Acrobat Distill 6

Having trouble creating .pdf's with Distiller. All I end up with is an error log and Distiller telling me there was an "Unknown Postcript Error". I have tried making editable .pdf's through Illustrator CS using the Save As command which returns an "Unknown Error" message or causes Illustrator to crash. The only way I seem to be able to create .pdf's is to use Print then Save As Pdf. This is a VERY slow work around!
Tried the usuals, Permissions & Preferences plus I've deleted & re-loaded Acrobat Pro.

that means theres a problem with an image/graphic in your doc. first, try saving as and name it something else. if not, go through any images and graphics one by one and make sure its all set up right.

Macman said:

that means theres a problem with an image/graphic in your doc. first, try saving as and name it something else. if not, go through any images and graphics one by one and make sure its all set up right.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply.
Unfortunatly this is happening with just about every file I try it with (I have over 100 packaging documents to convert to pdf), all of which have different graphics & images. Surely all of the images can't have problems?

hmm, probably not. are you using lots of .eps files? using lots of transparencies?

Mainly transparencies. I've just started going back over some older jobs, none of which will 'Distill'. Some of these files previously have been 'Distilled'.

transparency will definitely cause postscript errors. if you dont mind, plkease email me one of the files if possible so I can tryt some stuff. I know all about copyrights and such, so dont worry about that. is your distiller and acrobat pro up to date? what postscript level are you using? Id recommend dropping the ai file into indesign and saving as a pdf from there.

Thank you for the offer. I would send you the files but they're all a bit on the large side (20mb plus) for email. I've always made a point of keeping all my apps up to date so that shouldn't be the problem. I'm not sure what you mean by what postcript level to use?

if yyour using eps files(stands for encapsulated postscript saver), you have a postscript file, you have to make sure that the postscript level youre using, 1, 2, 3. then use a compatible pdf version and settings. theres most likely, if youre exporting a pdf, make sure youve flattened all your layers.

The only image files I'm using are .psd and .tif's. I've also tried flattening the layers and embedding the images, still no luck I'm afraid. I think I might have to resort to re-installing CS again.

no, wait. Ive got it. I recreated the situation on another account, so heres what you do. delete illustrator cs's preferences. theyre in :
mac hd>users>your username>library>preferences>adobe illustrator cs, delete that folder.

First of all, thank you for the time you have taken to help me with this, its very much appreciated. I think I've found one of the problems. After completely removing and re-installing Creative Suite I was still getting the same problems. By process of elimination it seems that a font may be corrupt as it will 'Save As' a .pdf in Illustrator when this typeface is converted to outline. It still won't run through Distiller though.

Dalton29 said:

First of all, thank you for the time you have taken to help me with this, its very much appreciated. I think I've found one of the problems. After completely removing and re-installing Creative Suite I was still getting the same problems. By process of elimination it seems that a font may be corrupt as it will 'Save As' a .pdf in Illustrator when this typeface is converted to outline. It still won't run through Distiller though.

Click to expand...

cool. but you dont need to distill pdf's made in illustrator or indesign, so its ok.
what kind of font management are you using? if you have more than about 100 to 150 fonts, you need something more than font book, use suitcase x1.

Nailed It! It turned out not to be a corrupt font but a setting I was using. I had a 'Multiply' transparency blend effect on the drop shadows I was using on the text. Changed it back to normal and it pdf's fine. Doesn't quite give the results I was after but at least it works. Thank you again for the help.

Tim.