IDML file won't open

[Jillian Barnes]

Hi, I've exported an INDD file to IDML (because I'm having lots of issues exporting the INDD file to PDF... and it's suggested that the INDD file be converted to IDML and then back to INDD to help with the PDF issues). Anyway, I am able to export the file the IDML just fine, but when I attempt to open the file I get the Mac colourful circle of death and the file doesn't open. I've feel like I've waited a good long time but it just won't open. The Activity monitor indicates that Indesign is not responding. Is there anything else I can do to get the IDML file to open? I'm using Indesign CC 2015 and macbook pro 10.11.6 El Capitan.

Thanks

[Willi Adelberger]

1. Can you upgrade to CC 2017 and try it with the current version?
2. If not, can you update to the latest version of CC 2015?
3. Did you try to delete preferences?
4. Are you working on the server or local?
5. Can you open the original file again and create a package for print and include IDML, move the whole package to the local drive and open the IDML from there?

[Jillian Barnes]

Apparently I just had to wait about 45 minutes for the file to open. I guess i figured it would open in the first 0-5 minutes but that ball kept spinning and I left it for a while and it finally opened. Thanks for your help.

[Peter Spier]

It should have opened right away. The only time I've seen behavior like this is when there were a lot of pasted vector objects, but pasted or embedded rasters would probably do it too. Do you have a lot of imagery that is not linked, but is pasted or embedded? If so you should fix that. It's likely to cause file corruption down the road.

Trouble exporting to PDF can be an indication of a bad image or a text problem, too. See Adobe Community: File Crashing on Output - printing/PDF/other  for troubleshooting tips.

[Laubender]

Peter,

sometimes opening an IDML can take its time.
I've seen IDMLs with complex contents—a lot of tables and a few hundred pages—that take half an hour to open.

But of course, the issue with exporting to PDF could be caused by pasted and embedded raster images.

Regards,
Uwe

[Jillian Barnes]

Hi Peter,

Thanks for your help. I know we were talking the other day about my issues. With regards to that I merged the PDF files and tried to upload them to the book printing site but the new issue became that my PDF document was 4gb + and apparently they only accept 2gb files, so I'm back to square one.

I'm not really good with the lingo re: pasted/embedded. So, perhaps you can explain the difference. I get my files to my indesign document by dragging and dropping them from Adobe Bridge. I'm not sure how else to do it and I'm not sure if that is a linked or an embedded file.

Thanks for your help.

[Jillian Barnes]

Also, the files still wouldn't export to PDF after being exported to IDML and back to INDD.

[Peter Spier]

Dragging from bridge is the same as using the File > Place... command and results in a linked file, so that part seems OK.

4 gb is a pretty big PDF. In your other thread you mention this is a 360 page photo book which might explain the size. How large are the photos? What are your compression settings in the PDF Export dialog?

Uwe, since I'm still using Acrobat 9, can you tell Jillian how to use the audit usage feature in newer versions of Acrobat? It would help to know if all that size is in images, or if it's file overhead that can be optimized out.

[Jillian Barnes]

Hi Peter, the photos are about 7-10mb each, and there are lots of them. I have been going through each photo to resize it to reduce the file size (control click photo in indesign... open with...photoshop... option+command+I  ...) then I reduce the size from about 14x10 to 10x6 which brings the file size down to a little over half of what it was. After I spend hours doing this yesterday the indesign file actually got larger by about 40mb - not really sure why that would be.

[Peter Spier]

Did you downsample them as well as change the dimensions? What is the resolution?

Doing a Save As will bring the file size down by removing the old change data, but the increase in file size you saw may also be due to image previews being larger. I wouldn't worry about that so much. File size in ID and file size of the PDF are not directly related. Huge files in ID -- 1gb or more -- usually indicate a problem of some sort, but a photo book with hundreds of linked images is also going to have hundreds of image previews that will take space.

What is the current size of the .indd file?

[Jillian Barnes]

Hi Peter.

I changed the image size while keeping the resolution the same (I take the size down to about 10x6 keeping it at 300ppi using the Resample option of Bicubic Sharper (reduction)). When I originally saved the document after doing all the file reductions yesterday the INDD file was 1.2 GB and so I tried the save as which brought it down 838.2mb (current size). It was about 799mb before I made all the size reductions.

[Peter Spier]

And you are using all these images at about the new saved dimensions?

[rob day]

I'm not really good with the lingo re: pasted/embedded. So, perhaps you can explain the difference....

After I spend hours doing this yesterday the indesign file actually got larger by about 40mb - not really sure why that would be.

When you embed an image its actual pixels are embedded into the page—if you embed a 100mb file and save the ID file its file size will be at least 100mb. If you link the image a JPEG proxy is used and the saved ID file might only be a few MB. Like this page with a 282mb image embedded—you can see its size in the links panel with the embedded icon to the left of its name:

Checking the saved ID file in the finder, its size is 310mb:

If I link the image the ID page saves as 1.3mb

The only advantage with embedding is you no longer have to track the image file, with links the images have to travel with the page layout—they can't be listed as missing.

So resizing linked images really won't help because it won't have much affect on the link's proxy—plus you can downsample to any resolution on PDF export.

So you want to try Peter's advice and do a Save As and save your ID document to a new file. The other thing to check is metadata in both the ID file and the placed images File>File Info. I've seen cases where the metadata is bloated and can affect file size.

Also is all of the placed art bitmap images? Do you have any complex vector art like CAD or Illustrator drawings that you are placing/

[Peter Spier]

Rob, Uwe seems to have gone to sleep. Can you tell Jillian how to find the audit usage in newer versions of Acrobat?

[rob day]

Choose File > Save As Other > Optimized PDF and click Audit Space Usage:

[Peter Spier]

Thanks, Rob.

Jillian, you should install Acrobat and do this, and show us the result like Rob's screen capture.

[Jillian Barnes]

Here's the optimize PDF info for half of my book. Sorry it took awhile, I had to re-export it. The file is 2.03 GB which means I can't even export half to the book printing site. Not sure how to shrink the original INDD file because shrinking the photos isn't working for some reason.

[Peter Spier]

It's 98.94% images, so other than reducing the image quality there's really no place to reduce the file size.

You didn't answer my previous question regarding using them at the dimensions they are saved after re-sampling.

Does blurb require you to submit the files as CMYK? If not, leaving everything in RGB and letting them do the conversion in the RIP will save almost 25% of the file size.

[rob day]

Not sure how to shrink the original INDD file because shrinking the photos isn't working for some reason.

You don't need to worry about the pixel dimensions of the placed files because you can control that from the Compression tab when you export.

Show us what you are using for compression and downsampling ppi. At a minimum it should look like this, but you could also set the Quality settings to High and get more compression. Also make sure Crop Image Data is checked.

What is the trim size of the book?

[Laubender]

Peter Spier wrote:

Rob, Uwe seems to have gone to sleep. Can you tell Jillian how to find the audit usage in newer versions of Acrobat?

Actually I went grocery shopping… 🙂

Jillian,
in PDF Optimizer there is "Discard User Data" with "[ ] Discard document information and metadata" and "[ ] Discard object data" options. Rob already mentioned, that "metadata" could be a cause of unusual file size bloat with images.

Metadata's xmpMM:History entries could be vast.

Every time an image is opened, changed and saved with e.g. PhotoShop you will find traces of that stored as "metadata". And all that would be exported to PDF together with all the the pixel data.

"Audit Space Usage" could reveal if there is a "Document Overhead"of more than the "usual" percentages of PDF file size. A next logical step could be to save the PDF optimized with " Discard object data" and " Discard document information and metadata" checked. All other options with "PDF Optimizer" deactivated or disabled.

Regards,
Uwe

[Jillian Barnes]

Okay thanks. I tried this with one of the four portions and it did get a bit smaller. I'm going to try to re-export my 360 page book into two pdfs and then merge them and try the optimizer option. Does anyone know if I can merge in Acrobat DC?

For what it's worth I opened DC and had it analyzed my INDD file, there was a giant list of fonts that I'd used but the bottom few lines looked like this... not sure if this could be causing the fatal issue?:

Error in /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe PDF/Settings/PDFX4 2008.joboptions:

/CheckCompliance out of range

Warning: Distiller will not process .PDF or .JDF file extensions.Distilling: Memories of 2014 hopefully final Pages.indd

Start Time: 2016-11-05 at 2:39 PM

Source: /Users/jillianbarnes/Pictures/2014/Memories of 2014 hopefully final Pages.indd

Destination: /Users/jillianbarnes/Pictures/2014/Memories of 2014 hopefully final Pages.pdf

Adobe PDF Settings: /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe PDF/Settings/Standard.joboptions

%%[ Flushing: rest of job (to end-of-file) will be ignored ]%%

%%[ Warning: PostScript error. No PDF file produced. ] %%

Distill Time: 1 seconds (00:00:01)

**** End of Job ****

[Willi Adelberger]

Why do you use the Distiller?

[Peter Spier]

Willi, distiller was invoked by Acrobat during the audit process.

[rob day]

Does anyone know if I can merge in Acrobat DC?

Yes.

Tools>Combine Files. From ID you could Export out any number of page ranges and then drag and drop them into the Combine Files window.

[Laubender]

rob day wrote:

Tools>Combine Files. From ID you could Export out any number of page ranges and then drag and drop them into the Combine Files window.

Hi Rob,

but wouldn't that mean that PDF/X entries or tags will be removed?

Jillian's PDF will go through Blurb's preflight process that require a PDF/X-3 standard.

Regards,
Uwe