* pdfs with boxes instead of letters [not found] <mailman.169.1256921249.22155.ntg-context@ntg.nl> @ 2009-10-30 21:07 ` Michael Green 2009-10-30 22:14 ` Taco Hoekwater 2009-10-30 21:41 ` Michael Green 1 sibling, 1 reply; 16+ messages in thread From: Michael Green @ 2009-10-30 21:07 UTC (permalink / raw) To: ntg-context On Oct 30, 2009, Oliver Buerschaper wrote: > > I seem to have spoken too soon. The very next document I prepared > > had the same boxes-rather-than-letters problem. > > > > That said, I cleared the font caches again and, after restarting, > > the document looked correct. Perhaps this is a coincidence. Or > > perhaps there is something amiss with the way my computers are > > caching fonts. Sigh. > > Well, if your engine is pdftex (from an unpatched TeXLive 2008) then > chances are you're running into the nasty (TM) font cache bug: > > http://www.tug.org/mactex/fontcache/ > > Oliver The symptoms seem right: strange, unpredictable display problems with Apple's pdf software but not Adobe's. And it's not just pdftex, apparently. They say that luatex is affected too. That's primarily what I use. So we have both known symptoms (sort of - they're vague) and an allegedly known cause. Perhaps we have a diagnosis. Here is Dick Koch, "A Fix for the Corrupt Font Cache Bug" http://www.tug.org/mactex/fontcache/Font-Cache-Bugfix.pdf > The “corrupt font cache bug” on OS X has been traced by Melissa > O’Neill to a bug in pdftex, present in that program since 2004. > The incorrect code is also used in other programs, notably dvips, > luatex, and metapost. … > > The code containing the pdftex bug was used with little change in > modern versions of dvips, so fixing the bug in dvips was not > difficult. However, it wasn’t so easy to find the corresponding > code in luatex and metapost. Instead of waiting for decisive fixes > in these programs, we decided to just release the fixed pdftex and > dvips. This should fix the bug for most users. Notice that pdftex > is used when typesetting in “pdftex” mode and dvips is used when > typesetting in “TeX and DVI” mode. XeTeX does not have the bug. And in another document, "Looking over the Debugger’s Shoulders ", Koch summarizes what they discovered this way: http://www.tug.org/mactex/fontcache/Debugging.pdf > Two bugs contributed to the problem. First, pdftex, dvips, luatex, > and metapost were not correctly subsetting certain fonts. And > second, a large number of fonts contained subroutines which did not > conclude with a RETURN command. Many of these were created with the > utility mmpfb, which has been patched. Question: is this still a problem for luatex 0.44? (Please say no). If not, perhaps I should clean my caches and use only MkII/XeTeX. Even then, I gather that old documents created with luatex will still be little time bombs (see Appendix, below). I guess I have to delete all pdfs made by luatex and regenerate them as needed. That's a lot of documents. "Nasty" is right. Oy. mjg Appendix: Koch's explanation of why the font cache might become corrupt seemingly for no reason at all. http://www.tug.org/mactex/fontcache/Font-Cache-Bugfix.pdf > When GUI programs display pdf files, they call Apple’s internal > pdf routines. In turn, these routines call Apple’s font routines > to construct bitmaps for the outline fonts. These Apple routines > store the bitmaps in a font cache to speed up future display. For > reasons unknown until recently, this font cache can become corrupt; > this is “triggered” by displaying a defective pdf file. After > that trigger, display problems persist for all files. To fix the > problem, the font cache needs to be rebuilt, as happens when the > machine is rebooted. Adobe Acrobat does not use Apple’s pdf > display routines, so it is immune to the bug. ... > > Once you install the repaired pdftex and dvips binaries, pdf files > created by these programs will not contain damaged fonts and thus > won’t trigger the bug. But unfortunately, your old pdf files may > still be damaged. In addition, users on other platforms won’t have > the repaired binaries for some time, so pdf files sent by > colleagues may still be damaged and trigger the bug. That is why > you may still experience the bug from time to time until the TeX > world catches up. > > It isn’t even necessary to display an old damaged pdf file to > trigger the bug, because Apple’s QuickLook software and the > software in Finder which gives a miniature version of the first > page in the file browser can trigger it. If you keep experiencing > the bug after applying the fix, you may need to retypeset files > which you often open. ___________________________________________________________________________________ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___________________________________________________________________________________ ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 16+ messages in thread
* Re: pdfs with boxes instead of letters 2009-10-30 21:07 ` pdfs with boxes instead of letters Michael Green @ 2009-10-30 22:14 ` Taco Hoekwater 2009-10-30 23:43 ` Hans Hagen 0 siblings, 1 reply; 16+ messages in thread From: Taco Hoekwater @ 2009-10-30 22:14 UTC (permalink / raw) To: mailing list for ConTeXt users Michael Green wrote: > > Question: is this still a problem for luatex 0.44? (Please say no). I applied a patch tagged 'Melissa O'Neill' on March 22 (included as of luatex-0.36.0), which I think is the one this is about. Best wishes, Taco ___________________________________________________________________________________ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___________________________________________________________________________________ ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 16+ messages in thread
* Re: pdfs with boxes instead of letters 2009-10-30 22:14 ` Taco Hoekwater @ 2009-10-30 23:43 ` Hans Hagen 0 siblings, 0 replies; 16+ messages in thread From: Hans Hagen @ 2009-10-30 23:43 UTC (permalink / raw) To: mailing list for ConTeXt users Taco Hoekwater wrote: > Michael Green wrote: >> >> Question: is this still a problem for luatex 0.44? (Please say no). > > I applied a patch tagged 'Melissa O'Neill' on March 22 (included as > of luatex-0.36.0), which I think is the one this is about. dicks article also mentioned a check/fix for missing returns in subroutines i.e. bugged fonts (so the problems are also related to bugged fonts); quite interesting summary esp the fact that there were bugged fonts on tex live Hans ----------------------------------------------------------------- Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands tel: 038 477 53 69 | fax: 038 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com | www.pragma-pod.nl ----------------------------------------------------------------- ___________________________________________________________________________________ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___________________________________________________________________________________ ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 16+ messages in thread
* pdfs with boxes instead of letters [not found] <mailman.169.1256921249.22155.ntg-context@ntg.nl> 2009-10-30 21:07 ` pdfs with boxes instead of letters Michael Green @ 2009-10-30 21:41 ` Michael Green 2009-10-30 22:02 ` Mojca Miklavec 1 sibling, 1 reply; 16+ messages in thread From: Michael Green @ 2009-10-30 21:41 UTC (permalink / raw) To: ntg-context On Oct 30, 2009, Oliver Buerschaper wrote: > Well, if your engine is pdftex (from an unpatched TeXLive 2008) then > chances are you're running into the nasty (TM) font cache bug: > > http://www.tug.org/mactex/fontcache/ > > Oliver One other question. which pdftex shows that it's in the minimal distribution They released a patch for this problem in April 2009. Specifically, they patched the binary files dvips and pdftex Have these patches been applied to the versions of dvips and pdftex in the minimals? If not, is there any reason why I shouldn't substitute these patched versions for the ones in the minimals? Thanks. mjg Source for the patch: http://www.tug.org/mactex/fontcache/ http://www.tug.org/mactex/fontcache/patchedbinaries.tar.gz ___________________________________________________________________________________ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___________________________________________________________________________________ ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 16+ messages in thread
* Re: pdfs with boxes instead of letters 2009-10-30 21:41 ` Michael Green @ 2009-10-30 22:02 ` Mojca Miklavec 0 siblings, 0 replies; 16+ messages in thread From: Mojca Miklavec @ 2009-10-30 22:02 UTC (permalink / raw) To: mailing list for ConTeXt users On Fri, Oct 30, 2009 at 22:41, Michael Green wrote: > > One other question. which pdftex shows that it's in the minimal distribution > > They released a patch for this problem in April 2009. Specifically, they > patched the binary files dvips and pdftex > > Have these patches been applied to the versions of dvips and pdftex in the > minimals? Not for dvips for a simple reason. It's not in minimals. The sources for minimals contain the latest stable pdftex branch (that's returning errors during compilation at the moment). The exact pdftex version depends on whether some particular maintainer has already recompiled the binaries or not, but you can check on http://svn.contextgarden.net/minimals/bin/tex/ if curious. In case of Mac that's SVN #578, while the version in repository is #581. > If not, is there any reason why I shouldn't substitute these > patched versions for the ones in the minimals? They may be older than the ones in minimals (and they will be overwritten if you don't put them to the right place). I don't know any details about LuaTeX. (I would assume that Taco did apply the patch, but I don't know details.) > Source for the patch: > http://www.tug.org/mactex/fontcache/ > http://www.tug.org/mactex/fontcache/patchedbinaries.tar.gz Mojca PS: I admire the discovery of the bug, but some PDFs that Mathematica generates manage to crash even Safari when trying to attach the document and many of my own (manually generated) EPS images are pure crap when viewed with Preview ... TeX seems innocent in comparison ... :) ___________________________________________________________________________________ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___________________________________________________________________________________ ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 16+ messages in thread
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* Re: pdfs with boxes instead of letters [not found] <mailman.1.1256814003.16889.ntg-context@ntg.nl> @ 2009-10-29 16:55 ` Michael Green 2009-10-29 22:37 ` Michael Green 1 sibling, 0 replies; 16+ messages in thread From: Michael Green @ 2009-10-29 16:55 UTC (permalink / raw) To: ntg-context On Oct 29, 2009, at 11:56 PM, Mojca Miklavec wrote: > > Message: 3 > Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:56:05 +0100 > From: Mojca Miklavec <mojca.miklavec.lists@gmail.com> > To: mailing list for ConTeXt users <ntg-context@ntg.nl> > Subject: Re: [NTG-context] pdfs with boxes instead of letters > Message-ID: > <6faad9f00910290356j522794fw1326911d8a70b1a8@mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 > > The PDFs look OK here with both Preview and Skim. I would try to > delete the font cache on your computer and restart it. > That seems to have solved it. I see letters again! My quality of life just went up measurably. Thank you very much! For the record, I used the simple method Wolfgang pointed to: restarting in "Safe Mode" then restarting again in normal mode. It's extremely easy with no software or mucking around in unusual directories. Specifically, I followed these instructions: http://www.ascendercorp.com/support/ ___________________________________________________________________________________ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___________________________________________________________________________________ ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 16+ messages in thread
* Re: pdfs with boxes instead of letters [not found] <mailman.1.1256814003.16889.ntg-context@ntg.nl> 2009-10-29 16:55 ` Michael Green @ 2009-10-29 22:37 ` Michael Green 2009-10-30 18:02 ` Oliver Buerschaper 1 sibling, 1 reply; 16+ messages in thread From: Michael Green @ 2009-10-29 22:37 UTC (permalink / raw) To: ntg-context Michael Green wrote: > On Oct 29, 2009, at 11:56 PM, Mojca Miklavec wrote: > >> >> Message: 3 >> Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:56:05 +0100 >> From: Mojca Miklavec <mojca.miklavec.lists@gmail.com> >> To: mailing list for ConTeXt users <ntg-context@ntg.nl> >> Subject: Re: [NTG-context] pdfs with boxes instead of letters >> Message-ID: >> <6faad9f00910290356j522794fw1326911d8a70b1a8@mail.gmail.com> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 >> >> The PDFs look OK here with both Preview and Skim. I would try to >> delete the font cache on your computer and restart it. >> > > That seems to have solved it. I see letters again! My quality of > life just went up measurably. Thank you very much! > > For the record, I used the simple method Wolfgang pointed to: > restarting in "Safe Mode" then restarting again in normal mode. > > It's extremely easy with no software or mucking around in unusual > directories. > > Specifically, I followed these instructions: > > http://www.ascendercorp.com/support/ I seem to have spoken too soon. The very next document I prepared had the same boxes-rather-than-letters problem. That said, I cleared the font caches again and, after restarting, the document looked correct. Perhaps this is a coincidence. Or perhaps there is something amiss with the way my computers are caching fonts. Sigh. ___________________________________________________________________________________ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___________________________________________________________________________________ ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 16+ messages in thread
* Re: pdfs with boxes instead of letters 2009-10-29 22:37 ` Michael Green @ 2009-10-30 18:02 ` Oliver Buerschaper 0 siblings, 0 replies; 16+ messages in thread From: Oliver Buerschaper @ 2009-10-30 18:02 UTC (permalink / raw) To: mailing list for ConTeXt users > I seem to have spoken too soon. The very next document I prepared > had the same boxes-rather-than-letters problem. > > That said, I cleared the font caches again and, after restarting, > the document looked correct. Perhaps this is a coincidence. Or > perhaps there is something amiss with the way my computers are > caching fonts. Sigh. Well, if your engine is pdftex (from an unpatched TeXLive 2008) then chances are you're running into the nasty (TM) font cache bug: http://www.tug.org/mactex/fontcache/ Oliver ___________________________________________________________________________________ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___________________________________________________________________________________ ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 16+ messages in thread
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* pdfs with boxes instead of letters [not found] <mailman.138.1256773107.22155.ntg-context@ntg.nl> @ 2009-10-29 0:21 ` Michael Green 2009-10-29 0:29 ` luigi scarso 2009-10-29 10:56 ` Mojca Miklavec 0 siblings, 2 replies; 16+ messages in thread From: Michael Green @ 2009-10-29 0:21 UTC (permalink / raw) To: ntg-context On Oct 28, 2009, at 4:38 PM, Arthur Reutenauer wrote: > Hello, > > > 3. It happens with a wide variety of fonts. > > > > 4. When opened with one of Adobe's pdf readers (Adobe Reader, > Acrobat > > Pro), the file always looks fine. > > That's extremely odd. Can you send a sample PDF file (along with the > source > code) for us to inspect it? I'm using Mac OS 10.5 on Intel, so I'd > like to > confirm the behaviour you report. > > > 5. Opening and closing the file can make the problem parts change. > So, > > for instance, opening and closing the file can make it so that roman > > letters show while italic letters are crossed boxes or vice versa. > > Usually, if I do this enough, I can get to a normal view with all > > letters looking like letters. > > That really doesn't make sense at all. Sounds like a problem with > the Apple > code analyzing the PDF file, but I've never observed such a bizarre > behaviour > myself, and I use mostly Preview on the Mac to view PDFs. > > Arthur Extremely odd, doesn't make any sense, bizarre ... that's pretty much what I think. The pdf that I took a picture of and the source that produced it are in a zip file at this address: http://carneades.pomona.edu/test/badpdf-source.zip If you're willing to have a look, that would be great. You may not see what I do. I walked down the hall and had someone else print this file earlier today. It looked fine using his copy of Preview (though he said he has seen something like what I reported in other cases). I'm mystified. ___________________________________________________________________________________ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___________________________________________________________________________________ ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 16+ messages in thread
* Re: pdfs with boxes instead of letters 2009-10-29 0:21 ` Michael Green @ 2009-10-29 0:29 ` luigi scarso 2009-10-29 10:56 ` Mojca Miklavec 1 sibling, 0 replies; 16+ messages in thread From: luigi scarso @ 2009-10-29 0:29 UTC (permalink / raw) To: mailing list for ConTeXt users [-- Attachment #1.1: Type: text/plain, Size: 397 bytes --] > > > Extremely odd, doesn't make any sense, bizarre ... that's pretty much what > I think. > > The pdf that I took a picture of and the source that produced it are in a > zip file at this address: > > http://carneades.pomona.edu/test/badpdf-source.zip > > If you're willing to have a look, that would be great. > It looks ok in my lunux box with xpdf, acroread 9 , evince, kghostview -- luigi [-- Attachment #1.2: Type: text/html, Size: 710 bytes --] [-- Attachment #2: Type: text/plain, Size: 486 bytes --] ___________________________________________________________________________________ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___________________________________________________________________________________ ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 16+ messages in thread
* Re: pdfs with boxes instead of letters 2009-10-29 0:21 ` Michael Green 2009-10-29 0:29 ` luigi scarso @ 2009-10-29 10:56 ` Mojca Miklavec 2009-10-29 11:05 ` Wolfgang Schuster 2009-10-29 11:34 ` Arthur Reutenauer 1 sibling, 2 replies; 16+ messages in thread From: Mojca Miklavec @ 2009-10-29 10:56 UTC (permalink / raw) To: mailing list for ConTeXt users The PDFs look OK here with both Preview and Skim. I would try to delete the font cache on your computer and restart it. Use google, I'm not sure that I still remember how this should be done. Some untested sample links: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20071026081555971 http://www.creativetechs.com/iq/garbled_font_fix_corrupt_font_cache.html http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/167/tn_16763.html Mojca ___________________________________________________________________________________ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___________________________________________________________________________________ ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 16+ messages in thread
* Re: pdfs with boxes instead of letters 2009-10-29 10:56 ` Mojca Miklavec @ 2009-10-29 11:05 ` Wolfgang Schuster 2009-10-29 11:34 ` Arthur Reutenauer 1 sibling, 0 replies; 16+ messages in thread From: Wolfgang Schuster @ 2009-10-29 11:05 UTC (permalink / raw) To: mailing list for ConTeXt users Am 29.10.2009 um 11:56 schrieb Mojca Miklavec: > The PDFs look OK here with both Preview and Skim. I would try to > delete the font cache on your computer and restart it. > > Use google, I'm not sure that I still remember how this should be > done. Some untested sample links: > http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20071026081555971 > http://www.creativetechs.com/iq/garbled_font_fix_corrupt_font_cache.html > http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/167/tn_16763.html Another method that don't require an extra program: http://email.esm.psu.edu/pipermail/macosx-tex/2009-September/041310.html Wolfgang ___________________________________________________________________________________ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___________________________________________________________________________________ ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 16+ messages in thread
* Re: pdfs with boxes instead of letters 2009-10-29 10:56 ` Mojca Miklavec 2009-10-29 11:05 ` Wolfgang Schuster @ 2009-10-29 11:34 ` Arthur Reutenauer 1 sibling, 0 replies; 16+ messages in thread From: Arthur Reutenauer @ 2009-10-29 11:34 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Mailing list for ConTeXt users > The PDFs look OK here with both Preview and Skim. I would try to > delete the font cache on your computer and restart it. That indeed sounds like a reasonable cause. Well spotted, Mojca! :-) Arthur ___________________________________________________________________________________ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___________________________________________________________________________________ ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 16+ messages in thread
* pdfs with boxes instead of letters @ 2009-10-28 23:38 Michael Green 2009-10-28 23:49 ` Arthur Reutenauer 2009-10-28 23:56 ` luigi scarso 0 siblings, 2 replies; 16+ messages in thread From: Michael Green @ 2009-10-28 23:38 UTC (permalink / raw) To: ntg-context When I open the pdfs that I make with ConTeXt (II or IV), I often see x'd out boxes instead of letters. I'm writing in the hopes that someone has some ideas about what I might do. Here is some more specific information about what happens 1. I have posted a jpeg of a representative page: http://carneades.pomona.edu/test/badpdf.jpg 2. The problem comes up when the pdf viewer is either Apple's Preview or Skim (which, as I understand it, uses the same basic code). This happens on machines with both OSX 10.4 PPC and 10.5 Intel. 3. It happens with a wide variety of fonts. 4. When opened with one of Adobe's pdf readers (Adobe Reader, Acrobat Pro), the file always looks fine. 5. Opening and closing the file can make the problem parts change. So, for instance, opening and closing the file can make it so that roman letters show while italic letters are crossed boxes or vice versa. Usually, if I do this enough, I can get to a normal view with all letters looking like letters. 6. It started happening in the spring. (I've been hoping it would go away in the normal course of ConTeXt changes.) One obvious answer is just to use Adobe's software. That won't work for me because those programs cannot successfully send a file to either of the printers I have available here. (They also don't automatically update when a file changes, which is a nuisance.) So I have a dilemma. If I want to print, I have to use the Apple and Apple-derived software. If I want to see letters, I have to use the Adobe software. But I cannot do both. I doubt this is a ConTeXt specific problem, but hope there might be a solution through ConTeXt. More generally, I would be terrifically grateful for any ideas about what to do. Thank you for your time. Michael ___________________________________________________________________________________ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___________________________________________________________________________________ ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 16+ messages in thread
* Re: pdfs with boxes instead of letters 2009-10-28 23:38 Michael Green @ 2009-10-28 23:49 ` Arthur Reutenauer 2009-10-28 23:56 ` luigi scarso 1 sibling, 0 replies; 16+ messages in thread From: Arthur Reutenauer @ 2009-10-28 23:49 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Mailing list for ConTeXt users Hello, > 3. It happens with a wide variety of fonts. > > 4. When opened with one of Adobe's pdf readers (Adobe Reader, Acrobat > Pro), the file always looks fine. That's extremely odd. Can you send a sample PDF file (along with the source code) for us to inspect it? I'm using Mac OS 10.5 on Intel, so I'd like to confirm the behaviour you report. > 5. Opening and closing the file can make the problem parts change. So, > for instance, opening and closing the file can make it so that roman > letters show while italic letters are crossed boxes or vice versa. > Usually, if I do this enough, I can get to a normal view with all > letters looking like letters. That really doesn't make sense at all. Sounds like a problem with the Apple code analyzing the PDF file, but I've never observed such a bizarre behaviour myself, and I use mostly Preview on the Mac to view PDFs. Arthur ___________________________________________________________________________________ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___________________________________________________________________________________ ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 16+ messages in thread
* Re: pdfs with boxes instead of letters 2009-10-28 23:38 Michael Green 2009-10-28 23:49 ` Arthur Reutenauer @ 2009-10-28 23:56 ` luigi scarso 1 sibling, 0 replies; 16+ messages in thread From: luigi scarso @ 2009-10-28 23:56 UTC (permalink / raw) To: mailing list for ConTeXt users [-- Attachment #1.1: Type: text/plain, Size: 2075 bytes --] On Thu, Oct 29, 2009 at 12:38 AM, Michael Green <merely.ridiculous@gmail.com > wrote: > When I open the pdfs that I make with ConTeXt (II or IV), I often see x'd > out boxes instead of letters. I'm writing in the hopes that someone has some > ideas about what I might do. > > Here is some more specific information about what happens > > 1. I have posted a jpeg of a representative page: > http://carneades.pomona.edu/test/badpdf.jpg > > 2. The problem comes up when the pdf viewer is either Apple's Preview or > Skim (which, as I understand it, uses the same basic code). This happens on > machines with both OSX 10.4 PPC and 10.5 Intel. > > 3. It happens with a wide variety of fonts. > > 4. When opened with one of Adobe's pdf readers (Adobe Reader, Acrobat Pro), > the file always looks fine. > > 5. Opening and closing the file can make the problem parts change. So, for > instance, opening and closing the file can make it so that roman letters > show while italic letters are crossed boxes or vice versa. Usually, if I do > this enough, I can get to a normal view with all letters looking like > letters. > > 6. It started happening in the spring. (I've been hoping it would go away > in the normal course of ConTeXt changes.) > > One obvious answer is just to use Adobe's software. That won't work for me > because those programs cannot successfully send a file to either of the > printers I have available here. (They also don't automatically update when a > file changes, which is a nuisance.) > > So I have a dilemma. If I want to print, I have to use the Apple and > Apple-derived software. If I want to see letters, I have to use the Adobe > software. But I cannot do both. > > I doubt this is a ConTeXt specific problem, but hope there might be a > solution through ConTeXt. More generally, I would be terrifically grateful > for any ideas about what to do. Thank you for your time. > > I don't know, and I have not a Mac either. But you can try with \pdfminorversion=4 \pdfobjcompresslevel=0 \pdfcompresslevel=0 at the beginnig of your tex source -- luigi [-- Attachment #1.2: Type: text/html, Size: 2535 bytes --] [-- Attachment #2: Type: text/plain, Size: 486 bytes --] ___________________________________________________________________________________ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___________________________________________________________________________________ ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 16+ messages in thread
end of thread, other threads:[~2009-10-30 23:43 UTC | newest] Thread overview: 16+ messages (download: mbox.gz / follow: Atom feed) -- links below jump to the message on this page -- [not found] <mailman.169.1256921249.22155.ntg-context@ntg.nl> 2009-10-30 21:07 ` pdfs with boxes instead of letters Michael Green 2009-10-30 22:14 ` Taco Hoekwater 2009-10-30 23:43 ` Hans Hagen 2009-10-30 21:41 ` Michael Green 2009-10-30 22:02 ` Mojca Miklavec [not found] <mailman.1.1256814003.16889.ntg-context@ntg.nl> 2009-10-29 16:55 ` Michael Green 2009-10-29 22:37 ` Michael Green 2009-10-30 18:02 ` Oliver Buerschaper [not found] <mailman.138.1256773107.22155.ntg-context@ntg.nl> 2009-10-29 0:21 ` Michael Green 2009-10-29 0:29 ` luigi scarso 2009-10-29 10:56 ` Mojca Miklavec 2009-10-29 11:05 ` Wolfgang Schuster 2009-10-29 11:34 ` Arthur Reutenauer 2009-10-28 23:38 Michael Green 2009-10-28 23:49 ` Arthur Reutenauer 2009-10-28 23:56 ` luigi scarso
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