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Strange PDF file problem using Lucide...

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Pete:
Hi All

I have a silly PDF problem introduced by my ISP who is now producing my bills in PDF format.
As I cannot read the bills online I have been downloading them to view with Lucide 1.5.0 GA.
However, something has changed with the PDF files as I cannot view my later Bills using Lucide; all that is displayed are blank pages.

I have checked the Document Info available via the Lucide menu item View.

The older bills I can view all have this Document Info:-

Document: STANDARD.pdf
Format: PDF-1.7
Creator: Foxit Quick PDF Library 15.11 (www.debenu.com)
Producer: Foxit Quick PDF Library 15.11 (www.debenu.com)
Created: 01/01/2019  3:02:19 PM
Modified: 01/01/2019  3:02:19 PM


The pdfs that cannot be  vewed in Lucide have the same Docment Info:-

Document: 01062019.pdf
Format: PDF-1.7
Creator: Foxit Quick PDF Library 15.11 (www.debenu.com)
Producer: Foxit Quick PDF Library 15.11 (www.debenu.com)
Created: 01/06/2019  3:08:37 PM
Modified: 01/06/2019  3:08:37 PM

Obviously the values of Document, Created and Modified are different for each bill but the Format, Creator and Producer values are the same.

As the Format, Creator and Producer values are the same for Bills I can view with Lucide and those I cannot does anyone have any ideas on what the difference between the Bills could be and how to view those Bills that cannot be viewed in Lucide?


Thanks for any help.

Pete

ivan:
Hi Pete,

A couple of things that may, or may not help.

If you open the the PDF with EPM.EXE are the headers and endings the same between those you can read and those you can't?

Have you tried opening them with GSVIEW?  I have found that it gives a somewhat cryptic error message if ti can't read a PDF which might give a clue as to the problem

And an extra.  Have you tried an older version of Lucide?  I'm running Lucide 1.3.5GA because some of the newer versions barf on some of the PDF manuals I use.
 

Pete:
Hi ivan

Just tested GSView which has the same problem as Lucide, just blank pages displayed.

Note: Both Lucide and GSView open the file without any error messages and display *blank* pages. Lucide can retrieve Document Info whereas GSView cannot.

Comparing the file that does display in both Lucide and GSView with the file that does not display using text editor the headers look identical however the endings are very different:-

Standard.pdf displays fine in both apps and has this ending:-

>>
startxref
131746
%%EOF
í─L¿k¶
`

01062019.pdf does not display in Lucide or GSView and has this ending:-

>>
st┐äóÍ│8zvþ¥U▄£ËÝÕ;Pwartxref
131912
%%EOF


A little editing to that file ending resulting in

>>
startxref
131912
%%EOF
í─L¿k¶
`

I saved the edited file as test.pdf and then tried opening it in both Lucide and GSView. Blank pages are displayed by both apps so maybe it is not the difference in the endings...

Guess I have Lucide 1.3.5 somewhere amongst my backups so will have to dig it out and test.


Regards

Pete

Eugene Gorbunoff:

Maybe new pdf files don't include fonts.. you can see the contents in Windows, but get empty pages in OS/2,
we have this problems with cyrillic pdf files

ivan:
Hi Pete, 

The ending with symbols after the %%EOF doesn't appear to be correct, at least looking at random samples from my PDF collection.

examples;

my ISP bill header:

%PDF-1.4
%ÃýÅó
5 0 obj
<</Length 6 0 R/Filter /FlateDecode>>
stream

Same bill ending:

trailer
<< /Size 42 /Root 1 0 R /Info 2 0 R
/ID [<910210598AA2CBBE0AF0C0823BDA8D74><910210598AA2CBBE0AF0C0823BDA8D74>]
>>
startxref
25067
%%EOF

and the ending from my electricity bills:

endstream
endobj
startxref
116
%%EOF


OK, all of my PDF files start with either %PDF-1.4 or %PDF-1.5 while yours are %PDF-1.7.  If I get a chance tomorrow I will ask a friend that produces PDF files at work, if there are ant strange foibles with 1.7 as compared to 1.4.  I know he has a copy of the various PDF standards.
 


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