On Thu, Oct 29, 2009 at 12:38 AM, Michael Green 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