Unable to Place Canva PDFs in InDesign: Error Messages and Workarounds

[CMYK36348782idg3]

We have come across a new issue when working with PDF's generated from Canva.

When we try to place these PDF's in InDesign (File>Place) we get the following error message "Failed to open the PDF file".

When we try and place the file using a custom script, we then get the error message "xxx.pdf doesn't contain a "Media" crop type.  Note, we have tried importing using all the different crop types, e.g. Crop, Art, Trim, Bleed, Media, ally Layers Bouding Box and Visible Layers Bounding Box, however none of them work.

The only option we have found that somewhat works is to open the PDF's in Illustrator then save as a PDF, then place into InDesign. However, as we often get PDF's with anywhere from 8 to 200 pages, this is not a viable solution. 

We are a printing company, and we are receiving more and more PDF's generated from Canva. We desperately need a solution to this problem as the current situation is unworkable for us.

<Title renamed by MOD>

[Willi Adelberger]

Make in Acrobat Pro, Print Production, Preflight a PDF/x Check and repair. Then place it in InDesign. 

[Eugene Tyson]

You'll need to add the media crop to the PDF in Acrobat Pro

https://helpx.adobe.com/ie/acrobat/using/crop-pdf-pages.html

PDFs created in 3rd Party apps don't always conform to the PDF standards

[Andy_Baz]

Not an ideal solution but I have found that opening the PDF in Preview (mac) and resaving as PDF, usually does the trick.

And in my experience it doesn't seem to affect the quality of the PDF when printed.

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @Andy_Baz,

Thank you for sharing your experience, Andy! Resaving the PDF in Preview is a helpful workaround, especially for those on a Mac. It's great to hear that it doesn't seem to affect the print quality.

For others encountering this issue, below are a few potential solutions:

1. Perform a Preflight Check in Acrobat Pro (under Print Production > Preflight) and repair any issues before placing the PDF into InDesign.

2. If the PDF is missing the Media crop type, you can add it using Acrobat Pro. Check out this guide for instructions.

3. If you're using macOS, open the PDF in Preview, then resave it as a PDF. This often resolves issues without affecting print quality.

Hopefully, one of these solutions works for you! Let us know if anyone needs more help.

Thanks, 

Abhishek Rao

[defaulticzpuw0eq78t]

I've tried 1 and 3 and neither of these suggestions work. I haven't tried option 2 yet. But I'm curious .... This wasn't a problem until recently so what happened to cause it?  Was it an update gone wrong? It is EXTREMELY frustrating! And ridiculously time consuming. Something like this shouldn't be happening! I work with a team that creates everything in Canva. And then I have to build entire books, in some cases up to 400 pages, out of all of these PDF Files.  Is there anything that can be done about this? Preferably sooner rather than later??

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

You can not use Canva. At least, not use Canva as a tool to build content for reuse in other, more compliant apps; their ecosystem seems to work fine with faulty, nonstandard file formats.

[Eugene Tyson]

The canva PDFs are not compliant. Raise it with Canva