Error - Bad PDF

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
February 4, 2024
4 replies
15746 views

I am trying to "Prepare a Form" on a PDF workbook I have made in Canva. I have done this dozens of times, but just today, I am getting an error "Bad PDF; could not read page structure. [3]"

My goal is to create a workbook that is fillable. Again, I have done this many times before in the exact same way and never had an issue. I went into my previously downloaded files and tested one of those, and they worked fine. Is there a possibility this is an issue on Canva's end?

Does anyone have suggestions?

Correct answer TorBear

SOLUTION (I've found works for me): When downloading from Canva, tick the 'Flatten PDF' option before downloading

J

joyalicen

New Participant

'Flatten PDF' works. THANK YOU!

T

TorBearCorrect answer

New Participant

SOLUTION (I've found works for me): When downloading from Canva, tick the 'Flatten PDF' option before downloading

D

Deanna360389466hs7

New Participant

@TorBear ,

You did it! Bravo. I have no idea what it means to 'flatten' a PDF, but this seemed to correct the issue. Thank you so much, that was wildly frustrating.

T

TorBear

New Participant

Glad it worked for you too!

R

romantic_experts34785

New Participant

I am also having this exact same issue with Canva. Have used this service many times and also get the 'Bad PDF; could not read page structure. [1]' error message. Does anyone know how to fix this?

N

Nicole301688822dta

New Participant

I had this exact issue (on Windows 11 computer) and found a workaround:

Open the pdf you would like to convert
Select the "Prepare a form"
Make sure you're on the "Select a file" option (should be the default since you have the pdf opened)
Notice the field above the Create Form button that says "Auto-Detect Form Field is ON" and click "Change" next to it.
Uncheck the box for "Automatically detect Form fields"
Click OK and then Create form

This should get you into the prepare a form workspace. Unfortunately, you will have to create all of the fields from scratch but it is the only way I have found to bypass the error message.

D

Deanna360389466hs7

New Participant

Hey @Nicole301688822dta ,

This is the best solution so far, but as you acknowledged, the previously created fields are no longer available. That is both frustrating and disappointing. I'm curious if anyone has had any experience trying to resolve this with Canva or Adobe.