Sending pdfs on PCs

L

Lyra

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I'm increasingly getting problems with clients not being able to open pdf files, usually generated from InDesign documents, but sometimes from Word, and sent as email attachments from my G4 (running 10.3.6 – it ain't broke so I haven't fixed it with any later updates). They're getting a message that the file is damaged. At the moment I'm using Acrobat 6.

I've tried sending them to my own PC using exactly the same route, and they open quite happily.

Am I right in thinking that this is something to do with security settings at the receiving end? I haven't bothered to instal SP2 on the PC as I only use it for games and checking out whether something will open on a PC so the security on it is minimal.

If I'm not right, anyone got any ideas what could be going wrong? I've tried various ways of creating the pdfs, including the long route of distilling first but nothing makes any difference. It's only in the last few months that it's started happening, but it's happening increasingly. Nothing else has changed on my Mac.

If I am right, is there any way round it? Would uploading the files to my .mac homepage for them to download bypass the problem, or would they still hit a security barrier?

Any help greatly appreciated, as at the moment I'm having to go back to printing out and couriering stuff.
 
They could be using an old version of Acrobat reader since Windows doesn't come with its own native PDF reader. Get them to download Reader 7 and see if the problems go away.
 
The issue is likely that you are generating Acrobat 5 or even 6 PDF files. In your output options, you can set InDesign and/or Distiller to output Acrobat 4 compatible PDFs, that your clients can open with their somewhat out of day Acrobat Reader 4 (remember, most PC users never thing to update - they take things like PDFs for granted).
 
Thanks, but I already have it set for compatibility with 4 – most of my clients wouldn't know an upgrade if it bit them. The last client I had problems with was one I've sent stuff to before without any difficulty at all in the past, which is what's got me thinking along the security line.
 
I make PDFs from InDesign every day for electronic proofing and I have never had a problem. I would first suspect that the problem is on the clients end, but if it is happening with different people then it might be on yours. Here are some thing that I would try:
Make a very simple PDF no Fonts no Links just a box and see if they are able to open that
Outline the Fonts in InDesign and in the linked Illustrator graphic
Resave EPS files as AI native then re link (belive it or not this has caused documents to fail for me, so I always avoid saving as EPSs
Commpress the file before emailing .sit or .zip because the problem may be occuring in the file transfer.
 
Thanks guys. The solution seems to be uploading them to my homepage and letting the client download from there, so it does look as if it's something to do with their ISP. I will try your suggestions next time anyway: I do like belt and braces ...
 
You didn't mention this, but I assume you are always adding the .pdf file extension... right?

Also, some email programs automatically compress/encode attachments as mac binary. Turn that feature off.
 
You didn't mention this, but I assume you are always adding the .pdf file extension... right?
Click to expand...
Right!

Also, some email programs automatically compress/encode attachments as mac binary. Turn that feature off.
Click to expand...
I probably should have said I'm using Mail – I don't see anywhere to do anything about attachments, other leaving the 'send Windows friendly' option checked. It's a fairly recent problem, though, last couple of months max., and I've used Mail more or less since it came out without it happening before.

I spent the morning re-checking and re-preflighting the documents and didn't get notification of any problems. At least the .mac homepage public folder thing worked and the client now has the files. It's just frustrating not knowing what's causing it 'cos it means I don't know when it's going to happen again.
 
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