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PDFs not readable with Preview
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Apr 2002
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My professor notified me today that he could not read the PDF file that I mailed yesterday with Preview - not like he couldn't open it, it's just that all the letters have been replaced with squares - kinda like if a font was missing and Preview substituted it for an all-squares-font. We were also able to reproduce this - happens with every PDF file I send.
I don't use a Mac to create these files, they've been created under Windows Vista using Word 2007 and FreePDF XP in combination with Ghostscript. What went wrong here? They opened fine with Adobe Reader but not Preview, and I clearly can't ask anyone to install Adobe Reader on their Macs. As is I have to stop sending out PDFs since most of the people here at WSU use Macs anyway, and I really don't want to start mailing DOC files...
Any ideas?
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"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in one
pretty and well preserved piece, but to skid across the line broadside,
thoroughly used up, worn out, leaking oil, shouting GERONIMO!"
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Professional Poster
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Dunno, but have you tried other PDF-creation mechanisms? The optional Microsoft one for Office 2007 works pretty well, and I've definitely opened PDFs created that way on Macs. Or PDFCreator?
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Addicted to MacNN
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Sounds like you specified a font that your prof does not have.
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Addicted to MacNN
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Try posting an example here, someone will take a look at it.
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Preview won't open all PDF's I come across, Acrobat is my standby, and it's free too.
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iMac Intel Core i5, 2.5GHz, 4GB RAM, 500GB 21.5" Monitor 10.8.3.
iMac 17" 2.0ghz Intel Core 2 Duo w 3gb memory (White one) 10.6.8.
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Professional Poster
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There aren't any all squares fonts, it's just that your professor didn't have the font you used.
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Forum Regular
Join Date: Feb 2007
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Originally Posted by D'Espice 
My professor notified me today that he could not read the PDF file that I mailed yesterday with Preview - not like he couldn't open it, it's just that all the letters have been replaced with squares - kinda like if a font was missing and Preview substituted it for an all-squares-font. We were also able to reproduce this - happens with every PDF file I send.
I don't use a Mac to create these files, they've been created under Windows Vista using Word 2007 and FreePDF XP in combination with Ghostscript. What went wrong here? They opened fine with Adobe Reader but not Preview, and I clearly can't ask anyone to install Adobe Reader on their Macs. As is I have to stop sending out PDFs since most of the people here at WSU use Macs anyway, and I really don't want to start mailing DOC files...
Any ideas?
You may also want to try embedding the font in the pdf. I don't know the details but Janie told Mary who told her cousin who told me that you could do this. Or something ...
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Apr 2002
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Here's an example...
And as far as I know, PDF creator isn't free, is it? The one for Office 2007 I haven't installed yet, I'd need to download and install the additional plugin (which is no problem as such, it's just that I was very happy with the PDF printer mechanism so far)
PS: I'm aware of the fact that there are no all-square-fonts... it was just a metaphor 
Also - I just checked, font embedding is already enabled:
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"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in one
pretty and well preserved piece, but to skid across the line broadside,
thoroughly used up, worn out, leaking oil, shouting GERONIMO!"
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Addicted to MacNN
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opened fine for me with Adobe, preview and quicktime. using new 20' Al iMac
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45/47
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Nov 2005
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Tested on MacBook w/ 10.5.1 in Preview, and in Windows XP with Adobe 8.1. No problems at all. I blame your teacher.
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Any ramblings are entirely my own, and do not represent those of my employers, coworkers, friends, or species
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Apr 2002
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How about this one?
This is the actual file I mailed him yesterday. Btw, teacher has a PowerMac G5, not sure whether he's running 10.3 or 10.4. Thus, even if I can blame him I won't be able to convince him to upgrade/update/whatever. What other way is there to make absolutely and 100% sure that he will be able to read my documents? I always considered PDF the ultimate and best way to exchange documents but after this I'm kinda disappointed...
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"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in one
pretty and well preserved piece, but to skid across the line broadside,
thoroughly used up, worn out, leaking oil, shouting GERONIMO!"
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Oct 1999
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Opens fine in Preview on 10.5.1.
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Forum Regular
Join Date: Feb 2007
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opens fine for me as well. 10.5.1, Preview 4.0 (469), and in xpdf 3.02 running under XQuartz in X11 ...
Second file is good too, except for the rogue space before the colon in the last title ... and I don't think I could study whatever it is you're studying!
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Even opened fine on my iPhone.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Oct 2000
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He probably doesn't know what a PDF is.
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"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." TJ
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Addicted to MacNN
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What version of preview is he using? You could try sending this to him as an rtf, given that there is not much formatting.
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Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Jan 2007
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Try CutePDF, I find that their engine works very well, keeping things simple, not using new PDF's specs unless it is really needed. One reason I sucked it up at work got Acrobat pro is because you can set it to save to older versions of the PDF spec, for the technophobes I encounter regularly.
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Dedicated MacNNer
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Originally Posted by D'Espice
My professor notified me today that he could not read the PDF file that I mailed yesterday with Preview - not like he couldn't open it, it's just that all the letters have been replaced with squares - kinda like if a font was missing and Preview substituted it for an all-squares-font. We were also able to reproduce this - happens with every PDF file I send.
I don't use a Mac to create these files, they've been created under Windows Vista using Word 2007 and FreePDF XP in combination with Ghostscript. What went wrong here? They opened fine with Adobe Reader but not Preview, and I clearly can't ask anyone to install Adobe Reader on their Macs. As is I have to stop sending out PDFs since most of the people here at WSU use Macs anyway, and I really don't want to start mailing DOC files...
Any ideas?
Yes the font has not been embedded and possibly you used an OpenType font which employs Unicode encoding.
From the sound of it your professor has a dated set-up if he/she doesn't have the suitable font/support on their computer.
Try forcing your material to something bog standard using Arial (not Helvetica) and Times. Windows machines have constant problems with TrueType font permissions. Windows' TrueType have a flag built in that can prevent embedding to prevent "font piracy".
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I look forward to a future where the present will be in the past.
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