Could someone help me out with PDF printing problems?

[Graham W]

I'm having real problems printing a PDF through Lulu. I submit a PDF, they send me an anonymous error message. I submit a new PDF, they send me the same message. I'm shooting in the dark and have no idea what's going wrong.

What I really, really need is someone to take me through and tell me how to fix/find out what's going wrong. If you're available over chat, that would be ideal. I'm using PagePlus and the report that Lulu sends me is from PitStop Professional.

Please don't speculate in this thread about common things that go wrong in PDFs. I just need one person, who knows what they're doing, to help me sort this out. I'm happy to trade editing help or just about anything to get it done. If you can help, do get in touch.

Graham

[Paul Czege]

Graham,

It has been a few years, but I've resolved problems with PDFs that were reported by PitStop Professional. I've not, however, printed via Lulu. I suspect you'll get a response from someone who's done both, and more recently than I have. But if not, I'd be glad to take a look at your error report.

Paul

[btrc]

Not sure if it is related to your problem, but I always had trouble with Lulu when uploading pdfs that had been cropped or resized using Acrobat. Either the upload would fail or the resizing would be undone, giving me wierd looking pages. I had to resort to a third-party pdf trimming program that removed the extra page data rather than merely adjusting the visible page margins.

Greg Porter
BTRC

[visioNationstudios]

I've also experienced issues with CreateSpace (with whom Lulu is somehow now affiliated- different story, different thread) when using OpenType fonts.  Took a bit of trial and error to figure this out, but switching any OTF to TrueType stopped the weird "cannot open" types of errors.

[Carnifex]

E-mail sent. Hope it will work.

[Graham W]

What is specifically happening is that, when they try to print the file, it fails. Lulu then sends me the completely bloody useless error message:

180: Content ID 6730361 Text block will not RIP

They have also sent me a PitStop Professional report, which contains the error:

Embedded font NadineScriptNormal, Garamond, Symbol MT (and lots of other fonts) is not complete (1x)

I am as sure as I can be that the PDFs I'm submitting have fully embedded fonts. Nevertheless, just to make sure, I'll try one more time, which means waiting two weeks before Lulu get off their unbelievably incompetent arses and fail to print the sodding file, at which point they'll probably send me another useless error message.

Graham

[David Artman]

Embedded font NadineScriptNormal, Garamond, Symbol MT (and lots of other fonts) is not complete (1x)

I am as sure as I can be that the PDFs I'm submitting have fully embedded fonts.

Step 1) Make SURE your "font subset" setting is 0%. It's oddly structured: it defaults to 100% BUT you have to read carefully: that option subsets all fonts which use LESS THAN the indicated percentage of their glyphs. In other words, every font you use, if set at 100%. To be sure all font glyphs embed, set that "subset" value to 0%--this tells Distiller that you only subset fonts in which you use no glyphs (i.e. none of them).
Step 2) Change to use other fonts (adjust your styles in your DTP) and see if it flies. You MIGHT be dealing with proprietary fonts that are intentionally incomplete (though Garamond shouldn't be bitching; never heard of the Nadine one, and Symbol MT is not "Symbol," which is usually free).

[Graham W]

Last Wednesday, I tried printing again, via both CreateSpace and Lulu. I did something slightly different: before, I'd printed three PDFs in one book; this time, I tried just the main one.

The Lulu one has yet to print (and I think it will throw another error). The CreateSpace proof hasn't just printed: it's arrived, this morning, after being delivered from the States. It looks good and everything has printed fine.

I'm currently very impressed with CreateSpace's speed and unimpressed by Lulu's rubbishness.

Graham

[visioNationstudios]

Yep, I've had nothing bad to say about CreateSpace after running about 5 different projects with them.  Glad you (sort of) found a solution!