Hi Paul,
yes I was in contact with adobe, and they told me:
1. they are aware of this problem
2. in the moment it is not solved
3. it is not an Adobe problem it is a MS Word 2003 problem (which I can confirm). The problem relates to the way word is creating the postscript files. I have tried to create a pdf file with ghostscript using HP postscript printer driver and than converting to pdf - the lines are still there (without Adobe)
3. in the moment the only workaround is : using Word < 2003 (I now use for creating Word 2000 and the problem is solved.) Adobe told me that they are working for a fix - perhaps??
Sorry for bad news
Jürgen
It hard to tell if everyone is talking about the same problem, but funnily enough we have suffered a very similar symptom. Word documents processed via Word 2003, printed to the AdobePDF printer and fed into Acrobat Distiller 6 get lines around some of the images. We notice it on letterhead images for various of the customers we serve. Often it is just the right hand edge, and in red.
The workaround we are using is pretty good. We basically stop Distiller downsampling grayscale images. We do this by:
- Run up Distiller
- Menu Settings / Edit Settings
- Images tab, Grayscale images section (in the middle)
- Set the lower pixels per inch to something like 400 (ie more than your image is scanned in at)
This works well for us. We have researched the problem at length and got pretty confused. Interestingly, the old A5 printer doesn't seem to have the problem even if you feed the postscript it outputs into Distiller 6, but could we work out why?! Equally, the problem seemed to go away after installing Sp1, but then came back. No, nobbling the downsampling seems to be the way to go - and improves the image quality noticably for letterleads without much cost in filesize.
A fix would be nice. Its definitely a problem with A6 - we use Acrobat at 30 clients on different configurations and it keeps coming back. But then stopping A6 firing up WISPTIS.EXE would be nice too. Mr Adobe, any chance please?
Mr. Adobe is on vacation this week with Mike Rowe Soft and Joe Lotus, so he won't be answering any questions here.
I find the same problem with Acrobat 5 and various other postscript printers.
Although the suggestion of not downsampling greyscale images is interesting.
hi,
I've tried your proposals but they didn't work for me :(
Uptonow using Word2k for creating the pdf with A6 is a workaround.
I've encountered the same problem going back to Adobe 3, and also with Ventura Publisher (before Corel took it over). As implied by other messages, the problem does not develop if you generate PDF files with PDFWriter.
The problem is that, when using a real Postscript Driver, Word 2003 generates a black rectangle and an overlaid white/transperant bitmask. (There's another thread discussing the same issue which explains this in a bit more detail, but that's the gist of it.) Word apparently does this to keep the output file size down, which is a legitimate technique and Adobe's products should be able to cope with it without ever letting the black rectangle peek out from behind the edges of the bitmask. So, I'd say it is an Adobe problem.
I've also found, as a workaround, that if there is even one pixel in the graphic which has a third color (e.g. a "black" pixel that is RGB 4,4,4 instead of 0,0,0), then Word 2003 will not try to use the black background plus bitmask technique. Also, if the graphic file is a JPEG that allows for 24bit color but only actually uses two colors, then things come out without the black background.
Juergen,
Being an extremely sad person, I'm curious to see what you are getting. I was quite genuine about the downsampling thing working, so I'd see if there is a variation of the approach that will work with your docs.
If you want, email a sample Word doc to mark.treveil@no-spam and I'll have a look. As I said at the outset, maybe my problems aren't the same ones everyone else is talking about. For example, my lines are usually red.
Cheers
Mark.
Just to let everyone know that Jurgen kindly sent my his example, and it looks like a diferent problem to the one I was getting. Alas, the downsampling 'fix' does not resolve Jurgen's problem. I must assume that the prevailing understanding about word 2003 and its background rectangles is entirely correct.
Apologies if I misled anyone. I certainly have had a problem at two separate sites to do with borders appearing on logos, and the downsampling fix has resolved them for me. I'm just hoping I don't run into Jurgen's problem...!
Hi, I have been playing with this for weeks. I also am running on XP, Adobe 6.0 and get either one lines down my word docs or white rectangles in our Publisher files, all Office 2002. This occurs with the file/print/pdf method. For a none techie can you please explain a work around, we are at an inpass. Thanks for your help, Jeff
Hi Jeff,
there is a workaround - if you have Office or word 2000.
1. Edit you files in word2003 PowerPoint2003 etc
2. Transfer your files to a computer with Office 2000 / Adobe 6
3. open your files in the adequate program
4. create the pdf files
5. be happy
Jürgen
Hi, I've thoroughly frustrated with Acrobat 6 and Word. I've got Office 2003 and downloaded the trial version of Acrobat 6.0. (Which quit working after 2 days instead of 30--rip off). Anyway,the literature on the upgrade to 6.0.1 says that some conversion problems are corrected between Acrobat and Office 2003 which includes Word 2003. Does this upgrade fix the persistent edge problem?
I've been trying to work around it. I got Flash MX and converted my bitmaps to vectors and inserted them in the word file and the did Acrobat on it but then 6.0 crashed on me, said I'd used up my 30 days.
Can anyone help me with this?
I'm having a similar problem as to those posted already, but even worse. When I create PDF files from Word or Publisher, the images not only have a box around them, they have horizontal lines through them creating a grid. I'm using Microsoft Office 2003 Professional and the 30 day trial of Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Professional. From reading everybody's replies, I get a feeling that this is a compatibility problem between Office and Acrobat. Adobe needs to come up with a solution for this as soon as possible or Acrobat will be useless with Office.
Everyone should follow Albert's solution (Message #34). I tried adding two pixels of (04,04,04) to my scanned signature and the ugly border stuff disappeared.
I am running Word 2003 on Windows XP with Adobe 6.0.1 Professional.
I think Adobe should put his solution in their support knowledgebase because it is a legitimate workaround. Thank you, Albert.
Here is a slightly different slant on your problem but I believe its directly related to it.
I am using Acrobat 6.0.1 running in Win 2K with Office '98 on a Dell P2 with 260Mb RAM and am experiencing the following problem.
Having created a graphic in Powerpoint and converted it into a Pdf I now find that on screen and in print, it has six vertical lines arranged in two sets of three across the page. Each line is approx 3cm long and overlaps the one to the right of it by about 50% i.e. R H top corner is highest followed by middle of page (approx) and then the L H one. This pattern is repeated again near the bottom of the page with the lowest (bottom L H line) about 2cm from the bottom of the page.
On screen the lines are red in colour and look like "construction" lines but I can't select them to delete them. The original document does not contain them and also a Word doc into which I copied the graphic appears clear.
From what you guys have been saying and my own experience I believe this is an issue with the Adobe software and its up to them to resolve it. Judging by the range of software it relates to I would suggest that its a problem that's ben around for some time.
Thanks John
I didn't know there was an Office 98 for Windows.
I think some Office apps existed in 98 form such as Publishers adn perhaps even Outlook.
Word, Excel and Powerpoint never had a 98 edition though.
Hi,
I solved this problem by changing one single pixel in the graphic file from black to non black color.
Gerhard