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Corrupted Characters in pdf export (PM7.0.1)

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Charles A Dijak

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Dec 10, 2002, 2:42:24 PM12/10/02
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Pagemaker 7.0.1 with bundled Acrobat Distiller 5.0 under WIN 2K. Same results using either Xerox or Adobe PS printer driver.
When I export a document composed in Pagemaker 7.0.1, with the Arial font, certain converted characters are consistently corrupted -- The "m dash" apostrophe, and the copyright symbol (circle C) appear as other characters in the pdf document. The m dash appears as a small "o" with an accent mark on top. The apostrophe appears as a straight vertical line (like a small i without the dot -- but with the dot replaced by an accent mark. The copyright symbol appears as a captial "A" merged with a capital "E".
Please help!

Ian A. Wright

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Dec 10, 2002, 8:50:37 PM12/10/02
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Charles:

Have you tried creating that PDF with a PostScript print-to-disk file and the full Acrobat Distiller?

Sometimes the location of extended characters are different for different fonts or on different platforms. There are also many crude copies of "Arial" out there. The TrueType version that comes with Windows is excellent. Try replacing the Arial with Helvetica as a test and see if things improve.

Jessica Leavitt

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Dec 11, 2002, 2:46:09 PM12/11/02
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When converting to a pdf file from Pagemaker 7.0, I too have corrupted characters (such as quote marks looking like a 1 with an accent mark for the dot, and others as mentioned above). I have already tried replacing Ariel with Helvetica, and tried print to file then converting the post script file using the full Acrobat 5.0 version, and there is no improvement either way.

I have been told that there could be a conflict with PDF Maker 5.0 that comes with Word and the distiller option in Acrobat 5.0 when I convert to pdf from Pagemaker, although the Pagemaker file is using distiller.

I would try opening in Illustrator and converting my text to outlines, but I am working with a 16 page document which Illustrator will not support.

How can I get a clean pdf? I have all the tools, but apparently not the knowledge of how to overcome this problem.

Carl B. Johnson

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Dec 11, 2002, 2:59:12 PM12/11/02
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Jessica

What characters are changing? Are they characters from an extended
character set, or ansi ascii characters?

--
Carl B. Johnson
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
According to a recent survey, men say the first thing they notice about
a woman is their eyes, and women say the first thing they notice about
men is they're a bunch of liars.
www.wuli.com

Jessica Leavitt

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Dec 11, 2002, 3:06:56 PM12/11/02
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They are quote marks, apostrophies, en and em dashes, fractions... I used the Ariel font from the control toolbox (and tried Helvetica at the same source.)

Carl B. Johnson

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Dec 11, 2002, 3:40:18 PM12/11/02
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Jessica

What OS are you using? What printer driver are you using to print to
file? And what PPD? Have you tried updating the printer driver, or
switching to a different printer profile before distilling?

Jessica Leavitt

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Dec 11, 2002, 5:15:00 PM12/11/02
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OS: Windows NT
Printer Driver: Network HP LaserJet 4 PS
PPD: Distiller

Changing to a Generic PostScript printer driver allowed me to create a flawless ps file to distill with Acrobat 5.0.

Thank you.

Jessica Leavitt

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Dec 11, 2002, 8:39:10 PM12/11/02
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Back Again.

Made some editing changes in the original file, and when I generated a new ps file and pdf using the Generic PS printer as above, I was back to the same old mess.

To save time (this document was due) I went into the PDF I created earlier and did some editing there as I have the full version of Acrobat 5.

But, now what?

viol8ion

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Dec 12, 2002, 12:00:13 AM12/12/02
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> OS: Windows NT

Do you have SP6a installed? If not, go to microsoft.com and d/l and
install the latest service pack for NT.

Why switching the PPD would fix the problem only temporarily is
puzzling. Maybe one of the gurus here will chime in. Other than the
service pack for NT, I am stumped. At least you have a workaround until
we figure this out.

--
Carl B. Johnson
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Some people are like Slinkies . . . not really good for anything, but
you still can't help but smile when you see one tumble down the stairs.

http://www.wuli.com

Rich Beardsley

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Dec 12, 2002, 9:20:41 AM12/12/02
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Jessica,

Could you run through the details of how your creating your pdf again? Are you selecting distiller as your printer and using the distiller ppd? What job option are you selecting in distiller?

Rich

David Crowe

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Dec 12, 2002, 9:47:50 AM12/12/02
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And also, Jessica ...

Did you type the text into PageMaker, use Place, or copy/paste from another application?

Scott McCullough

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Dec 12, 2002, 10:16:49 AM12/12/02
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We occasionally experience the same difficulty with TrueType Arial when creating PDFs for output--whether to film or for our Xerox DigiPath system. It's frustrating and has the potential for causing an expensive and embarrassing reprint. What's especially curious is that the characters usually display correctly on screen and are embedded correctly in the PDF file. Checking the PDF with the PitStop PlugIn shows nothing out of the ordinary--the characters are correctly embedded and encoded. They just won't print. Grrrr...

On the occasions when we've experienced it, we've had all our technical staff try to find the problem and determine a cure. It's usually fixable by manually replacing the characters with PitStop or with Acrobat's Text TouchUp tool, but occasionally nothing we try will force Arial to print correctly, whether to a laser printer, an imagesetter, or even a new PDF. In those rare instances (always on rush jobs, of course) we've had to resort to opening the PDF in Photoshop and converting it to a high-res bitmap TIF, which displays the characters correctly.

Just one of those lovely quirks that makes this job so interesting!

Scott

Charles A Dijak

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Dec 12, 2002, 12:59:05 PM12/12/02
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This is Charles Dijak again. It's good to see that I'm not alone with this problem. I'm using Pagemaker 7.0.1 with Windows 2000. I'm using the PDF export option in Pagemaker with the Acrobat distiller Adobe bundled with it. I've gotten around the em dash problem by drawing a short line as a substitute. I've used the word "Copyright" instead of the "circle C". Instead of an apostrophe, I've substituted the symbol for the dimension "Foot" -- the single tick mark. The Arial font is resident in Pagemaker -- not a 3rd party product. Acrobat is obviously an Adobe product. I'm frustrated. In the meantime, I've got data sheets in pdf format that I can't send out to my distributors.

Carl B. Johnson

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Dec 12, 2002, 1:11:24 PM12/12/02
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Charles

> I'm using the PDF export option in Pagemaker

Have you tried printing to .ps file, then opening Distiller and
distilling the doc to PDF? This usually fixes most of the quirks,
though as you are seeing, not always.

What print driver are you using, and have you made sure that it is the
one recommended by the printer mfg for W2K,a nd that it is the latest
version?

What PPD are you using? Sometimes simply switching these corrects the
problems.

--
Carl B. Johnson
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Madness takes its toll. Please have exact change.
www.wuli.com

Rich Beardsley

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Dec 12, 2002, 1:20:41 PM12/12/02
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Jessica,

What distiller job option settings are you using? Have you selected embed all fonts?

Carl B. Johnson

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Dec 12, 2002, 1:18:43 PM12/12/02
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Jessica

A few shots in the dark, have you deleted all temp files, run scan disk,
rebooted and then tried again?

Jessica Leavitt

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Dec 12, 2002, 1:15:38 PM12/12/02
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Export to pdf was where the corruption began. I then used print to ps and I have changed printer drivers. I was succesful one time, then it reverted to the quirks the next time I tried the print to ps/distill in Acrobat process.

Jessica Leavitt

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Dec 12, 2002, 1:07:58 PM12/12/02
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My screen display is always correct, it's the conversion to pdf that is corrupted. I have used the Acrobat text tool, which seems to work. But, it's easy to miss something this way. Since this seems to be associated with the Ariel font, why doesn't it correct when using Helvetica? Is it a san serif quirk? And, it hasn't always happened. My profile was recently corrupted and had to be replaced, and it was after this that the problem began. I had it once before, long time ago, and it self-corrected. More on this subject please. You're all helping me narrow this down and I appreciate your responses.

Jessica Leavitt

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Dec 12, 2002, 1:23:48 PM12/12/02
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Yes, I select embed all fonts. However, there are times (not always) when it creates a log that says "cannot embed this font..." and both Ariel and Times New Roman have been on the list at one time or another. They are both standard fonts and have been selected to embed. Is there something new here?

Carl B. Johnson

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Dec 12, 2002, 1:28:25 PM12/12/02
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Try checking "subset all fonts below 99%"

Also, if you have Arial font on disk anywhere, you might try
uninstalling the font, and re-installing.

Donald Gruener

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Dec 12, 2002, 1:59:14 PM12/12/02
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FWIW, just today, for the first time in my recollection, I was trying to save an Illustrator file as PDF and got the "could not embed or subset" warning for Arial. I had saved as PDF from the same file just the other day with no problem, and this morning at the same time I saved another Arial-containing Illustrator file as PDF with no problem.

Not having time to mess around with it, I just replaced the Arial with Helvetica. (If I need that type of font I generally use Helvetica anyway; these were client-created files).

Strange though.

Donald

Carl B. Johnson

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Dec 12, 2002, 2:09:01 PM12/12/02
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Revenge of the Arial Fonts! This is just the beginning I tell you,
they are starting to revolt.

Charles A Dijak

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Dec 12, 2002, 3:27:08 PM12/12/02
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I have a 224k Pagemaker 7.0.1 file, with offending characters, that I would be happy to e-mail to anyone that would be kind enough to try to convert it to pdf.
It contains the em dash, en dash, registered tradmark symbol, and the apostrophe. I rendered these characters in Arial, Helvetica, and in Times Roman -- same problem. The conversion is corrupted regardless of font. When the apostrophe appears isolated on the page, it converts as a small "e" with 2 dots on top. When the apostrophe is used within a word such as "Computer's" the apostrophe converts as as small vertical line with an accent mark on top -- similar to the appearance of an "i". Maybe there is a conflict between Adobe product and other software on my system. Maybe there is a quirk in my motherboard.
My e-mail address is c...@epixinc.com. E-mail me and let me know you would like to have the file. I will be more than happy to send it to you. Thanks!!

Carl B. Johnson

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Dec 12, 2002, 4:40:01 PM12/12/02
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Charles, feel free to email it to me: carl NOSPAM @ NOSPAM wuli.com

Remove the Spam and you have my email!

~~

Jessica Leavitt

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Dec 12, 2002, 6:19:59 PM12/12/02
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I just got a fix for my corrupt fonts.
I had to uninstall and reinstall Acrobat. Now both Ariel and Helvetica fonts are working just fine.
In PageMaker I do not use export to pdf but print save to file using a ps printer driver with distiller as the ppd--then open the ps file to distill it.

viol8ion

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Dec 12, 2002, 6:29:32 PM12/12/02
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Jessica

Thank you for the feedback! Glad you solved your problem. Charles, are
you reading this? Let us know what happens when you do the same as
Jessica. And you, too, Donald! *grin*

Charles A Dijak

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Dec 13, 2002, 1:23:31 PM12/13/02
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Congratulations Jessica!! I'll try to duplicate your success!

Charles A Dijak

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Dec 13, 2002, 2:44:06 PM12/13/02
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Following Jessica's lead, I uninstalled Acrobat and then re-installed it. I used the "Export to PDF" option in Pagemaker 7.0.1 with the exact same results -- the re-installation didn't help.
Fortunately, use of the print-to-file option, through the Distiller PPD, did the trick -- the pdf document is clean!!
Thank you Carl, Scott, and Jessica for your help. This is the first time I've used the forum. Thanks to you, it worked for me!!
Best Regards,
Charlie

Carl B. Johnson

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Dec 13, 2002, 3:15:45 PM12/13/02
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I love it when a plan comes together!

--

Steve Rindsberg

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Dec 15, 2002, 12:26:32 AM12/15/02
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- This is Charles Dijak again. It's good to see that I'm not alone with this

problem. I'm using Pagemaker 7.0.1 with Windows 2000. I'm using the PDF
export option in Pagemaker

And that might well be the problem. There may be some sort of downstream
interaction between it and specific PS drivers but not others, but when I
ran into this problem at a client's site (where they use the same OS and PM
version), printing to Distiller directly and not using PDF Export solved
their problems.


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