InDesign PDF Yammer

[cornevdwcial]

Hi

We have a problem that all content we create in InDesign and saving it as a PDF does not display the images when we upload the PDF to Yammer. When we create any other PDF, from Word or other software, the images will display when we upload that PDF to Yammer. The problem is only when a PDF document get created with InDesign. Anyone else ever experience issues like this?

[Steve Werner]

What does the PDF look like when viewed in Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat?

Many, many times web browsers or third party applications incorrectly render PDF files, and they can't be relied on. Many third party PDF renderers are poorly written and don't follow industry standards.

[cornevdwcial]

When we view the document in Adobe Reader it displays correctly. It is just when we view it in the Yammer Viewer that is does not display all the pictures. This only happens when we create a PDF document with InDesign. When we create a PDF document with any other software it displays correctly.

[Mike Witherell]

What happens when you export a PDF using the same joboption settings as Word/PPT "Standard" settings? These include setting to Acrobat v6, at 150ppi, and all RGB, I think.

[cornevdwcial]

When we export the same document as Word and then save it as a PDF, it displays correctly. The issue is only when we upload the document when saved as a PDF with InDesign.

[BobLevine]

How are you exporting from InDesign?

[cornevdwcial]

As far as I know, they do Save As, but will have to double check this with them.

[Dov Isaacs]

There is no “save as PDF” from InDesign, only export with two flavours, one for print and the other interactive. Perhaps there is something interactive in the PDF file (that just might need Flash which isn't globally available)?

          - Dov

[Dov Isaacs]

Maybe you ought to contact and ask Yammer (part of Microsoft) what subset of PDF they actually support, what PDF features they don't support, and perhaps pass a sample file along to them to analyze. FWIW, Yammer seems to be issuing “bug fix releases” of their iOS application almost weekly. Wouldn't surprise me if they are using a wonky PDF viewer (maybe like the one in Microsoft Edge?).

          - Dov

[cornevdwcial]

The issue only occurs when we make use of an InDesign created PDF document. Any other PDF document displays correctly in Yammer. So either the department using InDesign is doing something wrong when they create the PDF or something in InDesign is causing the issue.

[Dov Isaacs]

… or as I said, Yammer's PDF viewer is buggy. Why do you assume there is a problem with InDesign's PDF output?

InDesign documents are typically much more graphically-complex than output from Word or similar word processing and text editing programs. Thus, you would expect more complex PDF. That doesn't mean there is anything wrong with it.

Ask Yammer what their restrictions are. Apparently there are some PDF constructs they either ignore or botch!

          - Dov

[cornevdwcial]

Any other created PDF works correctly in Yammer except for ones created in InDesign. So if all other is working and the ones for InDesign is not working, what does it say? Either the user is not using InDesign correctly or there is a problem with InDesign. Hence me asking this on the Forum. If there is no problem with InDesign in creating the PDF (with proof), then it is a user problem.

[Dov Isaacs]

No it doesn't. All it says is that the PDF generated by InDesign is different than the PDF generated by the other applications and that it is exceptionally likely that Yammer's PDF viewer only accepts a subset of the PDF specification or can't properly handle graphically-complex PDF. It the PDF file properly displays and prints from Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat, there is nothing “defective” with the PDF file.

This is really a Yammer technical support issue, not an issue of InDesign's PDF export.

          - Dov

[Steve Werner]

I totally agree with Dov. Submit samples to Yammer and have them update their PDF renderer.