Acrobat 9/PDFX1a from Indesign CS3 dropping images.

[Scott_Weichert@adobeforums.com]

Mac OS 10.5.5, 16GB RAM, Acrobat Pro 9, Indesign CS3 (5.0.3).

I export to PDF, chose PDFX-1a from the Job Options. Turn on All Marks, and Use Document Bleed.

Looking at the PDF in the Mac OS finder, the preview shows no images. Opening the PDF with Acrobat, it looks fine.

My client is complaining there are no images (They are using Win XP)

Bug? Any idea why? This is a new one on me.

Using PDFX3 resolves the issue. But I've never had a problem like this with PDFX1a before.

[Jon Bessant]

They might be using Win XP but what version of Acrobat are they using to
view the file? Can you emulate on your end using Acrobat?

Jon

[Scott_Weichert@adobeforums.com]

Thansk Jon,

I can emulate it a few ways... Both the Finder Preview and Quicklook show the issue.

Opening the PDF with Illustrator 13.0.2, the PDF preview looks correct, but after opening, images are dropped.

Same is true with Photoshop 10.0.1 - PDF preview looks correct, but images are gone after rasterizing.

Placing in ID 5.0.3 both the Preview and the placed art don't have images.

See here:



But when I open the PDF with Acrobat it looks fine. I also analyzed the PDF and it's completely compliant with PDFX1a according to Acrobat Pro 9.

[Scott_Weichert@adobeforums.com]

Sorted it....

The beige gradient behind the images was using a spot color (should have been CMYK). I don't know why that was causing the issue, it shouldn't have. I should have simply gotten 5 plates, not missing images.

[Tim_Fink@adobeforums.com]

You say these images were using a spot color, what file formats were they, and what kind of encoding were they using? (Such as, an EPS with JPG encoding) This can sometimes give some insight.

[Scott_Weichert@adobeforums.com]

Hi Tim,

The photos were all CMYK psd files with transparency (one layer no masks).

It was the background gradient which was created in Indesign and used a spot to spot gradient that was causing the issue. Once I changed that background gradient to a CMYK to CMYK gradient, the PDFX1a was generated correctly.

Again, I should have gotten 5 plates, not dropped images.

[Steve_Werner@adobeforums.com]

If you're mixing spot color and transparency you need to VIEW with Overprint Preview turned on. You need to PRINT with Overprint turned on. If you're printing to a printer that doesn't understand overprinting, you need to check the Simulate Overprinting option.

[Scott_Weichert@adobeforums.com]

That makes perfect sense, Steve. Thanks. Turning on overprint preview in Illustrator does indeed get the images to show. Acrobat is set to show the Overprint by default here, which is why I was seeing the images when I opened the PDF with Acrobat.

However, that's little help when a client is using Reader or some other unknown PDF viewer. Trying to explain to them why they need to do something and how to do it is... well.. you can imagine.

[Steve_Werner@adobeforums.com]

Get your client to use Reader 9. It handles Overprint Preview the same way as Acrobat 9 Pro. If you make a PDF/X file, Overprint Preview will be turned on by default and it will look correct in Reader!