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.