PDF has Array length out of range

Cyndee Meystel

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Jun 9, 2003, 7:35:30 AM6/9/03

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I have received several PDFs from customers (different customers) that place
into ID without a problem, but do not print. Upon opening these PDFs in
Acrobat 5, I receive a message that "Array length is out of range". They
display fine in Acrobat, but won't print there either and cannot be saved to
an EPS from there (same message appears). I have checked them with the
pre-flight available online from CreativePro and don't get any serious error
flags.

The customers have no idea (they are supposedly professional graphic
artists) as to what is causing this.

Is there anything that I can do with Acrobat 5 (should have professional
version of Acrobat 6 in a few days) to fix these? Is there something I can
have the customers do? They only thing I have managed to do with them is to
open them and rasterize them in Photoshop and save as TIFs. Those then print
and can be placed in ID, but make the files very large.

I'd appreciate any suggestions anyone has. I realize this might be better in
the Acrobat forum, but since I don't follow it, I hope someone here has an
idea (if not, I'll have to try there). Thanks.

Cyndee Meystel

Guy Smiley

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Jun 9, 2003, 10:33:37 AM6/9/03

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What about "Save as" to a different file name? And how exactly are these problem PDFs being created?

Bob Levine

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Jun 9, 2003, 10:08:31 AM6/9/03

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Have you tried to simply resave the file in Acrobat?

Bob

Cyndee Meystel

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Jun 9, 2003, 10:31:37 AM6/9/03

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Yes, I have. I can save it, but it still won't print, and I still get this
error when opening it.

Cyndee Meystel

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Jun 9, 2003, 10:41:25 AM6/9/03

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I did save it to a different file name. I don't know how they're being
created. Is there any way to tell that from the PDF itself?

Cyndee Meystel

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Jun 9, 2003, 11:31:27 AM6/9/03

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I selected the graphics and chose to open them. Pagemaker shows them as 8
bit greyscale objects.

Cyndee Meystel

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Jun 9, 2003, 11:27:13 AM6/9/03

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Thanks Bob.

That shows "QuarkXpress(tm) for Windows 5.01" as creator and

--
Cyndee Meystel
"Bob Levine" <rjlevine.no.j...@softhomeNOSPAM.net> wrote in
message news:3EE4A2F9...@softhomeNOSPAM.net...
> File>document properties>summary.
>
> Bob
>

Bob Levine

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Jun 9, 2003, 11:08:41 AM6/9/03

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File>document properties>summary.

Bob

Steve Werner

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Jun 9, 2003, 11:24:09 AM6/9/03

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About a year or more ago, I had PDF from a QuarkXPress 4.1 document that caused that problem. Finally, I found the reason. Some of the scanned image TIFFs which were placed in XPress were 16-bit TIFFs. (That is, they hadn't been converted to 8-bit with Photoshop's Image > Mode submenu.) But Acrobat 5 choked on them. Perhaps that's the problem.

Cyndee Meystel

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Jun 9, 2003, 11:30:37 AM6/9/03

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Thanks Bob.

That shows "QuarkXpress(tm) for Windows 5.01" as creater and "Acrobat
Distiller 5.0.5 (Windows)" as producer. Does that give any clue to the
problem? Has anyone else ever come across this message?

Cyndee Meystel

Bob Levine

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Jun 9, 2003, 11:34:27 AM6/9/03

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Open it in Acrobat and use the touch up object tool. This will allow you
to open the graphics in Photoshop.

Bob

Cyndee Meystel

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Jun 9, 2003, 12:20:08 PM6/9/03

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I did that. When opening them they show as 8 bit grayscale images. Should I
be changing them in some way?

Cyndee Meystel

Bob Levine

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Jun 9, 2003, 1:32:39 PM6/9/03

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They should be fine.

Bob

Peter Linnell

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Jun 9, 2003, 1:58:05 PM6/9/03

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By default, Quark 5 embeds OPI info when exporting PDF or when printing a postscript files. I find it sometimes necessary to fix this with Pit Stop.

I would go back to the clients and ask them to redistill the files with OPI disabled and output Full Resolution enabled.

Just like PM, I recommend avoiding export to PDF in Xpress. Print a postscript file and separately distill.

HTH,
Peter

Peter Linnell

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Jun 9, 2003, 2:27:43 PM6/9/03

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Follow-up send them here: <http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/30f92.htm>

Cyndee Meystel

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Jun 9, 2003, 2:28:18 PM6/9/03

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Thanks. Is there (by any slight chance) anything that can be done to fix
this without having Pit Stop and without going back to the customer?

Cyndee Meystel

Guy Smiley

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Jun 9, 2003, 4:59:00 PM6/9/03

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What happens if you try to print them to the Acrobat Distiller Printer from Adobe Acrobat?

Guy Smiley

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Jun 9, 2003, 5:16:41 PM6/9/03

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Add if that doesn't work, you could try opening the PDFs in Illustrator and then resaving from there.

Cyndee Meystel

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Jun 9, 2003, 5:28:56 PM6/9/03

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I can open them in Illustrator, but I get font substitution for any font not
on my system.

Cyndee Meystel

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Jun 9, 2003, 5:26:49 PM6/9/03

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You just get the same message "this document cannot be printed"

Cyndee Meystel

Guy Smiley

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Jun 9, 2003, 6:21:25 PM6/9/03

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Can you save as PostScript from Acrobat, rather than an EPS? (Just grasping at straws here.)

Cyndee Meystel

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Jun 9, 2003, 6:55:35 PM6/9/03

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Nope, saving as PS gives the same error message. I can save as TIF but thats
not a real good solution. BTW I just received my Acrobate 6 Professional
upgrade and installed it, and get the same messages from it as from V5. I
also tried its preflight and it did mention use of OPI as a problem.

Its not practical for me to go back to the designer as there are several
middlemen between him and me. I'll probably just have to rasterize it and
use it as a TIF unless someone else gets an inspiration.

Cyndee Meystel

TCole

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Jun 9, 2003, 7:22:41 PM6/9/03

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Cyndee, FWIW, I've heard of this problem as an issue with PDF's from XPress 5. If the customer sending you these PDF's can do so, ask them to save back to XPress 4 file format, open the file in XPress 4 and then try to create the PDF.

TCole

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Jun 9, 2003, 7:28:54 PM6/9/03

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Sure, no worries. I've seen traffic on this specific issue on the Quark support forums. Here's the most recent thread.

<http://www.quark.com/cgi-bin/WebX?1...@186.gd9KaE9dgA0^1@.ee7d84c>

Cyndee Meystel

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Jun 9, 2003, 7:24:43 PM6/9/03

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Problem is that it isn't practical for me to be in contact with the designer
as there are several additional people between him and my actual customer
before even getting to me. In the future when I have more time, I may try
that, but for this one it looks like I'm going to have to rasterize it and
use it as a TIF even though it bloats the file size. Thanks.

Cyndee Meystel

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Jun 9, 2003, 7:55:32 PM6/9/03

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Thanks for the link. I'm saving it (and another one given here from Adobe)
to provide to designers in the future when the problem arises.

Cyndee Meystel

Ken Grace

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Jun 10, 2003, 5:14:27 AM6/10/03

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Apologies if this is a silly question - and I haven't been following the
thread properly. But is it possible that someone has locked the file with
security to prevent it printing?

k

Cyndee Meystel

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Jun 10, 2003, 8:43:13 AM6/10/03

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I don't think that is the issue because this message appears first upon
opening the file.

Cyndee Meystel

Vance McMillan

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Jun 17, 2003, 8:06:11 PM6/17/03

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Hi Cyndee

We have had a client with a similar problem, Array length out of range.

What I suggested to the client as a workaround is to open the PDF in Photoshop, and save as an EPS file from there - ie: the PDf gets rasterised into bitmap data, and resaved. They have been able to place this into PM7 now, without the software crashing.

Sadly, I don't know what causes this problem (which is why I'm looking through the forums trying to find out! =)) but it's nice to know that there is a workaround, which seems to be what you're looking for.

Of course, the only problem with rasterising a PDF is that if there is a lot of fine detail, you can lose it... trade offs all round!

Catcha
V

Cyndee Meystel

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Jun 18, 2003, 12:10:41 AM6/18/03

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Thanks Vance. That is exactly what I have done (and I did mention it here
previously). The only solution I have found is to open it in Photoshop and
rasterize it. Besides the possiblity of losing fine detail as you mention,
it will also make a very large file which will increase file size, print
time, etc.

Cyndee Meystel