? If you're going to add these 'amazing' new features Adobe, at least give us the option to turn them OFF and get back to just working sensibly.

    But the biggest issue is making PDFs from InDesign. Somehow Adobe have taken something that worked flawlessly and simply in CS3 and made it into a goddam mess. Fonts disappearing or jumping... graphic elements disappearing. Ok – known issue perhaps, I'll run an update. 'Adobe Acrobat update failed'. Okay, I'll waste time uninstalling, reinstalling and trying again from scratch... 'Adobe Acrobat upgrade failed'...

    What the hell are you people *doing* over there? How can you screw up things that were *working* fine? You're supposed to be fixing things that *didn't* work, not tampering with things that *did*. Can you please take a leaf out of Apple's book a'la Snow Leopard and get back to bloody basics – I don't care how long it takes you, get CS6 right for gods sake. I like your software – I want to use it, but you're now putting barriers up that make me hate it as much as I hate MS Powerpoint. And now I'm faced with having to weight up the choice of simply downgrading eight machines to CS3 again and getting a refund for this useless piece of CS5 junk, or bearing with it and wasting hours and hours getting it all working properly, if it ever will.

    I'd like to assume that CS6 will either be either free or a $29 upgrade to CS5 users as an apology for this debacle, but I guess that's hoping a bit much. At this rate Microsoft might as well buy Adobe, and then Apple can get on with developing their own design suite that 'just works'.

    One more time – I used to like you Adobe, but you are seriously trying my and many other users patience. Can you please wake up and smell the takeover before it's too late.

    A
    Anonymous
    December 21, 2010

    I Everyone,

    i bumbed in this thread as many, looking for a solution to this endless background export to pdf. We're also experiencing it and hope will be fixed soon ['cause its cool to have background tasks :)], but in the meantime here's what we have tryed and what worked so far:

    - on a small document, converting all the text to curves, did work [1 page document]

    - turning off preflight -> close and reopen the document -> export with presets and/or new profiles-> worked just once but its worth a try

    - import the document into a book then export the book as PDF (in foreground) always works like a charm

    - using this script http://indesignsecrets.com/forum/general-indesign-topics/pdf-export-problems-with-cs5 works as the above

    - saving a postscript file and then distill it, works as usual

    so there are many workarounds, we're happy to continue working almost as usual, anyway we hope to hear good news soon !

    Cheers

    Visualtricks

    M
    Adobe Employee
    MatthewLaun
    Adobe Employee
    December 21, 2010

    @Visualtricks,

    If you have a doc that will hang in background mode in CS5 7.0.3, but exports successfully in foreground mode, I'd very much like to get a copy so that I can get our developers to investigate and see if we have another cause of stranded threads. Contact me directly, or post it to sendnow.acrobat.com and share it with me that way, or FTP, etc.

    Sincerely,

    Matthew

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