Disobedient exports from Indesign...

[Toxic Culture]

Hello all,

I am in some need of assistance from all you clever ones...
Basically, whenever I design in Indesign and go to export the file in a pdf or an EPS the images and sometimes text do not appear or they appear as only a pale grey box with 'invalid specified object'.. I am at my wits end. I cannot work out why it has started doing this as I have never had any problems before. The artworks I add to the spreads etc are all converted in photoshop to valid files and placed within the indesign settings (as opposed to cut and pasting from photoshop to indesign) and the vector artwork is treated the same. I just cannot for the life of me understand why these objects are no longer appearing on my exports. Is there something really little which I am overlooking? I have tried everything yet still cannot seem to solve this fairly recent problem.

Any ideas or guidance on this matter would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

[jimking]

Both graphics and text? Are you setting your text in InDesign or Photoshop? Are you using Illustrator at all? There must be something common with the text and graphics that is causing the problem. Are they eps or tiff or layered files that are placed in Indy and how are you placing the images in Indy? What settings are you using when exporting to pdf? What platform and os and software versions are you using?

[Toxic Culture]

Not all the time texts, its mainly graphics. I set the text in Indesign and use illustrator for my vector artworks, which are saved as a pdf. I usually save the image file in photoshop as a pdf too and then click 'place' in file then find the relevant file. I never cut and paste because I'd assume that would lead to missing links etc. Im running OS X 10.4.11 and version 3.0.1 of Indesign. I understand these are dated (Im a student in my third year so can't yet afford a decent update) but I would be surprised if that was the issue because it's all been fine before. When I export I use custom settings, which have always worked perfectly. Do you think I should use one of the presets? Im just wondering if I've clicked something which Im unfamiliar with so wouldn't know if it was wrong or not.

[jimking]

So, InDesign is not a CS version, not CS3, but version3? Try this as a test, save a file from Illy as a eps file and do the same from photoshop and place them into Indesign instead of pdfs and then export. And yes you should place in Indy. As far as a pdf out of Indy goes, what is your intentions for the pdf? Is it for offset, digital printing or viewing only?

[Toxic Culture]

It is a CS version, just not CS3... The eps version does the same or just gives my vector artwork an additional stroke just off the edges (Im clueless over that bit...) and it is all mainly for digital printing.

[jimking]

So, you created eps's out of the Illy file and the photoshop file, placed them into Indy and exported and still get grayed boxes? Does it view ok in Indy before exporting to pdf? Tell me how you're exporting the pdf and the settings you are choosing.

[Toxic Culture]

Im choosing export pdf and using a custom preset... it is however, now exporting fine as an EPS.. reckon I've got a bug or something like that?

[jimking]

Choose "Press Quality" and give a go.

[urstwile]

As a troubleshooting method, try using one of the presets. It's possible that something's corrupted in your custom preset. Using one of the default presets would at least be a clue if it works okay with one of those but not your custom one.

[Toxic Culture]

I changed the preset to print and altered the settings to what I had in my custom setup to make it more or less the same and it now exports perfectly. I think Im too stupid to own a computer....
Thankyou both for your fantastic help, I'd still be sitting at the screen ripping my hair out without you!

[urstwile]

Glad you got it to work! :)

[PanicTim]

Remember to check your links, maybe do a preflight and see if it finds any problems