Problems making a PDF from Indesign CS5

[Teddy_Boi_Toronto]

Hi friends. I have recently switched to CS5 and I find that I usually need to close the program and then reopen it before I can make a PDF. It says it is working in the background but all it does is spin without creating the PDF. Anyone else having this problem? 

TED

[goanna2]

Export to pdf using new presets works fine for exporting 1 file (48pg magazine artwork)- trying to export a second 48pg magazine at the same time doesn't work. Background tasks fail, forcing a restart .

[Guest]

Any suggestions from any user or adobe person on how to turn off the "background tasks" process?

Even if it involves hacking inside the program?

Hey Adobe, is this likely to ensure something that worked so well (and a fairly crucial function) in the previous version can work again with this version? [Ok, I probably don't expect to receive an honest answer from them regarding whether disabling this 'new' feature will improve performance]

[Laubender]

chumeister wrote: "Any suggestion from any user…"

@chumeister:

to quote myself 😉 :

P.S. I posted a ExtendScript (JavaScript) at the InDesignSecrets  forum for exporting to PDF as a foreground process. Feel free to try out  the code:

http://indesignsecrets.com/forum/general-indesign-topics/pdf-export-problems-with-cs5#2709

Uwe

P.P.S.: the forum system messes up the URL above. Just eliminate the blank character in the word "problems" to get the link right…

[MatthewLaun]

@chumeister,

If the script posted on InDesignSecrets.com allows you to export the same file with the same settings without error, then you are definitely running into the issue we are aware of regarding the PDF background export (aka multi-threading). Follow this forum thread for updates on that issue:

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/648567?start=50&tstart=0

Sincerely,

Matthew

[Thomas Dearie]

Hi Matthew

The details of our problems exporting may help fill some gaps.

We're opening a 392 page document with multiple fonts and images, created in CS4. (A slide show for our college course.)

It opens and views fine in CS5.

When exporting to PDF via Adobe Presets or via Export... CS5 crashes immediately after we exit the PDF settings dialog box. We get no background process window etc. The program just crashes and closes.

If we output only pages 1 to 100, it outputs fine.

If we include pages 1 to 110, it crashes.

But if we export pages 101 to 110, it exports fine.

So the problem is not a single element that's corrupt.

We've replaced/removed all master pages and the problem persists.

Many other page combinations crash. Binary isolation hasn't worked for us yet, as there are too many page combinations that crash.

We have no problem exporting PDFs of files built entirely in CS5, but we've only tested very simple documents. We're afraid to commit any time to using the app as it is. (We've already burned a couple of thousand dollars worth of time.)

We're on Mac 10.6.4

Students report the same problems with legacy files, as well as a range of other bugs moving back and forth between CS4 and CS5, even with IDML.

We're hoping for a solution soon, as we're rolling out CS5 in the next semester and we're headed for an extremely expensive train crash.

Matthew - are you interested in receiving our 392 page file? It contains a lot of fonts and links, but I'll prep it for download if you think it will help.

Cheers and thanks

Tom

[Thomas Dearie]

Hallelujah

Our incident above was solved using the method described in the thread Matthew referred others to.

We added the document to an InDesign Book, closed the document, and exported the book to PDF from the Book Panel Options Menu.
PDF exported 392 pages in the foreground without problem.

It appears the background export function was circumvented and the PDF was exported in the foreground. I can't be certain that background export was the problem, as our export crashed before we were notified that any processing was done.

Thanks Matthew.

Net cost: $1600, but happy and extremely relieved to have this solved before more costs ran up.

[BobLevine]

Glad to hear it worked for such a large document. While I tested it with some smaller ones, I never had the background task freeze up that others were having so I couldn't be 100% sure it would work.

Bob

[Thomas Dearie]

Thanks Bob - I neglected to mention you made the suggestion.

Saved us a lot of trial and error!

[MatthewLaun]

Everyone having troubles exporting PDFs in the background,

Can you try a test to confirm our findings? Take a document that you know is failing in the background, confirm it still fails (force quit InDesign to get back to a working state 😞 Now disable Preflight and try it again?

Note that the current theory is that a component is unexpectedly hanging on to some memory it shouldn't be, so the size of the document is not the issue, simply the document and application circumstances to cause that component to be working while you're trying to export to PDF.

Thanks for any feedback you can offer, and for your patience while we try to address this.

Matthew

[goanna2]

Export to pdf (even using a new pre-set) failed when there was overset

text reported. Had to force-quit, removed overset text and pdf exported

with no problems.

Liz

[anne.brissette]

Works for me so far!

[MatthewLaun]

All,

There's a very important piece of information that I need to add to the workaround regarding preflight to make it effective, and a fair test to see if your issue is related to the underlying problem for which we have a fix in the works.

When you disable preflight, it's critical that you close all open InDesign documents, then reopen them, confirm the preflight is still disabled, and try your PDF export again. If you only disable preflight and don't close all documents, it doesn't release the PSLib task, so the problem will still happen.

So, if you tried the workaround and you still had a failure, please try again with this important modification. If it works for you, congratulations, your issue will be addressed soon. If you're still having troubles, again, post the document and its assets and private message me the link.

Thank you all for your patience.

Sincerely,

Matthew

[dooooobie]

Hi Matthew, I just got Indesign CS5 and have experienced these exporting PDF issues. Has this issue been addressed yet (it's now November)?

[BobLevine]

Have you installed the 7.0.3 update?

Bob

[dooooobie]

Not yet, will that do the trick?

[BobLevine]

Supposedly.

Bob

[dooooobie]

Just loaded it and all seems good so far, I'll give a day or so and see how it

performs, thanks.

[TimeCruncher]

I've read that Adobe made exporting a pdf in Indesign CS5 to work in the background so you can go on to something else. Big mistake. I have to be able to see that pdf right away and continue on with my current job. CS4 made the pdfs so fast you didn't have to wait for it to process in the background. Unfortunately, I cannot go back to CS4. Tried, but I also have to deal with other people's work coming to me and it's in CS5. Tried making an .idml file so I could use CS4, but that takes as long as making a CS5 pdf.

I hope they fix this cause I am losing a lot of time out of my day waiting on these pdfs. How about Adobe pay me for the time I'm losing.

[Peter Spier]

Have you updated to the 7.0.4 patch? Did you read this whole thread and see the ways you can force export to the foreground?

Aside from that, you should not be "waiting" for the PDF export. Set the options to display when it's finished and get on with your work. Unless the export is hung (and I haven't seen a single report of hanging export in months, so the 7.0.4 update seems to have solved most issues) it shouldn't be taking any longer than CS4.

[TimeCruncher]

Thank you. I did find an answer as I read through the whole thread. I followed the instructions and now it is working fine. Thanks so much. However, that is something they should have built into CS5. Some people may have asked for the background exporting, but not all of us want it. It is so much faster without it, so I don't see why they want it going in the background. Puzzles me, but then I haven't walked a mile in their shoes. Thanks again!

[LucienSchilling]

People who create huge PDF files from huge InDesign files (I can imagine catalogues of several 100 pages) will need the background feature. But yes, It is surprising at first, when you are used the to old system. Switching the background task on or off should be an Option in the Options panel!

BTW and easily off-topic: The build-in spellchecker does not know "InDesign" .

[Laubender]

I hope I get the link right this time:
http://indesignsecrets.com/forum/general-indesign-topics/pdf-export-problems-with-cs5

Uwe

[Clement_Aanestad]

Hi all,

have fast-read most of the threads and choose to put my experience to Export PDF from ID CS5 in this thread instead of starting a new...

Have in many years used PS via Distiller, and I really trust Distiller for making god PDFs. Now, in Snow Leopard the Adobe PPD is not available and we are "forced" to Export. Have made a lot of books lately, and have experienced the Background task hanging - but only if I put several documents in a "que". One or two documents works fine. But I loose the "feeling" of the progress...the PDF is on disk and looks OK as an icon, but is not. We have to be patient. I really miss a progress bar...

Anyway, I am back to using Distiller becuase of the everlasting fontissue. Have experienced that fonts dissappears or jump.

Dissappears:

Exported a job with a lot of text. Randomly whole paragraphs are missing on different spreads, on other spreads its OK - yes, its the same font, same paragraph style, same characther style - only another spread in the same document, and its reeeaalllyyy random.

Jump:

Had a book, about 100 pages, a reprint, all I did was to open ID-file and export PDF. On one page, only, there was a fail, the word: "AUS?". When exported it said: "US?  A". The A had jumped like 5 places to the right. As seen on the pictures the person who have made the book original have played around with tabs and spaces, but I dont think that is the reason as this is done on almost all the headings. And its one textframe!

Both of this issues was solved using "god old PS - Distiller - PDF metod".

Anyone else who have experienced this kind of issue? I reeealllly dont like it.... 😞

[Thomas Dearie]

I'd like to know if anyone else is having text placement errors in PDF export of InDesign CS5 documents, such as the ones Clement mentioned.

We're about to start a 1,000 page book project, and such errors would make CS5 an absolute non-starter.

At the first sniff of something like that happening with our files, we'll have to skip CS5 and stay with CS4 in our studio, even though we're teaching CS5 at the college. We could lose a client over something like that.

I'd much appreciate hearing about anyone else's experiences.

Cheers and thanks

[Thomas Dearie]

Clement - were the problems you describe only with files created with earlier versions of InDesign? Or have you seen them in new files created in Id CS5?

Thanks

Tom