Skip to main content
ToM_1st
ToM_1st
Inspiring
June 14, 2017
Answered

Preflight error: The required key /TransformMethod is missing

  • June 14, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 3025 views

I got a PDF with an preflight error (report PDF syntax issues):

"Incorrect value type for this key" and "general file format error"

"The required key /TransformMethod is missing" and "An unexpected value is associated with the key."

But if I look into the PDF there is an /TransformMethod. So what does preflight complain about?

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer ToM_1st

On the contrary many things can be done.

I see, "Acrobat Distiller"  is a third party product ;-)

But the actual problem is not the document creation but the signature creation which was done with PdfBox. PdfBox is an OpenSource project and thus it can be easily addressed there. For that I needed to know where the PDF spec violation was. After a bit of research it turned out that the signature is using an reference dictionary. Since the document itself is PDF 1.4 and the reference dictionary has been added in 1.5 preflight complains about it.

1 reply

T
Tariq Dar
Legend
July 13, 2017

Hi ToM_1st,

These issues are related to file creation.

Since the file is created from the third party source, sadly there is not much that can be done.

-Tariq Dar

ToM_1st
ToM_1stAuthorCorrect answer
Inspiring
July 14, 2017

On the contrary many things can be done.

I see, "Acrobat Distiller"  is a third party product ;-)

But the actual problem is not the document creation but the signature creation which was done with PdfBox. PdfBox is an OpenSource project and thus it can be easily addressed there. For that I needed to know where the PDF spec violation was. After a bit of research it turned out that the signature is using an reference dictionary. Since the document itself is PDF 1.4 and the reference dictionary has been added in 1.5 preflight complains about it.

T
Tariq Dar
Legend
July 14, 2017

Hi ToM_1st,

Acrobat Distiller is not third party product, it is the engine of Adobe Acrobat.

Thank you for sharing your findings, I really appreciate this.

-Tariq Dar

Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices