PDF EMBEDDING ISSUE

[GVG_Sandy]

I have a PDF file of a book that I designed in 2009. It was created in QuarkXpress. There are code edits and pubishing credits that are changing. I imported all pages which created placed single page PDFs. When I select a page to embed so that changes can be made, the size changes. All fonts are loaded. I am working in CC 2019. Has anyone ever seen this problem? 

[Monika Gause]

Illustrator is not a general purpose PDF editor. You have to be prepared for anything to happen.

Can you show a screenshot?

[GVG_Sandy]

Absolutely understood! Just trying to salvage 250 pages. Incidentally, flatten transparency does not change the size, just embed. Screenshots attached.

PlacedEmbedded

[Monika Gause]

What is the nature of the edits? Text?

Probably you can place all the pages in an InDesign document and then mask out what needs editing and leave the rest as is?

[GVG_Sandy]

Yes, it should be only a few pages that change, but was hoping to find a way for the author to have an editable manuscript. Honestly, I thought I had seen the end of this project 9 years ago, lol.

[Monika Gause]

Even if you manage to get it into Illustrator and solve the sizing issue, there won't be an editable manuscript. This will be at least every line of text a single text object. Often there will be several text objects in one line. How do you expect anyone to edit that?

Get a copy of QuarkXPress and edit the source file.

[Test Screen Name]

If the original is lost, it looks (from this page) to be a simple book without illustrations. If so, you should be able to extract the text using Acrobat, quickly delete the header and footers, and remake it - either in Word for the author to revise, or directly in InDesign for you to revise. This seems like a lot less work than you proposed, with a lot less pain...

[GVG_Sandy]

Thanks for the suggestion. Not lost, just in Quark. As Monika_Gause suggested I will try to find a bureau that has quark and get them to export for me. I don't think I'm interested in owning quark again, haven't touched it in almost a decade. The book is more than just text, custom headers and footers and photos throughout. 

[SJRiegel]

Depending on the complexity and scope of the required edits, it might be possible to make the changes in Acrobat Pro. 

[GVG_Sandy]

I can definitely make the deletions in Acrobat. I got a strange font error when I tried updating a code. Something I need to investigate further. I suspect it relates to the editability level at the original save. I will post if I find solutions. Thanks!

[Luke_Jennings]

If you have the final collected Quark file (equivalent to a packaged InDesign file), and it is in Quark version 4.1 or earlier, you can try to open it in InDesign and save it (File> Open). If it's in version 5, and someone has Quark 5 running, it can be opened in Q5 and saved as Q4. If it's newer than Q5, your best bet is to look into software that will convert it for you (Markzware). You will still need to throughly proofread the book in InDesign and probably make fixes. 

If you open the original PDF in Acrobat and go to File> Properties> Description, it might tell you which version of Quark produced the PDF.

[GVG_Sandy]

Thanks! I'll look into it a little deeper. Tried that initially and had no luck, but INDD is not my best app.

[Monika Gause]

I still have a working copy of InDesign CS6. Can try if it opens the old Quark file.

[GVG_Sandy]

Thanks for the offer. I do have INDD CS6. It is not able to open. The PDFs that were created from QXP indicate the original files were 7.5.