My Adobe PDF Presets Don't Show Up in Illustrator CC

Report · Jul 03, 2019

This is really odd. On my Mac that has upgraded from one version of AI CC to another, the latest Illustrator CC 23.0.4 has some really odd behavior that may have been introduced in an earlier version.

I have PDF Presets (.joboptions) in the correct Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe PDF/Settings/ folder. How do I know? Adobe InDesign finds them. And in AI, they show up in Edit > Adobe PDF Presets list.

But no presets are available in two circumstances:

1. File > Save As as Adobe PDF, the only preset that comes up is "[Illustrator Default]"!?!?!?! My presets don't show up at all.

2. In File > Export > Export for Screens doesn't allow me to add a PDF file type. So, when I click on the configuration settings gear and select file type PDF, only "[Smallest File Size]" is available. Even though the dialog help text says to go to Edit > Adobe PDF Presets!?!?!

On a new installation on another mac (my second machine using the same license, so far it seems to work fine. I have reset AI (Shift+Cmd+Option] to start and I have completely uninstalled and reinstalled. Twice! I am really confused. Does anybody have a solution?

Report · Jul 04, 2019

Well, surprisingly, it appears that if you use the Wacom Cintiq Pro driver and you specify that display on macOS as the one to host the AI app, menu options are limited to one Adobe PDF Preset item (the default). If I select the All Displays option on the AI app icon on the dock and move the app to the Cintiq it works. There's something about forcing an app to a display. The configuration is an iMac Pro with two displays: LG 5K 27 and the Wacom Cintiq Pro 24. I've seen menu pull-down issues in AI before on the CIntiq Pro but I could get around those.

It is easy to reproduce by switching between Options > All Displays and Options > Display 2 (my Cintiq). I will also try on another configuration (MacBook Pro and Cintiq Pro 13/16).

If Adobe watches this thread, please try and reproduce and talk to Wacom. I find Wacom's support to be absolutely useless.

Report · Jul 06, 2019

One more check. Using a Cintiq Pro 16 on MacBook Pro, the issue with Adobe Illustrator doesn't show up. ALthough this seemns hard to believe the issue of missing Adobe PDF Presets (and other odd AI menu option lists not showing up correctly) is on the latest macOS (Mojave) and with the Cintiq Pro 24 and maybe the Cintiq Pro 30.

Report · Mar 19, 2021

this issue is solely due to the way Illustrator reads the PDF/X standards compliance versions — an issue they've since addressed — and not due to anything from Wacom.

I'm only here saying this because I've had people come to me with this issue, citing this post, asking to have their Wacom drivers updated.

The solutions are to recreate the export presets within Illustrator, manually modify the .joboptions files to address the version compliance, or upgrade Illustrator.

Report · Dec 11, 2019

Hello, I recently did the Illustrator CC update to 24.0.1 and now only the standard PDF preset options show. What is strange, that in the PDF presets window, Illustrator sees them but they are just not available whan I save as a PDF. I tried a restart, tried to delete and reimport (got an error that Illustrator does not recognize as valid *.joboption), and uninstall (with removing preferences option) and reinstall ... still no custom PDF presets. I have no problem in InDesign CC (15.0.1) or Photoshop CC (21.0.2) both of which my custom PDF presets load and are available when exporting/saving as PDF.

Report · Jan 16, 2020

Also experiencing this issue. Multiple machines in an enterprise deployment. This has always functioned as it should in previous versions of Illustrator CS/CC, up until 2017. (confirmed in mutiple installations of both 2017 & 2019 versions of AI.)

Some custom .joboptions files appear and are editable, others are not and cannot be loaded.

Loading .joboptions presets in any other CC app adds them to the list for every CC app. Loading them again loads duplicates. (.joboptions 1, 2...)

They simply don't appear in the Save As > PDF presets, though other custom ones do.

Can't find what specifically is different enough across them (they all have different options) that some can be edited or exported and some cannot. Those that do appear in the Save As dialog, when viewed in the Edit > Adobe PDF Presets... dialog, have the option to Export or Edit, or create a new preset based on it. Those .joboptions files that do not appear in the Save As dialog, the Export and Edit options are grayed out, even though they are listed.

In any other CC app these .joboptions files can be Loaded in the Edit > Adobe PDF Presets dialog. They then appear in that dialog in Illustrator. But while the Edit or Export options are grayed out, they also cannot be loaded. Any attempt to load them returns the error, "The preset '[X]' is not recognized as a valid .joboptions file."

As I said, these presets have multiple options. Most are using PDF/X-4, though some are not. Most are converting to CMYK, others don't. Also ZIP compression, downsampling, marks, no marks, etc. There is no consistency that I've found why some work in Illustrator (and it is only Illustrator) and some do not — for example, specifying a PDF compatibility level, color space, resolution or standard in one works, but not another. Even the length of the .joboptions file name isn't consistent in determining which work.

As a workaround, we've resorted to making new custom presets within Illustrator that duplicate the settings in the other .joboptions files — those, created within Illustrator, do work.

Looking for a reason a .joboptions file created in InDesign wouldn't also work in Illustrator, when others with similar settings don't have an issue.

Report · Jan 16, 2020

OK, I found the issue:

( @Software_Maniac: I don't know if this exactly solves your issue, where you can't see the default exports, but it fixes mine, where joboptions files were "invalid.")

The issue is Illustrator, both CC 2017 & 2019, can't read .joboptions files that specify Standard: PDF/X-4:2010 — specifically 2010. It needs to be PDF/X-4:2007.

This is confusing, because when you Edit or create a New PDF Export preset, or in the Save As... > PDF settings and specify PDF/X-4 in the dialog, is says, PDF/X-4:2010. But what's written into the .joboptions file is:

/CheckCompliance [
    /PDFX4:2007

I discovered this comparing a .joboptions file that was working in Illustrator to one that was not. Both specified PDF/X-4. Both, when viewed in InDesign, Photoshop or Illustrator (the one that worked) said, "Standard: PDF/X-4:2010" (they were created in InDesign, but at different times.) But opening both up in BBEdit (or any text editor), on line 20-21* was:

/CheckCompliance [
/PDFX4:2007

...for the one that was working;

/CheckCompliance [
/PDFX4:2010

...for the one that was not.

(* it may be lines 133-134 in some .joboptions files, depending on how they were written—it is in some of mine. You may have to search for the text.)

I manually changed "2010" to "2007" et voilá, it suddenly worked. It was available as a Save As preset. I was able to Export, re-Import and Edit the settings. And editing it within Illustrator, each time it saves as PDF/X-4:2007 — even though "2010" is what appears in the dialog.

My next step is testing it in CC 2020 to see if this bug has been fixed.

Report · Jan 16, 2020

if anyone here knows how to "@"-tag any developers, please let me know. I really think this should be addressed.

Report · Jan 16, 2020

also want to note: any files that have a "CheckCompliance" of "/None" or any version below X-4:2007 (e.g. X-1a) also have no issues working.

Report · Jan 17, 2020

UPDATE: tested in CC 2020 — issue still persists.

Report · Jan 16, 2020

dcardillo-prh wrote:

"if anyone here knows how to "@"-tag any developers, please let me know. I really think this should be addressed."

Hi

In Illustrator, go to Help > Submit Bug / Feature Request to report this to the developers and to track it yourself.

~ Jane

Report · Apr 16, 2020

Any update here? I just upgraded from AI 22 to 23.1. Since that I have the same issue like described above by many others. InDesign finds all joboptions. Also in AI, they show up in Edit > Adobe PDF Presets. But not in Save as PDF...
Deinstalled it and tried the newest 24.1.1. Still same issue. And now i can't get back to AI 22 because it's not available anymore in the Cloud - GREAT!
WTF Adobe!? You get a lot of money. Don't make me swap to Affinity/Serif too!

Report · Apr 16, 2020

Hello ...

I manually changed the compliance in text edit from ... 2010 to 2007 as mentioned above post by dcardillo-prh:

...

/CheckCompliance [
/PDFX4:2007

...for the one that was working;

/CheckCompliance [
/PDFX4:2010

...for the one that was not.

(* it may be lines 133-134 in some .joboptions files, depending on how they were written—it is in some of mine. You may have to search for the text.)

I manually changed "2010" to "2007" et voilá, it suddenly worked. It was available as a Save As preset. I was able to Export, re-Import and Edit the settings. And editing it within Illustrator, each time it saves as PDF/X-4:2007 — even though "2010" is what appears in the dialog.

Now all of my .joboptions show up in Illustrator during save as.

Report · Apr 17, 2020

Hello Emily. Thanks. I know this will do the job but don't get me wrong - it can't be the solution that WE are the ones who find workarounds for problems in Adobe software. Adobe get our money (a lot of money) also for support. And from 23.0.4 to 24.1.1 the problem is still not fixed even though we gave them the solution already? Sad Story.

Report · Jun 10, 2020

Hi, had the same issue, plus the toggles on my tools would not work, pulldown in the prefs panels would not work either. I had just bough a tablet and was playing with all kinds of settings which messed up a lot of things. The answer for me was to go to the app icon on the dock, right click, and select options>all desktops. That did the trick, I was getting really frustrated, but managed to get it to work. Good luck!

Report · Feb 25, 2021

This worked for me. Thank you very much!

Report · Feb 23, 2023

Worked for me too. Crazy.

My Adobe PDF Presets Don't Show Up in Illustrator CC

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