pdfs with boxes instead of letters
When I open the pdfs that I make with ConTeXt (II or IV), I often see x'd out boxes instead of letters. I'm writing in the hopes that someone has some ideas about what I might do. Here is some more specific information about what happens 1. I have posted a jpeg of a representative page: http://carneades.pomona.edu/test/badpdf.jpg 2. The problem comes up when the pdf viewer is either Apple's Preview or Skim (which, as I understand it, uses the same basic code). This happens on machines with both OSX 10.4 PPC and 10.5 Intel. 3. It happens with a wide variety of fonts. 4. When opened with one of Adobe's pdf readers (Adobe Reader, Acrobat Pro), the file always looks fine. 5. Opening and closing the file can make the problem parts change. So, for instance, opening and closing the file can make it so that roman letters show while italic letters are crossed boxes or vice versa. Usually, if I do this enough, I can get to a normal view with all letters looking like letters. 6. It started happening in the spring. (I've been hoping it would go away in the normal course of ConTeXt changes.) One obvious answer is just to use Adobe's software. That won't work for me because those programs cannot successfully send a file to either of the printers I have available here. (They also don't automatically update when a file changes, which is a nuisance.) So I have a dilemma. If I want to print, I have to use the Apple and Apple-derived software. If I want to see letters, I have to use the Adobe software. But I cannot do both. I doubt this is a ConTeXt specific problem, but hope there might be a solution through ConTeXt. More generally, I would be terrifically grateful for any ideas about what to do. Thank you for your time. Michael
Hello,
3. It happens with a wide variety of fonts.
4. When opened with one of Adobe's pdf readers (Adobe Reader, Acrobat Pro), the file always looks fine.
That's extremely odd. Can you send a sample PDF file (along with the source code) for us to inspect it? I'm using Mac OS 10.5 on Intel, so I'd like to confirm the behaviour you report.
5. Opening and closing the file can make the problem parts change. So, for instance, opening and closing the file can make it so that roman letters show while italic letters are crossed boxes or vice versa. Usually, if I do this enough, I can get to a normal view with all letters looking like letters.
That really doesn't make sense at all. Sounds like a problem with the Apple code analyzing the PDF file, but I've never observed such a bizarre behaviour myself, and I use mostly Preview on the Mac to view PDFs. Arthur
On Thu, Oct 29, 2009 at 12:38 AM, Michael Green wrote: When I open the pdfs that I make with ConTeXt (II or IV), I often see x'd
out boxes instead of letters. I'm writing in the hopes that someone has some
ideas about what I might do. Here is some more specific information about what happens 1. I have posted a jpeg of a representative page:
http://carneades.pomona.edu/test/badpdf.jpg 2. The problem comes up when the pdf viewer is either Apple's Preview or
Skim (which, as I understand it, uses the same basic code). This happens on
machines with both OSX 10.4 PPC and 10.5 Intel. 3. It happens with a wide variety of fonts. 4. When opened with one of Adobe's pdf readers (Adobe Reader, Acrobat Pro),
the file always looks fine. 5. Opening and closing the file can make the problem parts change. So, for
instance, opening and closing the file can make it so that roman letters
show while italic letters are crossed boxes or vice versa. Usually, if I do
this enough, I can get to a normal view with all letters looking like
letters. 6. It started happening in the spring. (I've been hoping it would go away
in the normal course of ConTeXt changes.) One obvious answer is just to use Adobe's software. That won't work for me
because those programs cannot successfully send a file to either of the
printers I have available here. (They also don't automatically update when a
file changes, which is a nuisance.) So I have a dilemma. If I want to print, I have to use the Apple and
Apple-derived software. If I want to see letters, I have to use the Adobe
software. But I cannot do both. I doubt this is a ConTeXt specific problem, but hope there might be a
solution through ConTeXt. More generally, I would be terrifically grateful
for any ideas about what to do. Thank you for your time. I don't know, and I have not a Mac either.
But you can try with
\pdfminorversion=4
\pdfobjcompresslevel=0
\pdfcompresslevel=0
at the beginnig of your tex source --
luigi
participants (3)
-
Arthur Reutenauer -
luigi scarso -
Michael Green