Export PDF for use on Siemens PLC

Question

For the company i work for, I create manuals for large machine-lines in InDesign CC, always newest version. We want to place the manuals into the PLC of the machine-line, but when I export the manual into PDF, there are several parts of the manual missing in the PDF on the screen of the machine. When I open the PDF on my desktop it shows every part of the page.

The machine-line our company create has a "Siemens TP1500" PLC wich has "Windows CE 6.0" as operating system. There is a PDF viewer installed on the PLC, but we can not install another viewer on this PLC. When i create a manual, some images (made of JPEG or AI files) are not viewed or half missing(especially the AI files can miss some parts of it). Also some lines/strokes/images created by InDesign I have created the same PDF several times whit all different settings. The best result (but not good yet) i got whit the settings of:

- Export as type "Adobe PDF (Print)(*.pdf)

- Adobe PDF Preset: [PDF/X-1a:2001] wich includes:

- Standard: PDF/X-1a:2001

- Compatibility: Acrobat 4 (PDF1.3)

Changed the settings in "Compression:

- Color Images "Bicubic Downsampling to: 100px per inch

for images above 150 pixels per inch

- Grayscale images "Bicubic Downsampling to: 100px per inch

for images above 150 pixels per inch

- Monochrome Images "Downsampling to: 200px per inch

for images above 300pc per inch

Changed the settings in "Output:

- Color:

Destination: U.S. Web Coated (SWOP_v2)

Does anyone has experience whit exporting PDF files for a Windows CE 6.0 device and knows how to place PDF's into the PLC? I have tried export to JPEG or PNG, but the PLC does not support these files. Has anyone a solution for this problem?

Jaspers Scheffers AMSE · Accepted Answer

Thank you all, whit all the explanations i have tested more into this. A PLC is a Programmable Logic Controller in a machine, sorry that i didn't explained this before.

I have found the solution for the problem, since the software on the PLC is very old(our supplier of the PLC does not deliver a PLC whit newer software), the PDF viewer is also very old. The problem was the PDF Compatibility, which i had to set on 1.2. I have managed to do this using a PDF printer which could set the 1.2 version and now it works.

Thank you all for the help.

Jeffrey_Smith · Answer

PLC - Programmable Logic Controller, is my guess. From the OP's description, the device can have an user manual installed, which the manual is created with Indesign, exported as PDF, and uploaded to device.

While I do not have experience with this process, I will say the content of PDF will need simplified and optimized as best as you can. For example, replace an Illustrator vector graphic with a 1-bit rasterized TIFF.

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