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Thread: PDF Reflow oddness in Adobe Acrobat/Reader

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From: Jonathan Avila
Date: Tue, Jun 30 2020 5:06PM
Subject: PDF Reflow oddness in Adobe Acrobat/Reader
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Hi PDF experts, I've noticed that some documents (in particular ones created from Mac Adobe Illustrator) won't reflow unless I blow away all of the tags and re-tag. The documents do have multiple layers and transparency - but turning those off and combining layers doesn't seem to solve the issue. In addition, the document tags and properties are editable - until reflow in Adobe Acrobat/Reader is enabled (although it doesn't reflow). Once reflow is enabled the document suddenly becomes not editable, the title can't be changed, tags can't be change and the items in the touch up reading order disappear from the reading order view. Any ideas? Initialization of reflow in Acrobat seems to trigger the document going into a different mode. The PDF seems to be in the PDF/X standard although converting to PDF/A doesn't seem to address the issue (unless the tags are removed and added).

Jonathan

From: L Snider
Date: Tue, Jun 30 2020 5:23PM
Subject: Re: PDF Reflow oddness in Adobe Acrobat/Reader
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Hi Jonathan,

Interesting...PDF/A should lock the document (although you can get
around it). Can you convert the Illustrator doc just to plain PDF? if
so, do you see the same issues?

PDF/X is used usually (in my experience, others may vary) just for
printing, so would it lock things down to keep the PDF 'pristine'?

Cheers

Lisa

On Tue, Jun 30, 2020 at 8:07 PM Jonathan Avila
< = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>
> Hi PDF experts, I've noticed that some documents (in particular ones created from Mac Adobe Illustrator) won't reflow unless I blow away all of the tags and re-tag. The documents do have multiple layers and transparency - but turning those off and combining layers doesn't seem to solve the issue. In addition, the document tags and properties are editable - until reflow in Adobe Acrobat/Reader is enabled (although it doesn't reflow). Once reflow is enabled the document suddenly becomes not editable, the title can't be changed, tags can't be change and the items in the touch up reading order disappear from the reading order view. Any ideas? Initialization of reflow in Acrobat seems to trigger the document going into a different mode. The PDF seems to be in the PDF/X standard although converting to PDF/A doesn't seem to address the issue (unless the tags are removed and added).
>
> Jonathan
> > > >

From: Jonathan Avila
Date: Mon, Jul 06 2020 9:01AM
Subject: Re: PDF Reflow oddness in Adobe Acrobat/Reader
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Hi Lisa, thanks - I don't have access to the original but removing the tags completely and adding them again does address the issue -- I guess that's why some folks automatically always remove tags from documents and just re-tag (if they don't have access to the source).

Jonathan

From: L Snider
Date: Mon, Jul 06 2020 9:10AM
Subject: Re: PDF Reflow oddness in Adobe Acrobat/Reader
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Hi Jonathan,

I think it was the PDF/X preventing anything from showing. I know
PDF/A does that because it is meant to be archival and 'not touched'.

Depends, if you create something accessibility in InDesign there is
very little work (versions 2018 and on) in Acrobat, and even Word
usually does pretty well (this depends on version). However, yes in
many cases it is quicker to get rid of all and start again. Although
it depends on tables, lists, etc. as those have to be hand done
(usually).

Glad it worked!

Cheers

Lisa

On Mon, Jul 6, 2020 at 12:01 PM Jonathan Avila
< = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>
> Hi Lisa, thanks - I don't have access to the original but removing the tags completely and adding them again does address the issue -- I guess that's why some folks automatically always remove tags from documents and just re-tag (if they don't have access to the source).
>
> Jonathan
>
>