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Question

Troubleshooting PDF Export Issues in InDesign Failure in Spread with page 369

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
December 31, 2024
6 replies
2382 views

I want to export a book document in InDesign to PDF. It consists of 7 book parts, but I keep getting an error message saying that the PDF cannot be generated. I also combined the 7 book sections into one file, but I get the same error message. The possible cause of the error seems to be located on the spread with page number 369. Using the "Package" and "Preflight" tools, no errors are detected. Exporting the PDF from the individual book file works fine. I have checked all images and gradients but cannot find any issues. Despite repeated export attempts, I keep encountering the same error. The export process appears to complete successfully, but as soon as it finishes, an error message appears, and no PDF is generated. How do I solve this?

Peter Spier

Community Expert

And this general article as well: https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/hub/why-is-pdf-so-big.html

Peter Spier

Community Expert

Found this old thread that might be relevant:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/is-there-a-pdf-size-limit/td-p/4387325

Peter Spier

Community Expert

What sort of images are these, how many, and how large are they?

Have you checked the effective resolutions in InDesign?

You've indicated his is a new problem. Has the nature of your documents changed? have there been any system configuration changes/updates that might be related?

Have you tied things like starting in safe mode or using a new user account, or even a differnt computer, to do the export?

Poerk1980Author

Known Participant

Thanks for staying on me to figure this issue out.

The images are 300 DPI minimum, CMYK, TIFF. So they are rather large file sizes.
The nature of my document has not changed. I don't recall any significant system config changes.
I have not tried on a different compyter or device as the images ar elinked and it would require to transfer my hard disk and my other device is a Macbook Air which won't have the power to make export of such complex huge files. My desktop should be equipped as it's always been.
I also checked the effective resolutions, I am not sure what the minimum or maximum is that could cause the export to fail. Please let me know what to check for. The status of ALL images is OK. I think a relative minor detail is cuasing the export issue since there are no isuses running the entire export until it's ready and then displays the error. Even exporting ithout the possible spread causing teh failure caused the same result. I believe one of the images out of these thousands migth be corrupt somehow, it's a matter of finding it as the regular checks and preflights do not signal an error.

Peter Spier

Community Expert

OK.

Effective resolutions over 300 ppi are larger than necessary for anything but 1-bit line art, which should be fine at 1200 ppi, unles you are printing fine art books on high-end equipment, at which point those values might want to be doubled.

One reason your files are big is that you've converted the images to CMYK, so they have 33% more data than they would as RGB. Current best practice is to leave all images in RGB and do any color conversion at the RIP where the correct output color profile is known (CMYK profiles are kind of like regional dialects -- they need to match the ink and paper conditions of the output device for best color control).

We haven't talked about fonts, yet, either. Fonts can be big, even very big, especially for open-type fonts with thousands of glyphs, and if you use lots of them in your doc and don't subset on export PDF size will balloon.

As two next steps I would first, do a Save AS on all the component .indd files to force a re-write and remove any file bloat, then export as PDF-X/4 and see what you get. If things are still huge, Make a new User account on the computer and try that, and finally, start in Safe Mode, launch InDesign and export with nothing else running.

I'm on the road so won't be able to respond for most of the day, but you're in good hands with the other folks who are on this thread -- reliable experts all.

Peter Spier

Community Expert

Since the individual document from the book exports OK I'm wondering it the problem is a lack of resources for some reason. Can you successfully export the book in two halves, then combine in Acrobat?

Robert at ID-Tasker

Legend

I remember, there was a thread with a similar problem - but don't remember what was the solution 😞

Robert at ID-Tasker

Legend

@Poerk1980

Can you post a screenshot of this affected spread?

Poerk1980Author

Known Participant

I was able to export 7 book parts PDFs and then combined them in Acrobat but then I could not save the total combined file because it's too big. Uploading the file to Cloud also failed. I don't think the issue is in the spread of 369 because I deleted the spread and then exported and it still gave the same error and same spread number. All preflights all come back green and fine. It's a weird issue.

Robert at ID-Tasker

Legend

@Poerk1980

What are your PDF export settings?

Can you try and export "low quality"?

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @Poerk1980,

Thank you for reaching out! I understand how frustrating it can be when PDF export fails, especially on a specific spread. I’d be happy to help you troubleshoot this issue.

Could you please provide the following details to assist you better?

1. The version of InDesign you are using.

2. The operating system details (Windows or macOS, along with the version).

In the meantime, please try the below suggestions:

1. Try exporting only the spread containing page 369 as a PDF. If this fails, it confirms the issue lies within that spread.

2. Inspect Content on Spread 369:

- Check for any corrupted images, fonts, or elements on the spread.

- Replace any suspicious images or elements.

- Ensure that all links in the Links panel are updated and valid.

3. While exporting the PDF, go to Export Settings > Compression, and set "Downsampling" to None for images. Sometimes, downsampling can cause export issues.

4. Save your file as an IDML file (File > Save As > InDesign Markup Language) to clean up any potential corruption. Open the IDML file and attempt to export again.

5. Use a different export preset, such as High Quality Print, to see if it bypasses the issue.

6. Copy the content from the problematic spread into a new document and try exporting from there.

If the issue persists, could you share a screenshot of the error message you’re encountering? This will help us narrow down the cause further.

Looking forward to your response so we can get this resolved for you!

Best,
Abhishek Rao

Poerk1980Author

Known Participant

I am using InDesign version 20.01 updated several weeks ago through Creative Cloud Desktop on a Windows 11 desktop version. I inspected the spread numerous times and can't find issues and the reflights all come back green. I changed the compression to no downsampling and tried another export which returned the same error. I saved the file as IDML but when I try to re-open that file, it takes forever and simply won't load, it keeps loading but won't open. This is a book of 737 pages in total with about 100 pages for each book part. I already copied the content to various new files but the error persists.

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