Feed
 

Opening of pdf's

Avatar John Nicholas
I loaded a pdf onto my data-stick, but the local print shop cannot open it.

Although they are Windows, I had imagined that pdf was cross-system-friendly.

I tried again but filling all the gaps in the title with an underscore. Cannot open.

I have tried two different sticks.

I have gone back to the original document (a family tree) and resaved the pdf.

They still cannot open the pdf even though they can see the icon & title in the list on screen.

Any ideas.

JOHN

Re: Opening of pdf's

Avatar Terry Willis
Adobe PDF is cross platform and should open with no problem. I'm assuming you have the file extension on the file (filename.pdf) and if so can see no reason why it should not open. Apple's "Print to PDF" is a little rough and ready, producing larger file sizes than the Acrobat product, but I've always used it. Send me a copy and I'll see if I can open it on PC's I have available!

Re: Opening of pdf's

Avatar John Nicholas
Have sent you a emessage and attachment. Doubtless you will identify what my error was.

Re: Opening of pdf's

Avatar Terry Willis
No problems with the file on a PC! Opens and prints fine.

Two options come to mind.

1 - The print shop is using an old version of Adobe Acrobat (or don't know what a PDF is!?), both unlikely, but not impossible!
2 - Have you got your USB pen drive formated as PC disc? If not, they would not be able to read the drive or see any files at all!

Re: Opening of pdf's

Avatar John Surtees
Had a similar problem yesterday. Burnt two pdf's to a CD. One opened fine on a PC, the other refused. But interestingly, the one that woudn't open had the words 'Installation Manual' in the file name, and the PC seemed to think it was an application and wanted to install it, rather than open it.

Terry, don't you find using Apple's "Print to PDF" gives a rather low quality file? I've tried it and found it's OK for type, but pics seem to suffer.

Re: Opening of pdf's

Avatar John Nicholas
Following Terry's suggestion I (remembered to save any important data from my pen-drives) formatted both pen-drives afresh, even though I believed them both to be OK in as much as they had carried files between Mac & PC's before. After all it must be my fault not the print-shop? They had Adobe 8 Pro.

Back to the shop but stand-in operator at lunch, (the normal IT proficient person was on annual holiday), so I drove 10 mins down the road to another place. Yes they opened the pdf's on both drives without problem, and they could have printed them BUT not at A0 size only A1. The ability to open them was due to my reformatting? Maybe,but then again, maybe not.

Back to the first shop after lunch. Yes they can open the pdf but not "... get it to connect via their system to the big printer..."

So she worked around the problem, by printing A4, and then incrementally enlarging paper to paper up to A0. Of course if I had known this I could have printed the first A4 myself and not bothered taking the pen-drive !!

Later I emailed her the pdf because I know from Terry, who tested it, that a PC will open and print from an emailed pdf even if pen-drive giving a problem. Actually, NO ! .................... They still couldn't get the file to activate the big printer.

Looks like Terry's option 1 may be quite close to the truth; they don't know how to operate the system.

Still I am not condemning them YET , at least not until the skilled operator returns from holiday.

The end of this tale follows in 10 days or so. Now where is the "Yellow pages" for skilled printshops?

Re: Opening of pdf's

Avatar John Nicholas
Revisited printshop when more skilled operative returned from hols.

Data stick and pdf's opened perfectly.

So all the previous ballyhoo was due to printshop operator error!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Feed