illustr 10 save as pdf produces blank document

[swilson703@adobeforums.com]

a few weeks ago, I created a poster (letter size page) in illustrator 10 and saved it as a pdf, no problem. last night, I created a business card (2.5" x 3") and saved it as a pdf and the pdf file is blank. I'm using the latest version of the reader and I've tried different options with no success. there are no shadows or complicated graphics in this document. the only difference with this one is that it's much smaller in size (on the page) than the poster was. thanks in advance for any help!

[swilson703@adobeforums.com]

found a workaround -- downloaded the latest version of the reader, opened the .ai file in the reader, selected "save a copy" and then saved the .ai file as a pdf in the reader. works perfectly. weird huh.

[Alexander_Kogan.@adobeforums.com]

You might want to check where your Artboard area is and whether the document has the Crop Marks defined at some place. PDF will show either the Artboard or the area defined by the Crop Marks. If your art by some accident isn't within any of the two - chances are it won't be displayed... Just an idea.

[Brendan]

I had the same issue. With some documents printing, and like you said, a business card printing blank. I found the pdf's produced by illustrator still had a significant amount of data in them, as the file size for the blank pdf's were around 300-500kb. My issue was that illustrator by default, was printing my artwork with some layers turned off. Change the settings for compatibility in the Save Adobe PDF dialog, to Acrobat 8, and make sure the checkbox below for "Create Acrobat Layers from Top-Level Layers" is checked. When the pdf is saved blank, find the layers icon on the left (Acrobat 9.1) and turn on the layers that are off. Acrobat will ask to save the pdf when closing, so that the layer is always on when the pdf is opened.

Not sure how to change the default settings in Illustrator as of yet, to fix this.

Brendan

[Unregistered]

After save as .pdf in illustrator open up document in acrobat, document will come up blank.

1. In acrobat on left hand side, click on layers icon, click on guides to make "eye" appear in check
box (document will appear as normal)

2. Then right click on "guides" select "properties", click on drop down for "default state" and select
"on".

3. Then save document. Next time you open it, it will not be blank.

I searched for this solution for a long time, these previous postings helped me solve this issue, thank you for your inputs.