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Inspiring
June 23, 2024
Question

On macOS, After Distillation, the System Built-in Features (Look-Up) are Crippled.

  • June 23, 2024
  • 0 replies
  • 175 views

I fed Distiller a PostScript file exported from a PDF made by Apple. I aimed to get a new PDF to work with using Apple Preview. I set the compatibility to Acrobat 4 (PDF 1.3). The PS file and job settings are attached.

Job options | Backblaze 

 

The PostScript file | BackBlaze 

 

In Apple Preview, the words and expressions Look-up function became wonky. Summoning it via the context menu and 3-finger-tap, a usual Mac way, resulted in the message "results not found", something that's out of the way in the Mac experience. See the linked video.

Crippled PDF (video) | Streamable 

 

I perused the fonts of the original Apple PDF in Acrobat and compared them against the distilled one. I noticed that the former had type 1 fonts, while the latter had type 1 and CID. The Type 1 and CID fonts were duplicates. That's just a casual observation, and whether this fact added to the problem I don't know.

All fonts in the two documents were embedded.

 

The input data of the original Apple-produced PDF:

Adobe PDF Library 9.9/Adobe InDesign CS5.5 (7.5.1)

 

What could be the culprit?

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