Prints ok in Reader 8, but looks lousy on screen

[Laura_Belgrave@adobeforums.com]

I installed Acrobat Reader 8 today, hoping it would address display issues in PDFs that I simply never encounter when I use Preview. Here’s the thing: I created a little tri-fold brochure for a client in BeLight Software’s Swift Publisher, then generated a high-quality PDF. Looks wonderful in Preview. Prints fine as well. But if I open the same document in Adobe Reader -- version 7 or 8 -- it looks dreadful on screen. Photos are okay, but graphics are jagged in appearance, etc. However, it all prints just fine. I could live with this, but if I want to send my PDFs to a Windows person, who undoubtedly will open them in Acrobat Reader, my work will look crappy. (In fact, I sent my PDF to my husband, who uses a PC and Reader for viewing. Looked horrible there, too.) I’m also concerned about what will happen when I send my PDF to an actual printing service. I can’t presume everyone will have Preview.

I’ve tried fooling around with preferences in Reader, but nothing seems to make a difference and I haven’t been able to find anything about this in help files.

Ideas? Thoughts?

Thanks.

[graffiti]

I’ve tried fooling around with preferences in Reader




Which ones?

You specifically want to have line smoothing preferences set properly.

[de_Siem@adobeforums.com]

Also turn on overprint preview.

[Laura_Belgrave@adobeforums.com]

In Page Display prefs under “rendering,” those items that are turned on include smooth text for monitor, smooth line art, smooth images, use local fonts, use page cache. Under “Page content and information” I have show large images, overprint preview -- newly turned on -- and use logical page numbers. (Most were defaults.)

But I’m uncertain what would be best to have in the “resolution” area. Currently my settings are custom resolution at 92 pixels/inch. I’ve tried changing that setting, but have found no difference. If it helps to know, I’m on an 17-inch iMac G4 with a screen resolution of 1440 by 900.

(Turning on “overprint preview” actually seems to have helped a bit -- lines are a little smoother -- but it hasn’t addressed all of the poor display problems.

There are an awful lot of preferences in Reader. Is there somewhere other than Page Display that would make a big difference? I haven’t done anything to the default settings in other areas.

Thanks.

[de_Siem@adobeforums.com]

If you change the magnification of the pdf (zoom out or zoom in) does that help?

Also what kind of printer are you printing to? Is it a PS printer?

[Laura_Belgrave@adobeforums.com]

Changing the magnification doesn’t have much impact on how it looks on screen, I’m afraid. (I always try to view at actual size, or 100 percent.) Oh. The printer I’m using is a Canon Pixma ip5200. But as I said, printing turns out fine, whether from the Adobe Reader or from Preview. It’s just how everything looks electronically. Good in Preview. Not good in Reader.

I’ve taken a screenshot of the Preview version side by side with the Adobe Reader version. If you go to <http://www.laurabelgrave.com/tester/preview_reader.jpg> you can see the differences I’m talking about, particularly with the vitruvian man graphic toward the bottom.

[Jon Bessant]

OK - being picky ... they're different ads ..

Jon

[Laura_Belgrave@adobeforums.com]

Jon, you kind of lost me on this. Do you mean my comparison JPEG? That’s a screenshot showing the exact same document at the same size, but the one on the left is shown in Preview and the one on the right is in Reader. I pulled the two document windows as close together as possible to show the most obvious trouble spot.

[Jon Bessant]

The one left has a full address block - the one on the right does not.

Are they the EXACT same ad?

(Mr. Picky [I know] but little signs like this have proved interesting
in the past ...)

J.

[MarkATS@adobeforums.com]

They are the same. the one one the left has scroll bars, so it's not all in the screen shot.

[Jon Bessant]

Exactly - but we need confirmation.

Remember, many times assumptions are made - turned out a completely
different problem after asking the right questions ...

Indeed, it seems a general rendering problem but ...

Jon

[MarkATS@adobeforums.com]

Did we ever find out how the PDF was created? Is this a Mac PDF or an Acrobat PDF?

[Laura_Belgrave@adobeforums.com]

Let me see if I can clarify a couple of things. The JPEG that I posted shows two versions of EXACTLY the same document. That document, a tri-fold brochure, was originally created in BeLight Software’s Swift Publisher, and then exported as a high-resolution PDF. The original PDF file is close to 10 MB.

When I view the PDF in Preview, it looks fine. When I preview the PDF in Reader version 8, it looks jagged in part. However, it prints just dandy from either program.

The JPEG image shows only part of the tri-fold brochure. I did that so you could see what I pretty much see when the document is displayed at 100 percent in Preview -- the left side of the image -- and in Reader, on the right.

Everything was created on a 17-inch iMac G4 with screen resolution of 1440 by 900.

[Ben_McMahon@adobeforums.com]

Are you using Swift Publisher's built in PDF export function? Is so, this may be the issue.

[Laura_Belgrave@adobeforums.com]

I did indeed use Swift Publisher’s export function. I’ve subsequently tried exporting in other ways. The issue remains. In fact, now I notice that any PDFs I have look good in Preview and significantly less good in Reader.

Later today I’ll probably reinstall Reader altogether and try to install it all over. Maybe I got a corrupt copy or something. (I actually did repair permissions after the install and used Preferential Treatment to check for corruption, but none of those strategies changed anything.)

[Jon Bessant]

Have you tried with a different file created from a thorough-bred PDF
library (such as Acrobat [smile]) ...

Jon

[Laura_Belgrave@adobeforums.com]

Jon, I have no idea if I’ve tried using a full-blown PDF generated by Acrobat itself. But that shouldn’t be a requirement for Reader to render the PDF. (By the way, I’ve just downloaded a little app called PDF View. Everything looks fine in it, too, just as in Preview.)

I’m probably going to have to ferret out the files associated with Reader, ditch them all, and try a brand new installation.

[Jon Bessant]

OK - besides generating the PDF through Acrobat itself (using Distiller)
- why not try and download Reader 7 to see if you experience the same
issues?

Since it's early days for Reader 8 - we're still unsure of any potential
bugs?

Jon

[Laura_Belgrave@adobeforums.com]

I don’t have the full-packaged Acrobat, nor Distiller.

Over the weekend, I’m going to take my PDF document to a friend on a G4 who I KNOW will not have updated anything for months. I’ll see what things look like on that machine. If I have to, I’ll load Swift Publisher on it and generate a fresh PDF, then copy it to a Flash that I can take to a printer.

Really, I could live with the Adobe Reader 8 hassles for my own basic uses. I just can’t see being in a situation where I want to send a PDF file to a client, who would undoubtedly be on Windows and using Acrobat Reader. (I think I mentioned earlier that this same document of mine in PDF shows poorly in Reader on Windows as well.)

[growland@adobeforums.com]

I've just posted a similar problem. My PDFs out of Indesign CS2 taken in to Acrobat 8 Professional show the outlines of text and graphic boxes which do not print but cannot be sent to clients