Adobe Community: Placed PDF crashing InDesign (CS4)?

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1. Peter Spier,

Apr 14, 2011 8:11 AM in reply to Stormcloud492

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I would either place the original PDF and crop that, or extract the image and save as .tif or .psd and place that. No need to make a new PDF for a single image.

You can usually get the creator information for a PDF from the the Document properties. It should show up on the description screen, or click the additional metadata button and try the advanced screen there. It should be availble unless user data was removed for optimization. One posibility that comes to mind for the spinning beachball would be that the file used OPI and ID can't find the right file.

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2. Stormcloud492,

Apr 14, 2011 9:31 AM in reply to Peter Spier

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Hi Peter,

I see from the Get Info feature that the "Content Creator"

was QuarkXPress(R) 8.12. Might that have anything to do with it?

thanks,

beth

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3. Stormcloud492,

Apr 14, 2011 10:23 AM in reply to Stormcloud492

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Thanks for your input. I opened the PDF in Photoshop and selected only the photo, then saved it as a Photoshop file. After placing it in InDesign, I tried to change the layer order and, again, the spinning beachball appeared and I had to force quit.

I couldn't see any information in the document profile that correlated with your suggestion that OPI (?) was used and I don't know what that is. What should I look for?

thanks.

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4. Peter Spier,

Apr 14, 2011 1:25 PM in reply to Stormcloud492

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I'm always suspicious of Quark generated PDFs. OPI stands for Open Press Interchange and is an antiquated workflow where a low resolution placeholder image is used during layout, and a comment is added and the sytem goes out and grabs the high-resolution version during processing. This doesn't work with PDF, and it's turned ON by default in Quark (or was up to version 6 when I stopped upgrading) and may users have no idea that it is on or even exists. The usual symptom is that images disappear when you make a new PDF from a doc in which you've place the original Quark PDF.

When you say you opened it in Photoshop, selcted only the photo and saved as a Photoshop file do you mean you opened the PDF (rasterizing to an appropriate resolution value) and cropped, then saved as .psd? I would think that would fix things.

At this point, there might be some minor problem in the file and an export to .inx or .idml might be in order. See Remove minor corruption by exporting

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5. Peter Spier,

Apr 14, 2011 2:26 PM in reply to Stormcloud492

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Forum has been down, but we're back..

In Acrobat Pro you can run Preflight and use the single checks in the image sectionto see if there are OPI comments included. I don't see a fixup, however, to remove them (other programs, such as Pitstoip Pro can do that, I think, if the supplier of the PDF can't make you one without comments):

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6. Stormcloud492,

Apr 15, 2011 2:29 PM in reply to Peter Spier

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I wish there were a third choice above -- yes, many of your answers have been helpful, but the problem isn't yet resolved.

I ran the document through Pre-flight in Acrobat Pro and confirmed your suspicions that OPI information was imbedded in the PDF (that was generated in Quark 8).

There are, as you said, no tools in Acrobat or Photoshop to remove the OPI. The program you suggested, Pitstop Pro, is an expensive proposition, so it's not an option.

I also exported the document, as you suggested, in .inx format to flush out any corruption that might be causing the problem.

Your suggestion to import the pdf into Photoshop, then rasterize it and crop it, didn't work (maybe it would in a different version?). The only option to import using the "Import" menu option only works for PICT resources.

When you "open" the PDF from Photoshop (CS4), an "Import PDF" window appears and gives you the option of selecting the portion(s) of the PDF you wish to import. I selected only the photo and it brought the image into Photoshop (no cropping was required). Then I looked under the Layer menu for the Rasterize option, but it was not available (grayed out). I presume the reason you wanted me to rasterize the PDF was to rid it of the OPI coding.

My PC Tek friend suggested I save the image as a jpeg to rid it of any extraneous code, so I tried this too. All it took was moving something in the layer menu to freeze it again.

So far, nothing has made a difference.

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7. John Hawkinson,

Apr 15, 2011 2:52 PM in reply to Stormcloud492

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Your suggestion to import the pdf into Photoshop, then rasterize it and crop it, didn't work (maybe it would in a different version?). The only option to import using the "Import" menu option only works for PICT resources.

Nah, you just need to do it slightly differently. Indeed, just "Open" the PDF.

When you "open" the PDF from Photoshop (CS4), an "Import PDF" window appears and gives you the option of selecting the portion(s) of the PDF you wish to import. I selected only the photo and it brought the image into Photoshop (no cropping was required)

At this point you're all set. Save the file in Photoshop (use a different name!). Once the Photoshop has opened a file it is implicitly rasterized. Photoshop has no other way to deal with PDFs.

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8. Peter Spier,

Apr 15, 2011 3:23 PM in reply to Stormcloud492

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What John said. When you open the PDF, Photoshop is going to throw up an options dialog asking you for color mode and resolution. Choose according to what's in the PDF. No advantage to picking a higher res than was saved with the images, but nothing to be gained and potentially a lot to be lost by choosing too low.

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9. Stormcloud492,

Apr 17, 2011 2:57 AM in reply to Peter Spier

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Peter,

I removed the suspect photo from the document and worked for awhile in the

layout until, again, it crashed. Part of my toolbar was missing from view. I

hid it and reselected it, and it came back totally into view, but the fact

that part of a menu was missing says to me that the document is corrupted.

Should I create a fresh document and rebuild it from scratch?

BTW, I have also reinstalled Adobe Acrobat since we spoke because Distiller

wasn't working.

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10. Peter Spier,

Apr 17, 2011 5:04 AM in reply to Stormcloud492

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Missing toolbar options or menu items could be as simple as using the wrong workspace. Did you see a "show all menu items" item in the menus?

I don't really know what to advise at this point. Problems in multiple programs is more likely system related than something wrong with only one application, though the root cause could be corrupting the applications so that they need to be reinstalled. I surmise from your previous post where you mnetion "get info" that you are running a Mac. Which version?

Do you have any font utilities you can use to check for font corruption or other problems? Have you run the typical Mac troubleshooting stuff? Cleared caches, etc?

It's possible a new file would work better, but it might not.... If it isn't a lot of work, try it.

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11. Stormcloud492,

Apr 21, 2011 3:43 PM in reply to Peter Spier

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Hi Peter, I'm back!

I went to the Apple Store and got my machine checked.

I worked on the document for about 15 seconds before it crashed. They "Reset

the Home Folder Permissions", check the memory, tested the RAM -- all O.K.

Then we created a new User Account. I created a new Adobe InDesign document

and worked in it for awhile and it didn't crash. So that said to my "Genius"

that the problem was with Adobe InDesign and I would likely have to

uninstall and reinstall the program.

When I got back home, I opened the file that had been crashing -- this time

in the new User Account and worked on it and it did NOT crash. I could make

it through this project working in the new directory. But I decided to call

Adobe Tech Support again and see what they said.

They said I might have to reinstall the program, but first there was

something else we could try that would avoid all that time and trouble.

So we threw the Adobe InDesign Preferences folder in the trash. We also

threw a folder called "Adobe Indesign 6.0" out.

Then I opened up the document and worked and it didn't crash. Only there

is still one problem: several palettes do not display -- they are empty and

I can't add anything to them (such as a new Swatch). They are:

Palettes:

Glyph sets

Character

Swatches

Object Styles

I'm not sure why these are missing and it's tricky trying to work without

them.

I went back to the new User Account and checked and these palettes are NOT

missing.

We tried copying the plist from the new User Account Preferences and pasting

it into the preferences for my old account, but that didn't work.

Any idea how to get my palettes back?

I'm spending so much time trying to get up and running that I'm running out

of time on this project, so if there's an easy answer that doesn't require a

total reinstall, I'd be grateful to hear it.

Many thanks,

beth

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12. Peter Spier,

Apr 21, 2011 3:54 PM in reply to Stormcloud492

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Sounds like the user account may still be corrupt. Replacing prefs (see Replace Your Preferences) usually fixes problems you are describing with panels, so give thatat a try before doing anythnig more drastic. If that doesn't solve it, we need to wait for one of the Mac people to tell you what else to delete to fix a corrupt account.

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13. Stormcloud492,

Apr 21, 2011 4:09 PM in reply to Peter Spier

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Peter,

My partner did some research for blogs on this issue and there were lots of

people with blank palettes. We tried something one recommended and IT

WORKED!

Hold down "Shift" "Control" "Option" "Command" keys and launch InDesign. A

dialogue box comes up asking if you want to delete your Preferences. You

respond Yes. That worked. Deleting the preferences in this way must find and

delete more than just the plist.

Thanks for all your help -- I think (and desperately hope) that the problem

is resolved.

Have a good holiday,

beth

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14. Peter Spier,

Apr 21, 2011 4:19 PM in reply to Stormcloud492

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If you'd checked the link I gave inthe last post, you'd have seen exactly that suggestion, along with directions for backing up the preferences and manually removing them instead, on the off-chance it turns out not to be helpful and you want to get back all the things you've customized. Worth a read even now so you can learn what files it's handy to keep as a backup for the future.

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15. Stormcloud492,

Apr 22, 2011 1:35 AM in reply to Peter Spier

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Peter,

I re-read your email and reviewed the link you sent -- which is great. Too

late to preserve any settings this time, but I'll keep it on hand for the

next time. All your suggestions have been very helpful in narrowing the

range, identifying and resolving the problem.

Thanks so much,

beth

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Placed PDF crashing InDesign (CS4)?

Apr 14, 2011 7:59 AM

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