Illustrator CS4 error: Object label badly formatted?

[ecuadorian-in-charge]

has anyone received an error in illustrator CS4: Acrobat PDF File Format is having difficulties. Object label badly formatted? I am ON a mac and cannot open files after this error, help?

[aakozy]

me too... just happed on mac illustrator cs4. acrobat pdf file format is having difficulties. object label badly formatted.

i had 2 other back up files an none of them are opening.

earlier today i did an update for suitcase fusion 2 and it updated stuff in illustrator. wonder if that could have anything to do with it.

HELP?!?!?!?!?!?!?

[ecuadorian-in-charge]

ME TOO!!! I also updated suitcase fusion 2 and it updated stuff in illustrator (thought it had something to do with how it automatically opens fonts), and thats when I started having problems, maybe need to contact extensis tomorrow morning? Thanks for responding!!!

[Wade_Zimmerman1]

You are not going to like this but i strongly suggest you get another font manager and I recommend Font Agent Pro.

Then I would clear out for font cache files.

Trash the settings folder  as such

I would first quite Illustrator and then;

I would go to Users/username/Library/preferences/Adobe Illustrator CS4 Settings folder and trash that settings folder.

[Cre8ive74]

Well, I took Wades advice and bought Font Agent -- I can't wait for Extensis or Adobe to fix this -- losing way too many files. After cleaning out things fusion on my CPU I installed Font Agent and so far so great (knocking on wood) I have done 3 projects this morning in Illustrator with no errors on reopen.

What scares me, is it seems this problem has been around since 2004 -- I'm hoping switching font managers is the solution for me.

Thanks for the tip Wade

[scottstoel]

I always welcome a new FontAgent Pro user! I was a recent convert to FontAgent Pro before I came onboard at Insider and I was stunned at how many problems it solved. The verification and validation of fonts on import is huge. This feature alone makes a lot of the frustration with fonts go away.

We at Insider will continue to keep working toward making tools that that make font management easier. There is no silver bullet out there that will solve all your font issues, but FontAgent Pro is the cornerstone for getting these issues under control.

Welcome to the Insider fold. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact us at support@insidersoftware.com.

Scott Stoel
Director of Technical Services
Insider Software

[rob Frye]

If I am interested in testing FontAgent Pro but currently a Suitcase Fusion 2 user.

What is the best method of doing this? Can have both installed, but only activly running one at a time, or do I need to delete Suitcase completely prior to using FontAgent Pro? Like I said, I just want to test it out, make sure its what I want prior to changing my font management workflow.

Thanks in advance.

[scottstoel]

Rob--

You can download a 30-day fully functional demo of FontAgent Pro at http://www.insidersoftware.com/FA_pro_osx.php. I believe Wade is correct that if you remove Suitcase Fusion from the login items and turn off the auto-start at login in their preferences you can run FontAgent Pro without any interference. You will only want to run one font manager application at any time, so if opt to stay with Suitcase Fusion, you will want to remove FAP from the login items and/or uninstall at that time.

If you need any assistance at all, or have further questions, contact Insider Support and we'd be glad to help

Scott Stoel

Director of Technical Services

Insider Software

[Thomas Phinney]

Yes, verification/validation of font files at import time certainly is a great feature—one Suitcase Fusion and Universal Type Server also have.

Not that I'm trying to get into a debate or anything. We're all just trying to make good products that will meet our users' needs.

Cheers,

T

Thomas Phinney

Sr Product Manager, Font Solutions

Extensis, a division of Celartem, Inc.

[Wade_Zimmerman1]

I am certain there is room for more than one font manager and not to

take away from Extensis efforts I must say I was really surprised that

FAP worked as well as it did out of the box especially for

verification on install but i was a very long time Suitcase user and

just experienced too many problems with Suitcase, most of which

Extensis seemed to inherit.

But I am pleased to know in spite of this problem users of Illustrator

can use Suitcase in a much more sable way as they were in the past.

I do not think that one has to remove Suitcase i think you can

disable it by removing it from the login Items and turning off the

auto start at log in in the preferences.

I make a suggestion as someone who has in the past tested many utility

software, wait for the update for Suitcase

and if that is forthcoming in a timely manner then test it in the mean

time you will have gotten to know FAP and now you can make a sensible

decision as to what works for you.

If I recalled I had contact support for FAP before purchasing and they

suggested that I try their product and then make the decision, that

impressed me.

Of course Thomas Phinney always active responsiveness is always one of

the most helpful resources you can find.

So now both companies have the responsiveness and that can only be a

good thing.

Although I always though Thomas should be in Charge of bringing back

ATM.

[agotcher]

Is there any more on this issue? I'm having the same problems.

I tried the clean font cache method....Looks like I will be rebuilding files all day!

[ecuadorian-in-charge]

YES! but no good news yet... I called extensis today and was on the phone with tech support for an hour and tried to clean up, clear font caches and 2 tests... Extensis said today that the problem is with Acrobat and we'll need to wait on adobe to get their asses moving to resolve this issue, sorry.

[HaoleBoy]

Thanks for doing the leg work on this.  I have the same issue and it has ground my design work to a halt with deadlines looming.  This is not good.  Hopefully, one of these companies will take responsibility and fix it quickly.

[Wade_Zimmerman1]

I would really suggest another Font manager.

[HaoleBoy]

Is it certain that Suitcase is the problem and other font managers will be fine if substituted?

[ecuadorian-in-charge]

That is the BIG question, and I am waiting on adobe to confirm, if this is a SUITCASE/EXTENSIS problem. WHen I had extensis tech support, we did a test where you turn OFF suitcase (thru preferences) and launch any illustrator file, especially those file that have gone corrupt, and the file did not open... Which points the problem / issue to adobe illustrator / acrobat, sorry I do not have a resolution, but if this helps, I lost 1.5 days of work because of this problem.

[HaoleBoy]

Yes, but was the file corrupt because of Fusion first?  If so, then turning it off and trying to open a file is closing the barn doors after the cows are gone.

Here is some info about my experience:

I took an existing CS3 file I did last year with Fusion installed and working that needed to be reworked for this year and saved it as CS4.  Then I made extensive changes to it and hit cmd-s and it said it couldn't save it.  So I did a "save as" and it seemed to save OK.  However, once the file was closed and I tried to reopen it, it threw this "badly formatted error".

So today, as a test, I opened a different old AICS3 file (that was created in CS3 before I upgraded to CS4 and Fusion ON) it opens fine.  I make changes to it and save as CS4 and it seems fine.  Now, this one DOESN'T have a problem and opens fine.  The only difference I see is some fonts used in one that aren't used in the other.

Soooo....

I went back to the file that I changed and was corrupt and did the same thing only I changed all the fonts to generic Arial.  It opens just fine.

So it is time to run the font doctor and any other tests I can to see what the problem is.  It appears that some fonts aren't playing nice with either Fusion, CS4 or Snow Leopard.

Stay tuned .....

[agotcher]

I'm running 10.5.8, CS4 and Fusion2..... everything was fine with the files opening and saving... until I was prompted to update the fusion2 for SL. Then they got corrupted. It has to be the Fusion2 update! I'm going to reinstall the preUpdate version or just keep it off until they fix it. You would think they would test it before they push it out. Just to have a SL ready version. I doubt it's CS4.

[HaoleBoy]

I think I may have solved the issue that I am having.  I ran Font Doctor and there were many duplicate fonts, bad fonts, missing bitmaps, etc.  I got rid of the duplicates and bad fonts.  The important thing here is to run it over and over until you get a clean report after moving bad files each time.  It finds more issues after fixing some.  If you just run it once, you will not get all issues resolved.  Keep re-running it on all font folders you have until you get that error-free report.

After doing this, I went in and did the same process with the same files that errored before and it was fine.  Unfortunately, the original that I worked so many hours on is apperantly corrupt and unsalvageable.

I will rebuild the job today and report back whether all is still good in a real-world project and not just a short test.

[HaoleBoy]

I worked on the project for a while, saving every so often, and all was well.  Then, all of a sudden, the same error came up and the whole thing is bad again.

So I went back to CS3 and did the whole thing over again and it works just fine with Snow Leopard and the latest Suitcase Fusion.

It looks like Adobe needs to fix Illustrator CS4.  Until then, I will continue to work in CS3.  I don't think it is Snow Leopard or Suitcase Fusion.

[Eye-T]

Hi,

I just encountered the same problem, nearly lost a days work. However I have found a way to 'crow bar' the corrupt file back into Illustrator.

If you right click the .ai that wont open and choose 'open with' then 'preview' the preview allows you to save the fike as a PDF, which will them open in InDesign.

You will loose anything outside the page frame and text is outlined, but for the most part you can continue where you left off.

Its a dirty fix, but in my case it has saved me doing alot of legwork to get back to where I was.

But really this issue is a discrace.

Adobe sort it out!!!

[Wade_Zimmerman1]

Did you try opening that pdf in Illustrator and resaving it?

And I am wondering if you try to place the file in an empty Ai document instead of opening it?

BTW if the problem is a Suitcase problem then really Adobe has little control over it being fixed and I suggest again you switch Font Managers.

[Eye-T]

Sorry, yes I did, indesign was a typo! I meant Illustrator.

Illustrator opens the PDF fine. and actually the last one i did the font is not outlined either.

After that saving seems OK, but it could happen again at any moment, for now I am turning off PDF in save as dialogue and saving as CS3 so i can keep working with old mac  if CS4 keeps misbehaving.

[Wade_Zimmerman1]

You are not reading my post correctly change your font manager.

If you use Illustrator you do not want to use Suitcase.

[Eye-T]

I read your posts, and I hear what you are saying, but how can you be sure that suitcase is the bad apple here?