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Mac Forum / Applications / Mac Applications / December 2007Preview not working with pdf files
I have a strange problem. Preview doesn't show some pdf files. It's not all of them, just certain ones, they show up blank and I can only view them with Acrobat Reader. In many cases (they're articles) the first page (which is different) is fine, but not the rest of the article; and in a bizarre new development yesterday, I find I have a file where the pages with images are visible, but text-only pages are blank. Any ideas? Anyone else had this problem? Using 10.3.9 and Preview 2.1.1. I've deleted the preferences, re- installed Preview, makes no difference. Thanks. In article <24bed082-0170-4c2d-93f0-a895acf89c5a@y5g2000hsf.googlegroups.com>, > I have a strange problem. Preview doesn't show some pdf files. It's > not all of them, just certain ones, they show up blank and I can only [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > > Thanks. This is only speculation... PDF documents adhere to a standard which has evolved over time. So it's possible that the PDF files in question are of a newer version that 10.3.9 and its version of Preview won't handle correctly, whereas a newer version of Preview (with Tiger or Leopard) might. As a way of seeing what's contained inside, you can drag any PDF file to a text editor like TextWrangler and see what's at the top. I happen to have a PDF lying around from a couple years ago, and it begins with "%PDF-1.2" at the very beginning. That indicates that the document adheres to version 1.2 of the PDF standard established by Adobe. A quick Google search shows that they were working, as of January 2007, to get 1.7 approved as an ISO standard -- which illustrates the point about there being newer versions. I don't know offhand where to determine what version of the PDF standard is handled by various versions of Apple's Preview app...so the above is only speculation based on other knowledge. = Steve =  SignatureSteve W. Jackson Montgomery, Alabama > I have a strange problem. Preview doesn't show some pdf files. It's > not all of them, just certain ones, they show up blank and I can only [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > Using 10.3.9 and Preview 2.1.1. I've deleted the preferences, re- > installed Preview, makes no difference. No, deleting the prefs file won't help here. I've observed the same with some specific PDF files, and it has turned out that _all_ of these files were created using Microsoft word for windows. It also turned out opening the PDF files in a program like BBEdit that none of the PDF files contained any kind of font coding / font substitution coding. The opening in BBEdit also showed a very huge amount of SML code. I have only had the problems with files made by MSOffice, Word 2003, word 2004 and the new word version from MSOffice 2007. What happens, if you select one of the problematic files, select 'Open With' and choose Preview, and then click on 'Use As Default', - can you see, if the icon change on the file to the standard preview icon with the letters 'PDF'? cheeers, Erik Richard Signature~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rgds. Grüße, Mvh. Erik Richard Sørensen, Member of ADC <mac-man_NOSP@M_stofanet.dk> <http://www.nisus.com> NisusWriter - The Future In Multilingual Textprocessing ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > What happens, if you select one of the problematic files, select 'Open > With' and choose Preview, and then click on 'Use As Default', - can you > see, if the icon change on the file to the standard preview icon with > the letters 'PDF'? Yes, I get the regular Preview pdf icon. Why do you ask? Iain. >> What happens, if you select one of the problematic files, select 'Open >> With' and choose Preview, and then click on 'Use As Default', - can you >> see, if the icon change on the file to the standard preview icon with >> the letters 'PDF'? > > Yes, I get the regular Preview pdf icon. Why do you ask? 'Cause not all PDF files created with MSOffice for windows has the inlayed code for showing the normal preview icon. - And if the PDF file gets this icon, it should be possibleto open it with Preview no matter if it is created with MSO. And since it doesn't open, I'm likely to thinkk that no fonts have been added to the file. This feature can be disabled in MSWord - also the Mac versions... If you then try to open with Preview, the file won't open, but if you use either Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader it will open anyhow, 'cause both apps have their own font handling, which Preview doesn't have. Cheers, Erik Richard Signature~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rgds. Grüße, Mvh. Erik Richard Sørensen, Member of ADC <mac-man_NOSP@M_stofanet.dk> <http://www.nisus.com> NisusWriter - The Future In Multilingual Textprocessing ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > test06...@hotmail.co.uk wrote: > - And if the PDF file gets this icon, it should be possibleto open it > with Preview no matter if it is created with MSO. And since it doesn't > open, I'm likely to thinkk that no fonts have been added to the file. > This feature can be disabled in MSWord - also the Mac versions... But then how do I end up with a file where some pages are visible in Preview and some aren't...? When I open it with Adobe Reader the fonts look the same on all pages - close up, rather ugly bitmapped. >> - And if the PDF file gets this icon, it should be possibleto open it >> with Preview no matter if it is created with MSO. And since it doesn't [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > Preview and some aren't...? When I open it with Adobe Reader the fonts > look the same on all pages - close up, rather ugly bitmapped. Huh... there can be more reasons for that. The most common are that some of the inlayed parts contain non-PDF compatible picture files, non-compatible tables, non compatible fonts... If so, the Preview can't recognize any of these parts, while Adobereader tries to 'explain' the content, so it can show these parts - mostly - as you write - in a very poor look. I once saw a file (a final master degree project) made in MSWord, but all pictures and table all were made by Macromedia Freehand in non-aliased TIFF. When he tried to print the project, all places where the picts should be, were balnk or with a mess-up of points. If he then saved the pictures and tables as .eps files most of the files were also unreadable, but if he saved the picts and tables as .gif, all could be both read inline and printed. The same happened, if he chose to save the project as a PDF file, - any TIFF file were corrupted, most .eps also, and only .gif embedded files were visible in the PDF file. Due to the system at the engineering university here, he was forced to use MSWord + AcrobatDestiller to make the files. - If he instead have used MarinerWrite, he could use _any_ type of picture - TIFF, GIF, EPS, bitmap etc.etc. as well as any type of font. We tested this by opening the project file in MarinerWrite and then save as PDF..... I can't give any explanation why MS won't use the full ISO standarized PDF code, - but they neither do or want to do so. - Btw. the same problems are still in the new MSWD2007 for windows and few have also until now reported it in the beta of MSWD2008 for Mac. I can only say, that you'll have to live with this mess of bugs in PDF files made from MSWord, until MS admits the problems and follow the standards given. so you'll still have to use both Preview and/or AdobeReader. cheers, Erik Richard Signature~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rgds. Grüße, Mvh. Erik Richard Sørensen, Member of ADC <mac-man_NOSP@M_stofanet.dk> <http://www.nisus.com> NisusWriter - The Future In Multilingual Textprocessing ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From: comp.sys.mac.apps newgroup Subject: Re: Preview not working with pdf files > I can't give any explanation why MS won't use the full ISO standarized > PDF code, - but they neither do or want to do so. - Btw. the same > problems are still in the new MSWD2007 for windows and few have also > until now reported it in the beta of MSWD2008 for Mac. And, MS charges extra even to include their crippled PDF output capability in the site licenses for Office software that they sell to large organizations, which leads many of them not to even purchase it. There are several academic and professional non-profits for whom I do volunteer work. I'm now telling all of them that as of 1/1/08 I'm will no longer attempt process documents sent to me in .doc, .xls, .ppt, or other proprietary formats that require commercial software that I don't myself use. I'll only attempt to process documents sent using open standards intended for document transmission, such as PDF, RTF, JPG, or plain ASCII text. |
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