Flattening PDF creates duplicate pages

[Magnus59]

I received a PDF from a customer for some posters. There are 6 pages in the PDF
Taking far too long to refine, lots of RGB, spot colours, transparency etc. I don't usually flatten anything, but since this is just for a few posters printed on the plotter I figure it's going to speed things up.
Convert all colours to CMYK using Pitstop, still have 6 pages, then flatten using Acrobat, save and refine. File has blown out from 6Mb to 250Mb but refines quickly. I then notice there are 11 refined pages, go back to the file and see that pages 2-6 have been duplicated at the end of the document. I go back to the original document, and sure enough, as soon as I flatten, I have 11 pages instead of 6.

 

[abc]

Huh?
Can you share the pdf?

 

[Magnus59]

https://optimapress-my.sharepoint.c...RFjiu3qTtKwIgB130vnk1T80tssn2sWOfVzg?e=nClZCH
Flattening by selecting transparency settings in Pitstop inspector and using [Action] [Flatten using Acrobat]

 

[Ulrich]

https://optimapress-my.sharepoint.c...RFjiu3qTtKwIgB130vnk1T80tssn2sWOfVzg?e=nClZCH
Flattening by selecting transparency settings in Pitstop inspector and using [Action] [Flatten using Acrobat]

here not, still 6 pages:

by just using AcrobatProX on MacOS 10.5.8, file size now 231,5 MB

 

[Magnus59]

I flattened in Acrobat Pro DC on a PC, I haven't tested on the Mac

 

[Magnus59]

here not, still 6 pages:

by just using AcrobatProX on MacOS 10.5.8, file size now 231,5 MB

View attachment 290689

Same result on the Mac, Flattening dialogue says 6 pages, but there are now 11 in the document

 

[Ynot_UK]

is there any content on the five additional pages, or has the process simply inserted five blank pages?

 

[Magnus59]

is there any content on the five additional pages, or has the process simply inserted five blank pages?

Pages 2 to 6 are duplicated

 

[Ynot_UK]

Pages 2 to 6 are duplicated

I've not seen that before, although have seen random blank pages inserted, generally when the document started life in MS Word.
Annoying and harder to spot than blanks.

 

[Joe]

https://optimapress-my.sharepoint.c...RFjiu3qTtKwIgB130vnk1T80tssn2sWOfVzg?e=nClZCH
Flattening by selecting transparency settings in Pitstop inspector and using [Action] [Flatten using Acrobat]

Must be a new "feature" in Acrobat DC.

Pages 2-6 are not flattened but the duplicated 7-11 are pages 2-6 flattened. If you flatten them one page at a time it doesn't do it.

 

[Ulrich]

I received a PDF from a customer for some posters. There are 6 pages in the PDF
Taking far too long to refine, lots of RGB, spot colours, transparency etc. I don't usually flatten anything, but since this is just for a few posters printed on the plotter I figure it's going to speed things up.
Convert all colours to CMYK using Pitstop, still have 6 pages, then flatten using Acrobat, save and refine. File has blown out from 6Mb to 250Mb but refines quickly. I then notice there are 11 refined pages, go back to the file and see that pages 2-6 have been duplicated at the end of the document. I go back to the original document, and sure enough, as soon as I flatten, I have 11 pages instead of 6.

Did you „save“ after flattening or „save as“ overwriting the existing file?

 

[jwheeler]

I received a PDF from a customer for some posters. There are 6 pages in the PDF
Taking far too long to refine, lots of RGB, spot colours, transparency etc. I don't usually flatten anything, but since this is just for a few posters printed on the plotter I figure it's going to speed things up.
Convert all colours to CMYK using Pitstop, still have 6 pages, then flatten using Acrobat, save and refine. File has blown out from 6Mb to 250Mb but refines quickly. I then notice there are 11 refined pages, go back to the file and see that pages 2-6 have been duplicated at the end of the document. I go back to the original document, and sure enough, as soon as I flatten, I have 11 pages instead of 6.

Another method to try...after converting your colors, rather than flattening to a new file, click on the "Advanced" button in the Acrobat print window, then check the box near the top that says "Print as Image" and define which DPI you'd like (for wide format inkjet, 150dpi is sufficient). Then press ok and print. This essentially flattens the file as it is printing.

 

[cementary]

In my experience with Acrobat X same thing happens when there is an error on flattening. Basicaly one page is not flatten and file saved with duplicates for all pages but the one which failed. And sometimes you see the messagebox with error and sometimes you don't

 

[Magnus59]

Did you „save“ after flattening or „save as“ overwriting the existing file?

I saved as a new file with "flat" in the file name. I always keep customers original files untouched just in case.

 

[tngcas]

Does it do it on every file or just this one? If it’s just this one then flatten it, delete the duplicate pages and move on. Chalk it up to “that file is weird”

if it’s doing it on every file uninstall and reinstall adobe.

 

[Magnus59]

Does it do it on every file or just this one? If it’s just this one then flatten it, delete the duplicate pages and move on. Chalk it up to “that file is weird”

if it’s doing it on every file uninstall and reinstall adobe.

As far as I know it's just this file, but I hardly ever flatten PDFs these days, i was just putting this out there to see if anybody else had seen this.