The Inner Sea World Guide and iOS Snafu?

[Andrew Tuttle]

Howdy!

I'm not sure if this is the correct place to ask this question, but I trust the folks at Customer Support to see it's sent along to the right people.

I was viewing my PDF copy of The Inner Sea World Guide last night on my iPad ... and was bitten by what I suspect's some iOS strangeness.

Page 240 should display a graphic of the Great Beyond, but on my iPad all I could see was the text and some of the vector artwork on the page (the arrows and the circle indicating the boundary between the inner and outer spheres). It's as if the bit-mapped artwork isn't there at all.

I checked a few moments ago here on my desktop machine (an iMac running Win7 Service Pack 1, Adobe Reader X version 10.1.3) and it rendered fine.

I tried using both GoodReader (v 3.14.2) and iBooks (v 2.11) under iOS 5.1 on my iPad. Neither rendered the bit-mapped image. I was tempted to install an AirPrint kludge for my wireless printer and see if I could print it, but haven't yet (but am willing to try if it helps trouble-shoot this issue).

Could one of you technical folks double-check this for me and ensure I've not got something wonky going on? If it's reproducible, any idea of what's going on?

It's pretty minor, I realize, but this is the first time I've not had pixel-perfect PDFs from you folks on my iPad.

Thanks for your time, and my regards.

-- Andy

[Chris Lambertz]

Moved to Website Feedback.

I've noticed that iOS apps tend to have some trouble rendering random bits of PDFs at times (something about the layers or vector elements just doing something strange). I'll see what I can find out about this particular issue as soon as I can.

[Andrew Tuttle]

Chris,

Thanks for your efforts!

Frankly, I'm amazed so very much looks so very good on my iPad; this was the first persnickety-whatsit-ma-whatever I've noticed on a Paizo PDF and just wanted to give you folks a heads-up.

If there's something different I can do on my end, please just let me know.

Thanks again,

-- Andy

[Chris Lambertz]

Andrew Tuttle wrote:

Chris,

Thanks for your efforts!

Frankly, I'm amazed so very much looks so very good on my iPad; this was the first persnickety-whatsit-ma-whatever I've noticed on a Paizo PDF and just wanted to give you folks a heads-up.

If there's something different I can do on my end, please just let me know.

Thanks again,

-- Andy

I think there's definitely something that can be done in this case, after looking at it. Keep an eye out in your email, as this may get fixed sooner than later :)

[RogueShadow3]

I've had a similar problem on my ipad with the interactive maps for the Wormwood Mutiny adventure. Everything else seems fine. I also use good reader.

[Chris Lambertz]

RogueShadow3 wrote:

I've had a similar problem on my ipad with the interactive maps for the Wormwood Mutiny adventure. Everything else seems fine. I also use good reader.

The Interactive Maps are built using features from Adobe InDesign. Currently they're only properly supported on Adobe Reader for desktops. Unfortunately it's a bit of a limitation of the technology and format. :(

[Andrew Tuttle]

I suspect now that Adobe and Apple are done tossing hatchets at one another, some of Adobe's content production and deployment tools will become a bit more mobile device / iOS friendly, but only time will tell.

I'm certain someday everything will be author-once, deliver any and everywhere (with tiered licensing options!) ... but it sure ain't today. :D

Regardless, Chris, I appreciate the efforts you Paizo people bring to the quality of your products. I know it's a bit more effort and trouble (hence time and cost) for you folks to be producing the interactive maps, but I sincerely appreciate it.

-- Andy

[marv]

Chris Lambertz wrote:

Andrew Tuttle wrote:

Chris,

-- Andy

I think there's definitely something that can be done in this case, after looking at it. Keep an eye out in your email, as this may get fixed sooner than later :)

Ah! You had Lite PDFs in mind. You rock!

[Andrew Tuttle]

I think the Lite PDF option's super-awesomesauce-in-a-can, but alas it's not addressing this specific snafu.

I just downloaded the Lite Inner Sea World Guide, and page 240's still misbehaving on my iPad.

But that's life, and life goes on. I can always just pop open my PDF copy of The Great Beyond and take a look-see at the inside front cover on my iPad, and be just fine.

As I typed up-thread, I'm amazed this stuff works so well in the first place.

I continue to be impressed with Paizo's efforts in digital delivery. Life's good.

-- Andy

[Vic Wertz]

Andrew Tuttle wrote:

I think the Lite PDF option's super-awesomesauce-in-a-can, but alas it's not addressing this specific snafu.

If it had, it would have been a happy side-effect of the other things we did; there's unfortunately nothing we can do to directly address that shortcoming in Apple's PDF rendering engine.

[koul]

but it is only one picture. With all other pdfs I have, there is no problem (aside from the interactive maps from the Jade Regent AP but that was to be expected with the interactivity). What is different with this picture then with other pictures with a picture and a text layer? (like the maps in the APs which alsoo have a text layer above the picture layer).

[Andrew Tuttle]

Heya Vic.

Vic Wertz wrote:

... there's unfortunately nothing we can do to directly address that shortcoming in Apple's PDF rendering engine.

I'd not considered Apple's wonky PDF rendering engine was misbehaving, thank you.

I downloaded and installed Adobe's Adobe Reader X for mobile for my iPad a few minutes ago (v 10.2.0), and the "page of concern" rendered perfectly (albeit slow as molasses).

If I come across any Paizo PDF pages that act persnickety for me in the future on my iPad, I'll just fire up the Adobe Reader X app and give them a look-see there.

Thanks again for all your efforts!

-- Andy

[Vic Wertz]

koul wrote:

but it is only one picture. With all other pdfs I have, there is no problem (aside from the interactive maps from the Jade Regent AP but that was to be expected with the interactivity). What is different with this picture then with other pictures with a picture and a text layer? (like the maps in the APs which alsoo have a text layer above the picture layer).

We spent a lot of time trying to answer that question for other images with this issue, and never found the commonality.