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

[MatthewLaun]

@jdnorman,

Strange; I've never heard of bad data in that source causing issues with PDF export. If you have your case number, I'd love to follow up and chat with the agent who provided the solution, and get them some praise as well.

The SING system is primarily used in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean typography for the purposes of handling "gaiji" characters. So for most users the datastore should have nothing but boiler plate data, but there have been cases of that data becoming corrupted. For example, see this article:

"InDesign hangs/freezes when attempting to open or create a document."

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/408/kb408816.html

Cheers!

Matthew

[christa.eagleton]

This suggestion didn't work for us.

Our problem occurs when we try to OVERWRITE (not WRITE) a PDF that's currently "linked" to an email (Apple Mail) that's open in the background. To date, the only solution we've been given by ADOBE and APPLE is to quit Mail.

Hope it works for someone!

Christa

[jdnorman]

@ Matthew - thanks for the fast reply. Here's the case # - 181910243. I've had no problems exporting PDFs in the background since deleting the Datasource file in the Mark II / SING directory.

@ Christa - the overwriting PDF issue is true of all apps, not just Adobe's, trying to overwrite a file that's been used by Mail. I've had the same issue trying to replace a jpeg or other file that I had previously attached to a mail message. Regarding PDFs, I simply export to the desktop to avoid overwriting a file, then delete the unwanted PDF and replace in position with the new one. Another workaround is to just append your filename with a number to indicate a file progression and just not overwrite the file. That's what our studio of 8 designers has been doing for quite some time.

[noldo9]

I am suddenly discovering this problem in ID CS5. Not only am I having "failed" PDFs, but when I do succeed in getting a single page exported, I find that the Tab settings have not been read correctly and they are all over the place.

This is a file that was previously built in ID CS4 and exported correctly. Can I get it back into that version of ID?

I am on an iMac 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo running OS 10.6.5. All Adobe CS5 apps have been updated to current versions.

I tried turning off Preflight, but that has not really helped. It seems that there are perhaps some issues with the file itself now since the tab issue has arisen.

I am not getting any crashes of ID or Acrobat. Just failures to export and the messed up tabs.

Any help yet? How can I put this document back into CS4 where it works properly?

[Peter Spier]

Export to .idml. That will open in both CS5 and CS4. I would try opening in CS5 first and see if it clears up the export problems before going back to CS4.

[noldo9]

Thanks Peter. I did try it in CS5 after exporting to .idml (very happy that option is there) but the export to PDF still failed. Opening the file in CS4 was best, the file exported cleanly and the tabs stayed put.

I can't imagine what the problem must be with ID CS5. . . either the background action, an issue with older files, some kind of conflict with Acrobat? In any case, I guess I'll be taking InDesign CS5 out of the dock for now and working with the version I can trust. I hope the folks at Adobe are working on this and not just relying on us to find workarounds. When they issue a new update I'll try it again, but cute corners on my boxes don't beat confidence in exporting to a PDF.

[Peter Spier]

There are enough reports like this one around here that I recommend exporting any legacy file to either .inx or .idml BEFORE conversion to CS5. That seems to work pretty well at preventing this type of issue, but of course is not much help after you've already opened and edited the .indd. Sometimes sending the CS5 file through .idml will straighten it out, but it isn't as reliable as having started with an interchange doc to begin with.

I never had any trouble converting any of my own legacy files, but I'm not one to push my luck, so the export before conversion workflow is now standard operating prcedure here.

[noldo9]

Very interesting. That has never been part of my own work flow, but I'll definitely incorporate it from now on. Thanks for the tip.

Here's to a future where all files flow smoothly from an app to its upgrade without hassle!

[Peter Spier]

There were a lot of changes under the hood in CS5. I'm not all that surprised that some problems escaped detection during testing since there are so many ways to achieve the same visual effect in ID and no two users work in exactly the same way.

[Morten Agertoft]

Hello

Is there any one who have problem with exporting to PDF that is using the Font Activation plugin from Extensis Universal Type Client?

I've tested some documents which will not export to PDF. When I remove the Font Activation plugin it does.

[Peter Spier]

Suitcase font activation plugins are frequently implicated in problems like this.

[michael cavotta]

I'm also noticing goofy tab behavior on export to PDF.  Never seen this kind of thing with ID before.  Running 7.0.3 and VERY annoyed that a simple tab structure is breaking on export.

[MatthewLaun]

It's true, we have a known issue with PDF export when a right-aligned leader tab is followed by a left-aligned tab. This issue is tracked as issue #2763525. If you wish to put in your vote for it's fix, submit a report referencing that issue number in our bug report form:

https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform

The issue is documented with the only current workaround here:

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/885/cpsid_88589.html

Matthew

[Guest]

I Everyone,

i bumbed in this thread as many, looking for a solution to this endless background export to pdf. We're also experiencing it and hope will be fixed soon ['cause its cool to have background tasks :)], but in the meantime here's what we have tryed and what worked so far:

- on a small document, converting all the text to curves, did work [1 page document]

- turning off preflight -> close and reopen the document -> export with presets and/or new profiles-> worked just once but its worth a try

- import the document into a book then export the book as PDF (in foreground) always works like a charm

- using this script http://indesignsecrets.com/forum/general-indesign-topics/pdf-export-problems-with-cs5 works as the above

- saving a postscript file and then distill it, works as usual

so there are many workarounds, we're happy to continue working almost as usual, anyway we hope to hear good news soon !

Cheers

Visualtricks

[MatthewLaun]

@Visualtricks,

If you have a doc that will hang in background mode in CS5 7.0.3, but exports successfully in foreground mode, I'd very much like to get a copy so that I can get our developers to investigate and see if we have another cause of stranded threads. Contact me directly, or post it to sendnow.acrobat.com and share it with me that way, or FTP, etc.

Sincerely,

Matthew

[Hamb1e]

You know, I used to always defend Adobe when people said they were frustrated by them, but its getting harder and harder. Last week I had a fully functioning CS3 + Acrobat 9 system, which I foolishly upgraded to CS5, thinking that months after it's release all issues would have been resolved by now and it would be better and faster and all the things one would expect from an upgrade. But have they? Nope.

Quite aside from the ridiculous lag that InDesign now exhibits in everyday use, on a 2x3Ghz, 8GB Quad-Core Intel machine, there's a slew of stupid new features that can't be turned off. Background pdf creation? That stupid rounded corners yellow box? Automatic guides popping up all over the place? If you're going to add these 'amazing' new features Adobe, at least give us the option to turn them OFF and get back to just working sensibly.

But the biggest issue is making PDFs from InDesign. Somehow Adobe have taken something that worked flawlessly and simply in CS3 and made it into a goddam mess. Fonts disappearing or jumping... graphic elements disappearing. Ok – known issue perhaps, I'll run an update. 'Adobe Acrobat update failed'. Okay, I'll waste time uninstalling, reinstalling and trying again from scratch... 'Adobe Acrobat upgrade failed'...

What the hell are you people *doing* over there? How can you screw up things that were *working* fine? You're supposed to be fixing things that *didn't* work, not tampering with things that *did*. Can you please take a leaf out of Apple's book a'la Snow Leopard and get back to bloody basics – I don't care how long it takes you, get CS6 right for gods sake. I like your software – I want to use it, but you're now putting barriers up that make me hate it as much as I hate MS Powerpoint. And now I'm faced with having to weight up the choice of simply downgrading eight machines to CS3 again and getting a refund for this useless piece of CS5 junk, or bearing with it and wasting hours and hours getting it all working properly, if it ever will.

I'd like to assume that CS6 will either be either free or a $29 upgrade to CS5 users as an apology for this debacle, but I guess that's hoping a bit much. At this rate Microsoft might as well buy Adobe, and then Apple can get on with developing their own design suite that 'just works'.

One more time – I used to like you Adobe, but you are seriously trying my and many other users patience. Can you please wake up and smell the takeover before it's too late.

[Guest]

Hi,

I've to make pubblic amend because as the newbiest noob i didn't looked for the most logical solution before posting here. I'm so used to investigate bugfixes on forums that I didn't check if there was an update available and..there was actually. Updating to 7.0.3 solved the pdf export issue.

Thanks Matthew for your concern!

Cheers

Massimiliano

[MatthewLaun]

@Massimiliano,

I'm so glad to hear it. Happy holidays!

Matthew

[claidheamdanns]

I am experiencing the same issue. All day long, it will export one PDF fine, then the next document I open, it doesn't matter what, it will hang on the export ... after several minutes, I have to crash out of the program and restart. It will then PDF the same document that was hanging, in a matter of seconds. And then it hangs on the next document.

Some days are worse than others. Some days it will go for quite a number of PDFs without hanging.

I am running Leopard. CS5, with everything consistently updated to the latest version.

I had thought perhaps it was a memory issue, but I have a 2x3 GHs Dual-Core Intel Xeon, with 10GB 667 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM Ram, so this shouldn't be a problem.

Extremely frustrating. I can open up the same docs in CS4 and PDF all day long, faster. Even the docs that do PDF out of CS5 seem to take twice as long.

[jdnorman]

This problem continues to crop up for me with no real rhyme or reason. It vanishes, then returns, on the same documents. Calls to Adobe solve the issue temporarily, but it crops up again within days on the same document.

I've grown frustrated calling Adobe support for help, and have started to use an "export PDF in foreground" script instead. You can find it here -

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

You can't continue working in InDesign while your PDF exports, but that's better than crashing and getting no PDF at all.

[claidheamdanns]

I should mention, too, that this is using the built-in [Smallest File Size] setting, with no changes. This is not with any custom presets.

[camiczoernie]

I began experiencing the same type of hangup everyone else seems to have when I installed CS5. I finally took the advice of an earlier poster and installed a scripting solution written by Uwe Laubender for exporting PDFs in "foreground" that seems to have solved the problem. My only gripe now is with Adobe for ignoring the issue.

[MatthewLaun]

@camiczoernie,

We here at Adobe are definitely not ignoring these kinds of issues. Our InDesign 7.0.3 release contained a fix for one cause of hanging PDF export background tasks, there could be others. I would welcome any files and information that can reliably reproduce a crash or other failure in PDF export. Please feel free to send me a direct message and we can work off list to understand the failure and get it reproducible in house for our engineering teams to look into.

Sincerely,

Matthew

[claidheamdanns]

Matthew,

I am glad to see that someone there is paying attention. A lot of times it doesn't seem this way.

I do know that this problem is pretty wide-spread. I am hearing it from every sector. I heard our prepress manager roundly cursing out InDesign CS5, and calling it nothing more than a public beta this morning.

I'd be happy to send you some files. However, I don't think it is file specific. For me, for instance, yesterday, every second file would hang. And it didn't seem to matter at all which file it was. All day the first file upon opening CS5 would work fine, and then the second one would hang, and I would have to force quit the app on the second export. When InDesign would boot up again, it was the same thing again. The file that had previously crashed would make its PDF in a matter of seconds and then the next file opened would hang, and the program would have to be force quit.

Today, things have been running pretty smoothly. I've only had to force quit twice today, I think.

Gavin

[MatthewLaun]

Gavin,

If I can reproduce it, I can get to the root cause, and push for a fix or find some solution. Without being able to reproduce it, there's not much I can do. I know it seems widespread, but there are thousands of technical support calls a day that could end up escalating to me, and I'm not getting PDF export issues raised, so those affected must be a subset, so that effectively makes this a hunt for a needle in a haystack. You can post files at sendnow.adobe.com, or use your favorite file sharing site, then send me a private message by clicking on my name in the thread. Even if I have to export them over and over all day to reproduce it, I'll gladly do so if it makes the product more stable in the future.

Cheers!

Matthew