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Brian@wisl.com
Brian@wisl.com
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Determining or Debugging errors in PDFs

Feb 22, 2013 8:01 AM

I am creating PDFs from text files via a perl script. Some of the PDFs open without a problem. Others open and despite displaying fine, a message box appears stating:

An error exists on this page. Acrobate may not display the page correctly. Please

contact the person who created the PDF document to correct the problem.

 

I can click on the OK button and the page is displayed properly.

 

Are there any "debugging" tools out there that can help determine the error in the PDF that I am creating?

643 Views   10 Replies   Latest reply: Test Screen Name, Feb 25, 2013 7:02 AM
 
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  • Test Screen Name
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    1. Test Screen Name,
    Feb 22, 2013 8:24 AM   in reply to Brian@wisl.com
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    Not really. You should probably build up a library of as many different PDF tools as you can as - while none are validators - they may detect errors differently. You could also share the file to see if anyone has an idea.

     
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  • Brian@wisl.com
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    2. Brian@wisl.com,
    Feb 22, 2013 8:29 AM   in reply to Test Screen Name
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    I was lookign fo a way to upload the file when I made the original post but did not see a way to do that.

     
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  • Test Screen Name
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    3. Test Screen Name,
    Feb 22, 2013 8:33 AM   in reply to Brian@wisl.com
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    You can't do that with the forum. You'd need to upload it somewhere else and share a link (e.g. acrobat.com, your own web site, a file sharing site...)

     
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  • Brian@wisl.com
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    4. Brian@wisl.com,
    Feb 22, 2013 12:40 PM   in reply to Test Screen Name
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    The file can be found at

     

    http://www.wisl.com/INVOICE.PDF

     
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  • Test Screen Name
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    5. Test Screen Name,
    Feb 22, 2013 2:01 PM   in reply to Brian@wisl.com
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    I tried with an ancient version of Acrobat, and got the error "an unexpected token "T" was found". Which is true, lots of them.

     

    I am also very suspicious of the line draw font. Does it really MacExpertEncoding? I think you have stepped outside the recommended ways of accessing a TrueType font. If you doubt this, take a look at your file with Chrome...

     
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  • Brian@wisl.com
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    6. Brian@wisl.com,
    Feb 25, 2013 6:22 AM   in reply to Test Screen Name
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    I tried other encodings - MacRomanEncoding, WinAnsiEncoding , ISOLatin1Encoding - and none of them rendered the PCL line draw characters properly in the pdf  . I see what you mean by looking at the file in Chrome. I was only using the currenty version of Acrobat Reader. This has been my struggle all along - getting the PCL line draw characters of to appear properly in a PDF. I am using the IBM codepage437 characters. I do not know of another character set that has these characters.

     
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  • Test Screen Name
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    7. Test Screen Name,
    Feb 25, 2013 6:24 AM   in reply to Brian@wisl.com
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    My reading of 32000-1 suggests that you are not meeting the requirements by using ANY wrong encoding. This is a symbol font, after all.

     
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  • Test Screen Name
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    8. Test Screen Name,
    Feb 25, 2013 6:41 AM   in reply to Test Screen Name
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    I mean, specifically, the discussion in 9.6.6.4. If you don't strictly follow the "guidelines to ensure predictable behaviour", all bets are off...

     
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  • Brian@wisl.com
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    9. Brian@wisl.com,
    Feb 25, 2013 6:47 AM   in reply to Test Screen Name
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    I am pretty new to this forum - what is 32000-1 and the "discussion in 9.6.6.4" ?

     
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  • Test Screen Name
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    10. Test Screen Name,
    Feb 25, 2013 7:02 AM   in reply to Brian@wisl.com
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    32000-1 is the PDF specification. That's its ISO number. The text is much the same as the final Adobe revision, but the section numbers have changed.

     
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