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(Michael_Murano)
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Mac PDF files not readable on PC

Feb 7, 2007 4:32 PM

I am constantly getting messages from my PC friends that the photoshop files I create and then convert to either pdf or jpg are not readable on their pc. Sometimes the files are split into two files (one very small and the other large) with the same name. The larger file is usually able to be opened.

What can I do to make my proofs easier to read for pc users? This has gotten frustrating.

Thanks for your help.
17911 Views   58 Replies   Latest reply: Mainer12, Dec 2, 2011 11:46 AM
 
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  • Dov Isaacs
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    1. Dov Isaacs,
    Feb 7, 2007 5:15 PM   in reply to (Michael_Murano)
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    There are no platform incompatibilities between Windows and Macintosh with regards to PDF files.

    What you call the "small file" is actually the resource fork part of your Mac file. Usually that "splitting" of files into small and large (as you describe it) occurs when copying from a Mac to a Windows system or when putting a Mac file into a ZIP file. The "small file" is typically the same name as the "large file" with the exception of a prefix of "._" -- those files may be safely ignored by the Windows user.

    - Dov
     
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    2. (Mohamed_Hammam),
    Jun 10, 2007 5:35 AM   in reply to (Michael_Murano)
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    If I've PDF files created in a Mac computer, can these PDF files be opened in a Windows-based computer?

    Thank you.
     
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    3. (Leonard_Rosenthol),
    Jun 10, 2007 9:35 PM   in reply to (Michael_Murano)
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    Of course!
     
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    4. (mick_radtke),
    Jun 19, 2007 3:56 PM   in reply to (Michael_Murano)
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    There does not seem to be a way to programatically determine (via javascript) if the PDF is being opened in an Adobe product on the MAC as opposed to its built-in reader. I have tried using the app object and its properties (viewerType, platform, etc.), but MAC's Preview application returns spoof values (even that its platform is WIN). I also searched for a value or function call which Preview does not handle (or one that only a genuine Adobe product handles) .

    With the advent of a reader destined to be delivered as part of the Windows operating system, it seems to be an important and missing property of the app object who the manufacturer of the application is. Then the developer could take necessary precautions or display warnings to the end-user that a document which displays perfectly under Acrobat is broken under Mac's Preview.
     
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    5. (Leonard_Rosenthol),
    Jun 20, 2007 8:39 AM   in reply to (Michael_Murano)
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    Preview doesn't support JavaScript in PDF :(.
     
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    6. (Denise_Newberry),
    Aug 1, 2007 10:07 AM   in reply to (Michael_Murano)
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    I am having problems sending PDFs from my Mac to a PC user that has the Vista operating system. I am exporting an InDesign CS2 file as a PDF and seding as an attachment via email. The end user on a PC says the file is corrupt. I have sent it to others with PC's and it is just fine. I send it to another PC with Vista and the same thing happens. How should I be sending InDesign PDF's to Vista users and users of InDesign CS3?????
     
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    7. (Leonard_Rosenthol),
    Aug 1, 2007 2:50 PM   in reply to (Michael_Murano)
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    This is a problem with your email client (or theirs) and not the PDF file format. Check with the Mac or Windows forums.
     
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    8. (Elaine_Chang),
    Aug 29, 2007 8:24 AM   in reply to (Michael_Murano)
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    My company use PDF file format a lot. I am use Mac OX system and some others are using Window XP system, and both systems have Adobe Acrobat install properly. My mac PDF file sometimes cannot be viewing in PC computer. It can be open in PC, but it shows a blank page. How should I do if I want both systems read PDF file correctly? Thank you!
     
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  • Dov Isaacs
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    9. Dov Isaacs,
    Aug 29, 2007 8:48 AM   in reply to (Michael_Murano)
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    PDF is a cross-platform compatible file format. There is no known generic problem of Macintosh-created PDF files not being readable on Windows systems. Without seeing your specific PDF file, there is not much we can do to analyze your problem. Provide more specific information about how you create the PDF and perhaps a link to the file would help us help you.

    - Dov
     
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    10. (Noname),
    Sep 1, 2007 6:26 PM   in reply to (Michael_Murano)
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    How do I open a pdf on a mac so that it is the same size as it opens on a PC? I cannot read my pdfs, too small.

    Thanks
     
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  • Dov Isaacs
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    11. Dov Isaacs,
    Sep 1, 2007 6:40 PM   in reply to (Noname)
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    Mr./Ms. Noname,

    Please repost your question on a more appropriate forum. This forum is for questions about the PDF language and specifications of same, not how to use PDF reader programs.

    - Dov
     
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    12. (Noname),
    Sep 2, 2007 4:49 AM   in reply to (Michael_Murano)
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    I googled my question and this forum came up.
    Does anyone have the name of a forum in which someone knows about these things well enough that could provide the answer to my question?
     
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  • (Aandi_Inston)
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    13. (Aandi_Inston),
    Sep 2, 2007 4:50 AM   in reply to (Noname)
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    Well, you need to look at what software you are using to open the
    files on the Mac, and on the PC. What is the software? Adobe Reader,
    just along the hall. Other software, a bit further.

    Aandi Inston
     
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    14. (Davz),
    Nov 30, 2007 10:21 AM   in reply to (Michael_Murano)
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    15. (Sinister_Sponge),
    Feb 27, 2008 7:56 AM   in reply to (Michael_Murano)
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    I created a document in Word on my Mac. I saved it as a PDF and checked it was OK in Preview. When I opened it at work on the PC using Acrobat, having emailed it there, a couple of formatting features had been changed i.e. two Text Boxes that I had set with a degree of transparency were now solid. Does anyone have any ideas?
     
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    16. (Leonard_Rosenthol),
    Feb 27, 2008 10:26 AM   in reply to (Michael_Murano)
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    Two possibilities...

    1) You are using an older version of Mac OS X (10.3 or earlier) which generates "non-standard" transparency operators in a PDF.

    2) You are using a VERY old version of Acrobat/Reader on your PC that doesn't support transparency.

    Leonard
     
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    17. (DawnBruce1),
    May 16, 2008 12:09 PM   in reply to (Michael_Murano)
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    I am trying to send a password protected adobe file from my Window's 2007 computer to a mac computer. I have it set so that you can print the document once opened. I have sent it to other windows PC's without any problem but the MAC PC says that the print option is not available. Any thoughts on why this might be happening?
     
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    18. (Leonard_Rosenthol),
    May 16, 2008 12:31 PM   in reply to (Michael_Murano)
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    Are you using Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader on the Mac? or the Mac's built-in Preview feature? If the former, what version(s) of Acrobat or Reader is being used? If the latter - contact Apple!

    Also, what program did you use to create and/or secure the PDF?

    Leonard
     
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    19. (John_Rondolino),
    May 20, 2008 9:40 AM   in reply to (Michael_Murano)
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    I have run into this problem more than once. I create a PDF on my windows machine (XP, Acrobat 8 ) and then move it via a USB drive to my Mac (OS 10.5+). I then check to make sure it can again be viewed. When I send it to someone (via email - Mac Mail 3.2 ) using a windows machine they cannot open the PDF. This has happened to more than one person using different machines. When I move the PDF back to my Windows machine using a USB drive it opens fine.

    I also have had instances where JPG's created edited in PS Elements 6 (Mac) are sent via email attachments (Mac Mail 3.2) to someone using a Windows machine and they can not open or otherwise view the JPG's.

    Without traveling to my clients and friends places of business or home to inspect their system I have no way of knowing where the problem lies. It is easy to point fingers and say it is not a problem with Adobe software (Acrobat or PSE) that it is the OS, the Mail program, the receivers system, etc. The bottom line is there is a problem with the compatibility of some Adobe products and different OS when it comes to making or editing PDF's or JPG's and as a general user it is next to impossible to get help on determining how to resolve the problem.
     
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    20. (Leonard_Rosenthol),
    May 20, 2008 1:24 PM   in reply to (Michael_Murano)
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    Check your email settings for attachments. There are choices about wehtehr to create Windows-compatible attachment format or not. This is especially important if your Windows person is using older/bad email clients like Outlook Express or AOL.

    Has NOTHING to do with PDF, etc.

    Leonard
     
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    21. (kim_stahnke),
    Jul 11, 2008 12:06 AM   in reply to (Michael_Murano)
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    I have created some pdf documents on a pc. The doc's are reported full of "funny" symbols instead of text by a client hwo use mac. I have opened the docs on our own macs and they seem fine.
    Can anyone offer a solution to this problem?
    Thanks,
    Kim
     
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  • MichaelKazlow
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    22. MichaelKazlow,
    Jul 11, 2008 6:00 AM   in reply to (kim_stahnke)
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    Are the fonts in the documents embedded? If so are they embedded as subsets?

    Mike
     
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    23. (kim_stahnke),
    Jul 11, 2008 8:08 AM   in reply to (Michael_Murano)
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    The document properties Fonts tab says:
    Arial+2 (Embedded)
    Arial-Bold+1 (Embedded)
    Century-Gothic-Bold+0 (Embedded)

    How do I see if they area subset?

    Kim
     
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  • (Aandi_Inston)
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    24. (Aandi_Inston),
    Jul 11, 2008 8:12 AM   in reply to (kim_stahnke)
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    I wonder if the Mac users are viewing the files in some other program
    than Adobe Reader or Acrobat. Mac OS X comes with a program called
    "Preview" that can read PDF files, but especially in older versions of
    Mac OS, had limitations.

    You should confirm the software (including version) that the user is
    using, and the version of Mac OS.

    Aandi Inston
     
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    25. (Brian_Mann),
    Aug 21, 2008 10:16 AM   in reply to (Michael_Murano)
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    I am using a MAC OS 10.4.11 G5 power pc with Adobe 7.1. When I attempt to open a PDF from any of the various financial institutions with whom I hold accts, it comes up as a black screen and prints a black screen as well. The scroll bars also do not appear. I've uninstalled and reinstalled adobe and also cleared cache but no luck. Any ideas?
     
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    26. (Leonard_Rosenthol),
    Aug 21, 2008 12:05 PM   in reply to (Michael_Murano)
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    not without seeing a PDF that demonstrates the problem - nope.
     
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    27. (Ari_Kaufman),
    Jan 13, 2009 3:18 PM   in reply to (Michael_Murano)
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    I am creating pdf files from Windows for Mac 2008. When I email these files to people on Windows PCs they can't open them. I am selecting "save file as pdf" on the option window and emailing the attachment as "Encode for Any computer." But when they get emailed out the attachments have .pdf extensions but still can't be opened. I tried opening them in my own windows environment on my Mac and found the same issue. If I designate Adobe as the reader they open. Do I need to be telling people to do that??? Seems like saving as .pdf should work. Any ideas? Is there a known compatibility issue or should I be using a pdf-writer instead of the Mac default?

    Thanks.
     
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    28. (Michael_Owston),
    Jan 13, 2009 3:26 PM   in reply to (Michael_Murano)
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    I am having a similar problem. Mac files transferred to PC give an error. I believe it may be the problem mentioned above:

    1) You are using an older version of Mac OS X (10.3 or earlier) which generates "non-standard" transparency operators in a PDF.

    But what is a workaround?
     
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  • Dov Isaacs
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    29. Dov Isaacs,
    Jan 13, 2009 7:03 PM   in reply to (Ari_Kaufman)
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    Please read the first responses in this thread. That should give you the information you need.

    - Dov
     
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    30. (Vlk),
    Jan 19, 2009 5:11 PM   in reply to (Michael_Murano)
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    Dear Sirs,

    I would like to ask for help on a PDF file, created on a MAC and not readable on any Windows. (Message - translated: This file is not readable, it is not a PDF file)

    As far as I know this PDF was created on a "version 9" program (don't know if it is the OS or the software version, not very familar with MAC OS). This guy sends many files to his customers, all of them can open them. I again open weekly some hundred PDFs on a forum to check the content of user contributions with no problem. I myself tested the (MAC) PDF in question on Win 98 SE/ W2K SP4 and XP with serveral versions of Adobe Reader (6 / 8.1 / 9) and even with FOXIT READER 2.2. - everything without result.

    One interesting thing might be: In ALL my PDFs from "my" forum I can see somehow the version between the codes (PDF 1.4 / 1.5 / 1.6 and so on) if I use either Wincommander+F3 or textpad, in the (Mac)PDF I can see only this info:

    (This file must be converted with BinHex 4.0)

    After having read all posts on your forum, after having tested more than 20 different PDFs created on that MAC version on many different Windows PCs and having asked many users from our forum, I gave up. My last hope was the program STUFFIT which was recommened to me, also without results...

    Could you be so kind to give me a hint please? Finally the PDF format was created to work on all platforms without editing / installing anything, wasn't it?

    If you allow, I would like to ask you to check my file. It is uploaded on Rapidshare and has about 20 kb, here the link:

    http://rapidshare.com/files/182938876/test.pdf

    Thank you for your time - I will check back to this site after some time.

    Greetings
     
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  • Dov Isaacs
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    31. Dov Isaacs,
    Jan 20, 2009 5:56 AM   in reply to (Vlk)
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    The file you posted on the rapidshare site is NOT a PDF file. It is a binhex-encoding of a PDF file. Most Windows-based users do not have any means of unencoding binhex files. Also, on Windows-based systems, the expectation is that the suffix denotes the file type. Your file, test.pdf, would be recognized as a PDF file but would fail to be properly opened by Reader or Acrobat given that it was an encoded file. Typically, such a binhex-encoded file would be named something like test.pdf.bin which when clicked would invoke a binhex decoder if one was installed.

    - Dov
     
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  • MichaelKazlow
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    32. MichaelKazlow,
    Jan 20, 2009 7:40 AM   in reply to (Vlk)
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    The file you uploaded is not a pdf. It is a binhex file. In the olden
    days to email files from one computer to another, there were several
    choices to encode files for transmission by email. Email was and still
    is a method of sending ascii data. Since many files are binary, a method
    of encoding the files to ascii had to be used. One of the early
    contenders was binhex. Most macs can convert email attachments that have
    been binhexed, most PCs cannot. The creator of the problemsome pdf needs
    to use a mail program that uses a different encoding scheme OR the
    receiver of the file needs a program that can convert the binhex file
    into a pdf file. One such program that can do this is Stuffit Expander.

    Mike
     
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    33. (Vlk),
    Jan 20, 2009 6:13 PM   in reply to (Michael_Murano)
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    to Dov Isaacs & to Mike Kazlow:

    thank you very much for your quick reply. Will copy all your useful hints and info and forward to the person who sent this file to me. Hopefully he can change the settings while creating his files in future.

    My respect for your work here and thank you again! Greetings Vlk
     
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    34. (Thessman),
    Jan 22, 2009 3:06 AM   in reply to (Michael_Murano)
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    I too have problems with sending PDF from Mac to PC

    I do all the right things
    Export from InDesign CS2
    Save it again in Acrobat Pro 6.0.2 (just to be sure)
    Attach it and click "send window friendly...)

    But still som PC cant open (corrupt) and some can (can always open on Macs)
    Doesnt matter how I combine the different spec. above or how many times I send it, the same persons can still not open the PDFs from ME (other PDFs no problem)

    Please, have anyone got any idea?
    Is it the servers?
    Old Readers?

    What?
     
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    35. discinque,
    Apr 24, 2009 6:38 AM   in reply to (Thessman)
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    Same problem here...

     

    I'm using Entourage for sending mail.  I THINK this has resolved it:

     

    (options may change depending on program)

     

    Entourage>Preferences - click on Mail & News Preferences/Compose

     

    In the drop down menu change the Encode for: choice from "any computer" (AppleDouble) to "Windows MIME/Base64"  This seems to have resolved my issue (although I only have a couple students using a Mac - so I'm not sure yet if it will affect them)

     
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  • obpobp
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    36. obpobp,
    Nov 11, 2009 4:28 AM   in reply to (Michael_Murano)
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    I think I have the same problem. PDF files created on a Mac are not readable by windows systems.

     

    This is a Mac problem but I'd still like to know if there is a solution.

     

    I tried converting the pdf document into something else, e.g. ps or even another pdf, using the unix command "convert XXX.pdf YYY.pdf"

     

    This gives the following error message:

      **** This file had errors that were repaired or ignored.
       **** The file was produced by:
       **** >>>> Mac OS X 10.5.8 Quartz PDFContext <<<<
       **** Please notify the author of the software that produced this
       **** file that it does not conform to Adobe's published PDF
       **** specification.

     

    How can I fix this?

     

    I also tried submitting this file to the Adobe online convert service, and received an email with this message:

     

    While processing your job 4AFAACC9-04BE-28A929 (filename.pdf), the converter encountered the following error situation:
    Your PDF document already contains renderable text.
    Please try to resubmit your job if indicated in the above message.
    We hope you enjoy using this service!  The Create Adobe PDF Online Team
    cpdf@adobe.com

     

    The original file reads perfectly under preview, but if I send it to a windows machine, the text is replaced by little circles.

     

    So here's my immediate question: Given that I have a file that's fine when read with Preview or Adobe Reader 8.1.7 on a Mac -- how can I make sure it's also readable by a windows adobe reader?

     
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  • lrosenth
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    37. lrosenth,
    Nov 11, 2009 5:28 AM   in reply to obpobp
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    You told us all about the Mac, but what about the PC?  It is current with its version of Adobe Reader?  Are they even using Adobe Reader?

     
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  • Discinque78575
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    38. Discinque78575,
    Nov 11, 2009 5:48 AM   in reply to lrosenth
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    This problem has been resolved for me for several months now... but not sure which solution fixed it... (I know... no help there).  I did do all the corrections listed here.  But one solution was to make sure you have the most current version of Reader.  And NOT but doing a software update.  I haven't looked into WHY but it seems like they're still patching Ver. 8 even though Ver 9 is out.  So my computer never downloaded version 9 - and the same was true for the PC's I was working with.  All seems to be working great now though.

     
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  • obpobp
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    39. obpobp,
    Nov 11, 2009 5:55 AM   in reply to lrosenth
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    The problem is that I cannot control what version of Adobe the person is using who I'm sending the file to. This has been hugely embarrassing to me as I've been sending out files with my work. Some of the recipients were kind enough to point out that the file seems corrupted, others simply put me on a "waste of time" list.

     

    I've tried it on my windows machine, and using Acrobat Reader 8 and Acrobat professional 7.0. The text appears as little circles and the file is not readable.

     

    On the Mac, I can reproduce the problem, too.

    Adobe Illustrator (version CS) cannot read the file. Warnings are:

     

    The font Univers-BlackExt is missing.  Affected text will be displayed using a substitute font.
    The font Univers-BoldExt is missing.  Affected text will be displayed using a substitute font.
    The font Univers-Condensed is missing.  Affected text will be displayed using a substitute font.
    The font Univers-Extended is missing.  Affected text will be displayed using a substitute font.
    The font Univers-ExtraBlackExt is missing.  Affected text will be displayed using a substitute font.
    The font Univers-Oblique is missing.  Affected text will be displayed using a substitute font.
    To preserve appearance, some text has been outlined.

     

    Acrobat 6.0.2 Professional cannot read it on the Mac

     

    Acrobat Reader 8.1.7 on Mac has no problems with it. It displays perfectly, just like under Preview.

     

    But this is somewhat beside the point. A PDF file should be portable, so once I have one there should be a way to make sure it can be read by all Adobe products that can read PDF. How can I make sure?

     

    Given that I can see everything perfectly on my Mac (e.g. using Reader 8.1.7), how can I ensure the same can be seen by any other user on any system reading a PDF file? I guess that this has to do with your (Adobe's) PDF specifications. How can I "enforce" those?

     

    Many thanks!

     
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