PDFs messed up in Leopard; OK in Tiger
 

Does anyone know why PDF files that read just fine in Tiger are just a mess of random symbols in Leopard?

Better still, does anyone know how to make them read properly in Leopard?

:) thanks

I am talking about files I download from other sites.
Many are fine, but a number of them are just a mess of random symbols:
eg "## $ % % &

Curiously, if I copy them then paste into Textedit, suddenly they are words again.
(the above nonsense translates into ALL RIGHTS RESERVED)

So why the devil can't Preview just display them as words instead of gobbeldy gook?
and why can Tiger read the same file that is gibberish in Leopard?
Also, Adobe in Parallels is fine with the same files.

Have you changed the application that Leopard uses to open PDFs? On the Leopard machine, do a Get Info (Cmd-I) on one of the problem PDFs. What does it report as the default program in the "Open with" pane?

TextEdit's rendering engine will indeed show the content of a PDF when a PDF file is dropped into an open TextEdit window. That's just what TextEdit does, unless your file association is completely beyond the bounds of what TextEdit expects for a PDF.

Hi K

I'm very surprised by what you've reports and I'm also very curious about this. I used to work for Adobe - so I've worked a lot on PDF files. If you could send me a file (or even better - post it somewhere), I'll take a look. I have Tiger on my laptop and Leopard on my desk - so I should be able to reproduce this.

Robin

eBook attached
 

This is one of the books I am having problems with.

@macosnoob
I always use Preview to read PDFs.
I only mentioned Textedit in the context that when I went to paste a sample from an ebook into my post it turned into text. Then I tried it with Textedit, and that read it as text also. So I don't understand why Preview on Leopard is having a problem.

Preview read it fine in Snow Leopard for me. I suspect you may have a font conflict. Check your fonts in the program Font Book.

Hi K

I don't see anything unusual on Leopard 10.5.8. I used Preview and saved the pages individually into JPEGs. Then I published the JPEGs as a web gallery: http://clanmills.com/2009/free7S/

Could you save one (or more) of the pages with which you're experiencing trouble. And then post/publish the jpg/jpgs so I can see what to investigate.

Robin

The PDF looks fine on my 10.5 machine. I wonder if there is a corrupt font issue, though I'm not certain why that would cause the problem since you're dealing with a PDF and the fonts shouldn't matter.

If you want to check for corrupted fonts, open Font Book, select all of the fonts, then use the File menu to select Validate Fonts.

Edit: Oops. Now I see Las Vegas suggested the same thing.

Hi K

The fonts in use in this file are:
Georgia-Bold
Georgia
Verdana-Bold
TimesNewRomanPSMT

The string "Copyright © Free7StepsEbook.com All Rights Reserved Worldwide" is using Verdana. Have you installed that font on your Leopard? I believe it's a free download from Microsoft.

Robin

Thanks for your suggestions, everyone.

Have uploaded a couple of pages as JPGs

To answer your questions:

1. I always use Preview - I only mentioned Textedit in the sense of being able to copy the gobbeldy-gook from Preview and paste it into TE whereupon it becomes text again.

2. Fonts. The fonts mentioned are fonts I often use. I can create PDFs no problem. Also, not all downloads are a problem. There are many downloaded PDFs I *can* read, but a number that I can't.

Hi K

Where are the JPEGs ?

I've finally understood what you're saying about TextEdit. Yes, that makes it even more likely that this is a font issue. When you paste into TE, does it use Verdana (or TextEdit's current font)?

Robin

Strange, I attached them and hit enter and didn't notice they didn't make it into the post.

Have attached 'em again

Hi K

I don't doubt that this is a font issue. I think you've sent pages 2 and 3 from the original document as I can see the underlining seems to be in the correct location - however the font is hopelessly wrong. How odd that your machine is experiencing this - nobody else has said on the forum "it's wrong for me too".

A couple of other questions:
1) Can you look at the document with another PDF reader on your Leopard machine. For example Adobe Reader or Foxit or Schubert|it ?
2) What is your location and language being used on the machine?

And a suggestion:
Can you think about removing the fonts (with FontBook), looking at the files. Then reinstall the fonts ? Don't forget to back up your fonts before you do this! And another possibility is to get a fresh copy of Verdana etc from somewhere (Microsoft). Maybe there's something dumb about your font files and getting a fresh (and presumably different version of the fonts) will fix things.

And after that, I can:
I've got some thoughts about this which involve PostScript - however I'm at work at the moment. If you could reply to my questions above, that'll keep us moving forward until I'm home this evening.

I'll send you a little home-made utility this evening to get the font-names in use in any PDF document. You're saying some files are fine, and some not. You can use the utility to see if there's a pattern of certain fonts being implicated in the troublesome files.

Robin

Did you log out or restart after things you tried? Fonts get loaded when you log in, so this can make a difference.

The other thing to try would be to go back into Font Book and use the Edit menu to select Resolve Duplicates. Again, log out or restart. Try the PDF again.

If that doesn't help, I wold suggest cleaning out the font cache. Follow these instructions carefully. I would suggest copying and pasting the command into Terminal, not manually entering it.

If you're not familiar with sudo commands in Terminal, note that you will be asked for your password. You will not see anything as you type it, but just press Return after you've entered it.

You should also logout or restarts after executing this command.

BTW, as stated I use Verdana all the time, so is certainly already on my Mac, as well as the others

Downloaded Skim which reads the main text, but not the headings (se jpg of page 3)

Location: Australia
Language: We speak English over here :)

Logging out: This has been going on for some time now, so have done several logouts in that time.

Fonts: Wouldn't I be having trouble with those fonts in other apps as well? Why would it only show up in PDF readers?

OK, just had a look using Font Book - found 'minor errors' with all my commonly used fonts. Am wondering if installing some app may have jiggered them.

That's a lot of fonts to find copies of. Can I just use the files from my other Mac (Tiger)? Font Book says those are all ok.

Aus. My favorite country. G'day Mate.

Right. I think we're making good progress now. I've never reinstalled any fonts on the Mac so I'm reluctant to offer specific advice about that. Just be careful. Make sure you have a backup and all that kind of thing.

-- here's my suggestion - use at your own risk ---

If you have TimeMachine:
restore the system's font from /Library/Fonts/ from a big-bang backup (big bang = the birth of the system).
A reboot might be in order.

If you don't have TimeMachine:
1) backup the existing fonts in /LibraryFonts
2) uninstall (using FontBook) Georgia, Verdana and Times
3) install (using FontBook) Georgia, Verdana and Times from your Tiger system

- if free7S.pdf looks good, you're in great shape. Proceed to treat all other suspects to the same medicine.

- if free7S.pdf is still bad, take a break. Reboot. Think things over before trying again.

--------------------

Be sure to let me know how this works out - this is all very curious.

Robin

Ta - will do that later, as have things to do.

However, if you like curious: I used to have a PC that would sometimes read PDFs using Greek characters instead of English - wierd. There was no consistency - the same file file would sometimes be OK and sometimes Greek.

Open Font Book and look through your Times New Roman fonts. One of them is symbols only. Turn it off. That should cure your substitution problem above.

Well, hopefully will all be fixed once I sit down and chase up all the replacement fonts (38 altogether when I include the bold/italic variations)

Thanks for the help everyone. This is by far the most responsive forum I've been in.

Wlil let you know how it works out.

Thanks again :)

Well, hopefully will all be fixed once I sit down and chase up all the replacement fonts (38 altogether when I include the bold/italic variations)

Thanks for the help everyone. This is by far the most responsive forum I've been in.

Wlil let you know how it works out.

Thanks again :)

Thank you for saying this. I agree - this is a very nice forum. Many good people contribute here and deserve your praise. Come back and visit often and please contribute when you can help.

Robin