Export Interactive PDF saves in acrobat v1.7 but Safari viewer needs v2.0

[MCarioti]

I have just discovered an issue with the Interactive PDF Export function out of ID (yes, I'm using the latest iteration of ID). Apparently, ID exports Interactive PDFs as Acrobat v1.7, which present some dysfunctional behaviors in Safari PDF viewer. I was told by our website design/maintenance firm that the Safari PDF browser needs Acrobat v.2.0 (supposedly the standard set in 2017!) and that's why we're having page display issues in Safari. InDesign does not allow for selection of PDF "versions" in its export function for Interactive PDF as it does when creating a normal PDF. So if anyone knows of a way to "upgrade" the version to Acrobat 2.0 after the Interactive PDF is exported, I'd appreciate hearing about it. Or if there are plugins to ID that allow for creation of Interactive PDF in the later Acrobat version, please let me know what those might be and I'll give them a try. Thanks for your help!

[BobLevine]

PDF 2.0 is nothing but a nice idea at this point. So, a few things to keep in mind. Beyond Acrobat or Reader on a desktop, interactive PDF is a crapshoot. Note that you are exporting Adobe PDF. Browsers are not PDF readers beyond very basic display.

I have no idea where you're getting your information from, but for you own good, stop.

[MCarioti]

Actually, the browsers have been handling what I need pretty well, overall. Right now, the interactive PDF that I've created has functioning bookmarks from TOC, text anchor links, buttons for links to internal pages and hyperlinks to external web pages. These all function successfully in Safari, Firefox and Chrome. The difficulty seems to be in Safari, when a certain page in the PDF is called by clicking a hyperlink on an html index page, the browser PDF viewer sometimes displays the requested page and sometimes it's just blank. It's not consistent. Or, depending on the version of Safari, it can also always display the first page of the PDF no matter what page was targeted. This display issue does not happen in Firefox or Chrome. I don't know why our website vendor mentioned the Acrobat 2.0 as being relevant when asked about this issue, but it sure sounds like that is not a definitive answer, from what I've been reading. I may have to discuss with my client moving to HTML5 with these documents in the future, since this is probably only going to get worse as time goes on.

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com · Accepted solution]

PDF 2.0 is relatively new and consequently, the specifications for its new features are, as far as I know, not yet deployed widely throughout the industry.

Every feature you listed is defined in PDF 1.7, so there shouldn't be any need for 2.0 in your projects. Buttons, hyperlinks, bookmarks, etc. should all function in 1.7.

And interactive features in PDF 2.0 aren't defined thoroughly enough in the main PDF standard: you'll need to incorporate the forthcoming PDF/UA-2 standards to get some advanced functionality. And then it'll take a few more years before these standards weave their way into browsers and other technologies.

As @BobLevine said, browsers are not PDF readers/processors that are compliant with any version of the PDF standards. I love Bob's term: it's a crapshoot what the end user will experience when opening a PDF in a browser, and there's nothing you, I, Adobe, your contractor, or the PDF standards committee can do to correct that.

It's up to the browser manufacturers to get their act together and provide the functionality end users need.

Of all the browsers/producers out there, our experience is that Apple's Safari and Preview are the worst. It's a decision by Apple.

So why not encourage your website visitors to use Firefox, Chrome, or MS Edge and steer them away from Safari? MS Edge has added some user features that no one else is touching right now; it has put its Immersive Reader into the browser that allows those with low vision, blindness, dyslexia, reading disorders, and cognitive disabilities to access websites much easier than other browsers. I'm impressed with what MS has done with this technology.

Edge also has a built-in PDF viewer with editing capabilities. Quite a bit ahead of the pack at this time!

—Bevi

US delegate to the ISO committees that write the PDF, PDF/UA, PDF/A, PDF/X, et al standards for everything PDF.

[MCarioti]

Thank you for your very clear answer. I have passed your words along to my client so I don't wind up being asked to go down a black hole of unfixable fixes for the problem we're having. At this point, I'm hoping a minimal percentage of our audience for this document is using Safari. Anyone using the other browsers should have no problem, and this format works very well for us at this time. I appreciate your help and Bob's as well. Thank you!