Indesign error when exporting PDF

[Shawn]

Hi Cindy

One thing to try would be to turn off the background PDF exporting to see if that helps clear things up. I've found background export a little flaky, especially when you do lots of larger files.

Shawn

-- from Adobe's help site:
Disable background exporting

Create an empty text file and save it as "DisableAsyncExports.txt".
Navigate to the location of the InDesign executable, for example:

Win: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe InDesign CS5\

Mac: /Applications/Adobe InDesign CS5.5/Adobe InDesign CS5.5.app/Contents/MacOS/
Move the text file from step 1 into this location.

Note: For a startup script that provides a menu choice to control background export, see this link.
A New Workaround for that Pesky Background Export Issue | InDesignSecrets

 

[Colorblind]

I agree with Shawn about background PDF exporting being flaky. On a mac, you can use the following script to export a multipage InDesign document as single pages PDF, you can export all pages at once or choose which pages you need (such as page 3, page 13 and so on). It should be pretty helpful to troubleshoot which page is wrong. Just paste the following code in AppleScript editor, then click "Compile" then "Run". Alternatively, you can save this as an AppleScript application and double-click on the app icon to run it:

with timeout of 3600 seconds
--script by Colorblind tested with InDesign CS5.5 on Mac OS 10.6.8
--this script exports an open InDesign document as individual PDF pages to a chosen destination

--to choose where the PDFs will be exported
set my_destination to (choose folder with prompt "Choose destination for the PDFs") as string

tell application "Adobe InDesign CS5.5"
activate
--the 2 next lines are to choose the PDF preset
set my_pdf_export to get the name of every PDF export preset
set my_pdf_choice to (choose from list my_pdf_export with prompt "Choose your PDF export preset") as string

--first loop
repeat with this_doc in (get every document)
set my_page_list to {"all pages"}
set doc_name to get name of this_doc
tell this_doc to set my_page_list to my_page_list & (get the name of every page)

--to choose multiple pages from the list, press "CMD" key while clicking
choose from list my_page_list with prompt "Choose pages you would like to export as PDF for document: " & doc_name with multiple selections allowed
set my_choice to the result

--if "all pages" is chosen then every page will be exported
if my_choice is {"all pages"} then set my_choice to (items 2 thru -1 of my_page_list)

if doc_name contains "indd" then set doc_name to (characters 1 thru -6 of doc_name)

--second loop
repeat with this_page in my_choice
set my_page_range to this_page as string
set doc_name_page to doc_name & "-" & this_page & ".pdf"
tell PDF export preferences
set page range to my_page_range

tell this_doc
export format PDF type to my_destination & doc_name_page using my_pdf_choice without showing options
end tell
end tell
tell me to activate
tell me to display dialog "Page " & this_page & " of document " & doc_name & " successfully exported as PDF." buttons {"OK"} with title "Progress..." giving up after 2
--The Finder will try to open the destination folder
try
tell application "Finder"
activate
open my_destination
end tell
end try
end repeat
--end of second loop
end repeat
--end of first loop

--set back PDF export preferences to "all pages"
tell PDF export preferences
set page range to all pages
end tell
end tell
end timeout

 

[prepress cindy]

if I stop the background exporting then don't I have to wait till its compete to do anything else in Indesign? Thats not going to fly seeing that the designers spend all day in Indesign....

 

[WharfRat]

export the file as an .eps file
run that through Distiller
and
read the failure log.

MSD

 

[Magpie]

...Also where is the ID preflight?

Window/Outut/Preflight (or apple+alt+shift+F)
It might also help to keep your background tasks (Window/Utilities/Background Tasks) panel open whilst exporting your pdf. It might give you some ideas in the 'alert' window.

 

[prepress cindy]

Cant export as eps, says unknown error. I know it has to do with the way people are creating the files we place. But when we get over 100 supplied files a day I don't know how to determine whether or not the file will potentially become and issue without spending too much time.

 

[rich apollo]

is there any way you could post one of the problematic pages? I'm sure one of us can find the issue.