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dafnaa18923551
Participating Frequently
October 29, 2018
Question

Fragments / Missing artwork when compressing PDFs with Acrobat Pro

  • October 29, 2018
  • 3 replies
  • 2971 views

Greetings to all,

I am creating this topic because I am now desperate: I create labels as a designer and to send them to our suppliers, I convert them to PDFs and as sometimes, PDF files can be quite heavy, I optimise them before sending, which usually has a positive impact on the size of the file and cleans up all unnecessary bits and pieces.

This used to work perfectly fine and I was very happy with the overall quality.

My Acrobat auto updated recently (end of September) and another time again after this (beginning of October I believe), I now have version 2019.008.20080 and ever since these updates, when trying to optimise files like I always have before, I get very random results, especially with files that have transparency of some kind (shading, spot colours, gradients etc) on top of getting over-fragmented images and artwork when I precisely check "Bring fragments together" in the saving options.

I have searched long and hard without success for a solution, tried contacting Adobe too to no avail: no one gets back to me and my cases get closed. Is it only me ? or is there some real problem with how Acrobat now compresses data ?

Here is an example: file is perfect before compression (made in Illustrator in high quality)

Then I compress, and some of the artwork disappears or gets fragmented into several images, in spite of checking "bring image fragments together" (even vectors - this NEVER happened before the update, with the same label, I have compressed it several times without issues or loss)

I would really appreciate if Adobe or anybody else could come up with a solution, this is a serious set back in my work.

Thank you upfront Community !

Angie.

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    3 replies

    E
    Eric357049755obf
    Participant
    February 26, 2024

    I have the same issue with compressing documents with jpegs imbedded. Worked for years, then one day I'm getting email responses that the pics are missing. They show up on my computer effectively bypassing any QA/QC but are not there for any recipients or when I view my email on another computer.

     

    It's an issue with Adobe compatabilty, only fix I can find currently available is to use the online compression tool you're probably paying for with your subscription. Good Luck!

      T
      Test Screen Name
      Legend
      November 9, 2018

      So, is it the orange line you are losing? Why do you care about image fragments (it might have decided, for example, that different resolutions could be used for different parts). Maybe sharing the original and optimized file on Document Cloud or another sharing site would give people something to work with.

      If it is actually in Adobe's systems, a fix would be months away, I expect. And you never seem to hear anything one way or another.

      dafnaa18923551
      dafnaa18923551Author
      Participating Frequently
      November 9, 2018

      Hi, thanks for your reply.

      Well, it's not just this document here, I'd need to find something lightweight that I can share with you. Issue seems to affect files that contain transparency, gradients, shading and spot colours. It is not only linked to this file but to several that fit the transparency effects I have just mentioned.

      Prior to updating Acrobat, all of these used to turn out fine after optimization, however, after migrating to the newer version, optimizing files has become somewhat unpredictable, and since I work with heavy files, it is an important part of my workflow for sharing info.

      Now, bits of pictures disappear, pictures are puzzled into lots of little pieces, graphics go missing... those are only some of the mild issues I am encountering.

      Let me see if I can upload something somewhere... Here is a document that suffers from the issue. Never mind the graphics. This is the uncompressed PDF file. Now, when you compress it in Acrobat to make it lightweight and the option to "bring fragments together" is checked, graphics disappear, fragmented and even colour gradients are removed.

      Adobe Document Cloud

      And here is an example of the file, optimized, it is easy to see what is wrong. Though I have to say what happens to the file seems to even be random itself:

      Adobe Document Cloud

      Hope that helps, and thanks again for checking...

      I have other files with the same issue.

      dafnaa18923551
      dafnaa18923551Author
      Participating Frequently
      October 29, 2018

      Anybody with an answer please ? I see the status of the conversation has changed, however, I have received no answer whatsoever...

      dafnaa18923551
      dafnaa18923551Author
      Participating Frequently
      October 30, 2018

      No one has been experiencing anything similar ? I'd really appreciate getting a feedback from anybody else and perhaps things to look into to find workarounds...

      dafnaa18923551
      dafnaa18923551Author
      Participating Frequently
      November 9, 2018

      Hi, I am very surprised to have received 0 answers. I even turned to Adobe Support who told me this case was passed on to engineers, however, no one is replying even to my emails and I am really starting to wonder if Adobe is really willing to look into this issue of mine...

      At this point, any kind of feedback would be greatly appreciated.

      Thanks.

      A disappointed Adobe customer.

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