Big PDF Problems

[admedia]

I use PDF alot for proofing and final output.

I do alot of large format work. Files often exeed well over 500MB PSD.

When I am ready to send a client a proof, I will print to pdf on 8.5 x 11 selecting the 'shrink to fit the page' option to make a small file that the client can print on 8.5 x 11 easily.

Alot of times I get a postscript error when the big PSD is distilling... errors like "Post Script Error" and "Offending Command"....

It's probably a memory problem... alot of times I can restart my system and try again and it works.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

Update: When I was typing this I was outputting to PDF something for the second time. First time failed, so I restarted. Second one output fine after the restart... what would cause this?

[Jujumon]

Hi, not to hijack this but i also have the problem where i cant even convert words to PDF. I was told that my RAM isnt enough but im not quite sure here. Another thing is that I am using MAMBO and when i upload PDF i can open it but others can not.

so if anyone is an expert of acrobat please help me as well.

sorry ad. but disregard this post if u r offended.

[lefteyewilly]

it's gotta be a memory problem, unfortunately i don't have a solution. I distill stuff from PS 7.0 all the time with files that are way above 300mb, and have never had a problem getting it to be a PDF. I don't know what you could do, but try merging all layers that arne't text, might drop the file memory down when you're trying to distill.

[RUSHVision]

I don't have the solution off the top of my head either, but I'm also thinking that it has to be a memory issue. How much RAM have you got and how much is Photoshop configured to use? Maybe you're just not giving Photoshop enough mem juice. I should mention that I don't know for certain if the amount of RAM that you can specify Photoshop to use in the Prefs has an effect on PDF output, but it came to mind that it might.

[admedia]

Some really good info here: http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/rip/a/rip_2.htm

and good links off of that...

I am going to take careful note next time of the exact postscript error.

Still kind of leaning twords memory, but I am thinking a settings tweak somewhere might smooth it out too... thanks RUSH, I just cranked up my mem usage to 75% and see if that helps.

@jujumon... I am not offended, if anyone can help you here, than great.

I just ripped a 454mb no problems, but I am still confused... it usually happens when I am under the gun.

Thanks for everyones responses.

[admedia]

Here is a Typical Log Output on a failed attempt....

%%[ ProductName: Distiller ]%%
%%[ Error: ioerror; OffendingCommand: readstring ]%%

Stack:

(ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ...)
-file-


%%[ Flushing: rest of job (to end-of-file) will be ignored ]%%
%%[ Warning: PostScript error. No PDF file produced. ] %%

Here's the solution to the 'readstring error' from my link

General description

A PostScript error "ioerror", offending command "readstring" can show up when you try to print separations of an Adobe InDesign 1.x document that contains an EPS graphic with embedded fonts. This error is documented in the Adobe database.

Solutions

There are a couple of solutions for this problem:

* Update to the AdobePS 4.3.1 printerdriver. It can be downloaded for free from the Adobe web site.
* Deselect all printer's marks in the Page Marks panel of the Print dialog box before printing.
* Choose a different PPD file that doesn't have as many features. For example, try using the Acrobat Distiller PPD file.
* Reduce the size of the Illustrator EPS graphic by resizing it in InDesign or reduce the complexity of the drawing in Illustrator.

[RUSHVision]

Good to know. Glad you got it figured out, or at least I hope the fix works.