InDesign taking forever to export pdf

[Eshu153]

Hi Experts,

I have designed a print book with heavy graphics, background images  and watermarks it's a 250+ page book. I used interactive PDF output for all reviews with my client. Now, the print export doesn't seem to work. Happening only with this book. All others exporting fine. 

Any suggestions for this. I am missing my deadline because of this. 

I tried turning off the pre-flight too. No luck.

Thanks and regards

Eswari

[Derek Cross]

Which version of InDesign and OS?

How have you produced them print version of the  PDF (which format)?

[Eshu153]

It's CC 2017.

[Eshu153]

I tried high quality with pdfx various options. Any option, taking forever.

[Derek Cross]

Try saving your InDesign publication as an IDML document, incremental rename it and open it again in Indesign.

Choose from the InDesign Acrobat PDF presets, PDF/X-4.

[Eshu153]

Forgot to mention. I tried that already. But not pdf/x-4. Will try and check.

[Derek Cross]

It might be worth isolating the issue by dividing the document in half and testing each half and dividing the corrupt half again and continuing until you isolate the cause of the issue.

[Eshu153]

That's a good idea. Will try both and update the result.

[Eshu153]

Both these options worked.

[Ahmed Makky]

Some fonts prevent the document to be exported for print, try to choose a free font and check if this works

[Eshu153]

I am using playfair display a public domain font throughout the book.

[Willi Adelberger]

Did you use EPS graphics? Avoid them, use PDF/X-4 or AI instead, never EPS.

[Eshu153]

I have exported image files from AI and used the png files in the book.

[Eshu153]

pdf/X-4 seems to export? But is it supported for Print? IngramSpark allows only PDF/X-1a and PDF/X-3200

[Dov Isaacs]

There is no such thing as PDF/X-3200? Perhaps you mean PDF/X-3? In any case, both PDF/X-1a and PDF/X-3 are really fairly old, obsolete and lossy workflows. Modern, reliable PDF print publishing workflow calls for PDF/X-4, the PDF/X standard for which not only InDesign and Acrobat are optimized for, but virtually every RIP/DFE from the last decade or more is optimized around!

[Eshu153]

Hi

 

[Eshu153]

I meant PDF/x-3 only. I know they are pretty old formats. But unfortunately ingramspark publisher supports only PDF/x-1a and PDF/x-3 only. Even if I wanted to try PDF/x-4 to check if they got upgraded, they have additional fee for each revision for the book. So, could not take any risk. Anyhow, thank you for your information. I will surely use the PDF/x4 for all my other exports.

[Willi Adelberger]

If you import images into InDesign use only PDF/X-4 regardless what the printer requirements are. With PDF/X-4 used, you can export to any other PDF/X-Standard. Don’t use any X-3 files for import in InDesign, they cause similar problems as EPS would do.

[tonyrush]

With respect, I just edited my InDesign document to test this out.  While i have no doubts that it's more "industry standard" in terms of compatibility...in my test, it produced a file that was 3X as big as the file with PNGs (6.8Mb with PDFs versus 2.3Mb) and the rendering time (which was what the OP was inquiring about) was longer.

Again, I've no doubt that PDF/X-4 is "best practices".  But, for my use, it's definitely not a solution to speeding up render times.

Like the OP, I'd be interested in any solutions to render-time as well.  It's genuinely confusing to me that a 2.3Mb file takes this long to render on a machine that has 32Gb of RAM and a 3.4 Quad Core Intel Core i7 processor.

Anyone else have any ideas?

[BobLevine]

Please start a new discussion. This one is three years old and has been asked and answered.

I'm locking this to avoid any confusion. Feel free to link back to this if you think it will help (I don't).

[Willi Adelberger]

Why do you use PNG if you have AI files. Stick on AI, png ist never an improvement. Use PDF/X-4 if you place anything in InDesign, even if the printer asks you for a different file type. When you export, use the type of file the printer requires, but for Import (placing) no png and only PDF/X-4 or AI.

[Eshu153]

Will use pdf/x-4 for export from AI and use in InDesign. Thank you for the tip.

[Eshu153 · Accepted solution]

Hi All,

Finally, the issue is resolved. With your inputs, i tried to check what could be the issue. There is one image which is 15K pixels size and used throughtout the book. I have reduced the size down to 1/3rd around 5K pixels. It helped to generate the 286 page book in PDF/X-3200 format supported by IngramSpark in 15 minutes. 

All your suggestions have been incorporated. Thank you everyone taking time in responding.

Thanks and Regards

Eswari