4 Replies Latest reply: May 21, 2010 10:30 AM by Arrow'd RSS

    CS3 PDFs not separating in CS4—Followup

    Arrow'd Community Member

      I posted a question regarding this problem a few weeks ago.

       

      Problem:

      PDFs created using CS, CS2 and CS3 will not separate properly when they are placed in CS4.

       

      Your first question will probably be "why are you placing a PDF from one InDesign document into another InDesign document?"

      The PDFs in question are playing/trading cards, said PDFs are placed in other documents such as rulebooks and player guides to illustrate play and indicate specific capabilities.

       

      Without rehashing the whole sordid ordeal here's the current status:

      After several phone calls to Adobe customer support I finally found a pleasant enough Indian fellow to whom I could describe the problem without totally confusing him.

       

      He gave me an email contact and asked that I submit an example of the problem.

      I sent off a PDF of the process showing the CS3 document, the export process, opening the PDF in Acrobat (separated correctly), then placing the PDF in CS4 where it would not separate correctly.

       

      Adobe's Tier 2 technician was able to successfully reproduce the problem on their side.

       

      Their answer to the problem: Purchase CS5 and/or use a different set of PDF flattener settings.

       

      Great advice to be sure, but it doesn't solve the problem of thousands of existing PDFs, generated in earlier versions of InDesign being unprintable in CS4.

       

      So my question is:

      Is there another feedback option that I can pursue here in the states, preferably by phone?

        • 1. Re: CS3 PDFs not separating in CS4—Followup
          P Spier CommunityMVP

          I remember the cards.

           

          What PDF settings are you using, and was this directed at the initial PDF creation, or the export of the placed PDFs?

           

          Have you tried placing the ID files rather than the PDFs?

          • 2. Re: CS3 PDFs not separating in CS4—Followup
            Arrow'd Community Member

            P Spier wrote:

             

            I remember the cards.

             

            What PDF settings are you using, and was this directed at the initial PDF creation, or the export of the placed PDFs?

             

            Have you tried placing the ID files rather than the PDFs?

            Placing a CS3 or earlier ID document produces the same result. Note how the text in the body of the card is still knocking out even though it is set to overprint in the CS3 document.

            Picture 1.png

             

            We were using the PDF 1.3 settings at the time. However, those settings would frequently invoke a color shift during a direct PDF export from ID.

            We went with an EPS export, then converted the EPS to PDF using Distiller.

             

            The EPS export settings were (I would post the PDF of everything but the forum won't allow document posting right now):

            05_Export.png

            06_Export.png

            08_Transparency_Flattener.png

             

            The Distiller settings were:

            01_Distiller_Conversion.png

            02_Distiller_Settings.png

            03_Distiller_Settings.png

            04_Distiller_Settings.png

            05_Distiller_Settings.png

            06_Distiller_Settings.png

            07_Distiller_Settings.png

            • 3. Re: CS3 PDFs not separating in CS4—Followup
              P Spier CommunityMVP

              I see you are leaving color unchanged. Unless you were doing a color conversion when exporting, I'm not sure why you would have seen a color shift.Are your color spaces consistent throught he workflow and versions?

               

              Is there a reason you need to export to PDF 1.3 instead of leaving your transparency live?

               

               

              Would you be willing to post a sample of one of those PDFs somewhere for us to try?

              • 4. Re: CS3 PDFs not separating in CS4—Followup
                Arrow'd Community Member

                P Spier wrote:

                 

                I see you are leaving color unchanged. Unless you were doing a color conversion when exporting, I'm not sure why you would have seen a color shift.Are your color spaces consistent throught he workflow and versions?

                 

                Is there a reason you need to export to PDF 1.3 instead of leaving your transparency live?

                 

                 

                Would you be willing to post a sample of one of those PDFs somewhere for us to try?

                According to the Tech at Adobe, the PDF 1.3 settings didn't accurately translate color transitions.

                The fix going forward will be to upgrade to the PDF 1.6 settings (worked out with our print vendors).

                Our color spaces are set using Bridge and reviewed in all the relevant programs (Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign).

                 

                When we switched over from Quark to ID we didn't get the transparency look we wanted (we still get unusual artifacts when text is overlapped by the transparent area of an image frame), and working with our printers we worked out the current workflow and settings.

                 

                I don't have anywhere to host a PDF of a card.

                 

                I'd be willing to email one if you think you can help.

                 

                But my question is really, how do I keep the cards created in the last 3 versions of Creative Suite from separating incorrectly?

                 

                And the question for Adobe; what's my assurance that the next CS version doesn't render all previously created PDFs useless?