top of page cut off when exporting Indesign file to pdf

[Genie692]

hi there,

I've just finished working on a quite long Indesign document and am trying to export it to pdf.

when exporting I get the following message:

'1 problem was found with a background task' ....

I've no idea what the actual problem is, but it shows up as a missing section at the very top of the pdf - a bit less than a page. the rest of the document is there, and it looks fine.

the page itself is a very long narrow one - when I created it, I used a width of 1024px, and a length that I believe was around 11000 px, but I can't tell now, because when i got to 'Document Setup', it tells me that my page height is 3600px. However, I believe I'm seeing more than that on the screen.

I've tried saving as idml and exporting from there - the problem persists. I've also tried exporting as Acrobat 5 - same problem.

there are no errors in the Indesign file (little green dot)

I'm running Indesign 14.0.2, and macOS Mojave 10.14.6

any ideas? thank you  in advance.

e

[Jongware]

How big are your pixels? Maybe they are too big to store a PDF.

(Unrelated – I think – but also an interesting interpretation of "InDesign is suitable for long documents"...)

What size is your document in more scientific units? Pick anything else than pixels: millimeters, ciceros, inches ...

[Genie692]

i've now worked out the length - it's 15500 pixels long - i formatted it initially as one very long scrolling page without page breaks.

that works out to 161 inches - apparently there is a 200 inch limit for pdfs, and as far as I can tell i'm under that.

not sure what you mean by how big are my pixels? sorry i'm still learning indesign : )

[Bill Silbert]

How did you work out your conversion from pixels to inches? That conversion must be made relative to screen resolution. Try using the method from https://uproer.com/articles/image-size-calculator-px-in/ . Then see if you are actually under the size requirement for a pdf.

[Jongware]

Bill, I haven't ever selected "pixels" as a measurement system in InDesign. Would it not be the most accurate method to just select a different measurement unit inside InDesign itself? Surely that will give us the real world numbers we are looking for?

Unless it depends on local system settings. Perhaps IDCC uses the current Windows dpi settings, and the OP has a 4K-or-higher hi-res screen?

[Bill Silbert]

Jongware, the only time that I have ever selected pixels as a unit was during the "good old days" of DPS. I also prefer using something more concrete like inches or even millimeters. But since the OP is asking about a document with pixels I've tried to provide a link that works along those lines. The provided link gives instruction on getting an accurate translation to a more "real world" unit of measurement based on the resolution of the user's screen.

[rob day]

the page itself is a very long narrow one - when I created it, I used a width of 1024px, and a length that I believe was around 11000 px, but I can't tell now, because when i got to 'Document Setup', it tells me that my page height is 3600px.

Pixels are a static Ruler Unit in InDesign—you can change ruler units and get the equivalent dimensions of your page as Inches. Also the page size isn't necessarily the same as the Document Size—the Page tool lets you customize a page‘s dimensions.

So here I have my Ruler Units set to Pixels, the Page tool is selected with the Info panel open, and the Document Size and page size are both 1024 x 3600 pixels.

If I change my Ruler Units to Inches, I can see the page dimensions as inches—14.2222 x 50". If I export this page, Acrobat’s Document Properties would show the same inch dimensions.

But, I can also customize individual pages. Here the page size is different than the Document Size, and the Export will be to the custom dimension. Any page items on the pasteboard of this smaller page would get cropped on Export:

[Genie692]

ah, ok .... i've changed the ruler units to inches and .... the custom page height is showing at 214", which explains why it's getting cropped when I export it to pdf!

it's a bit annoying not being able to export it to pdf, but I may be able to get around this in the final production stages.

but in the event that I have to export it as a pdf, how do I change my custom page size to shorten the page a bit? if document size is different to page size (which makes sense), then where do i go to change the page size, if not in document setup?

thanks every one for your patience and your help so far

e

[rob day · Accepted solution]

Select the Page tool and use the Transform Panel to set the size:

Use the panel‘s reference point to set which corner the dimension is adjusted from.

I assume you are sending the doc to a large format printer. Why not export the page at 50% of its final print dimensions and have the printer output it at 200%?

[Genie692]

perfect! that's sorted it.

thank you so much.

p.s. it's not getting sent to a printer - it's for an online publication - but I will bear that in mind if they decide to print it at some point.

[rob day]

it's not getting sent to a printer - it's for an online publication

If the output is to PDF you don’t have to use Pixel ruler units. An InDesign or PDF page is a vector object—there are no pixels.

If you link to a PDF in a browser, the PDF will initially fit to the width of the browser window, its actual print output width doesn't matter. InDesign‘s dimension limit is 212", but PDF has a 200" limit. You could design to any aspect ratio as long as the long dimension doesn't exceed 200"