Why do I always seem to have the weird PDF problems? (Another Mac / Preview thing, I think)


Customer Service

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

I swear this is true. I updated my laptop to Snow Leopard yesterday. Everything so far has worked fine (thank God), but there's one tiny little problem when I try viewing Pathfinder PDFs. In every case that I've found (looking at random material from the AP, Chronicles, Companion, and Module lines) the "a"s in all of the section headings have vanished (for instance, in the chapter on tieflings in _Bastards of Erebus_, on page 61 there's now a heading that reads "H lf-Fiends nd Tieflings". Do I really care about a few missing vowels? No. But I thought I should point out a possible compatibility problem with something in OS X 6 before a bigger issue arises.


I'm not trying to belittle your situation, but this isn't anything new.

The a's of that font are incompatible (currently) with Ubuntu's Document Viewer, and a few other *nix based systems - including OS X.

I have no suggested fix for you.

I can tell you, that as of the last time this was brought up, Paizo had no plans to look into changing the situation since it isn't on their end.

Maybe this has changed, and we have to wait and see.

Also, you may start to notice the artwork blocking out the text because transparencies don't work so well.
As well as it might happen that images only load half way, or one-quarter.


Is your PDF viewer up to date?


I haven't upgraded to Snow Leopard yet (managed to completely miss that it was out until today!), but I don't have that problem with any files. So I assume that means that it's either a Snow Leopard problem or that you need to make sure your Preview is fully updated.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Disenchanter wrote:
I'm not trying to belittle your situation, but this isn't anything new.

Like I said, this isn't a "situation", I was just letting someone know what happened. I'm pretty good at functioning in a world without the occasional "a". My concern was that, at some point in the future, there would be a problem with a pdf coming out that would be riddled with problems, and some much-less understanding Mac user would get his panties in a bunch over it. Heaven knows in recent weeks it's been demonstrated that it takes far less than vanishing vowels around here to send someone for the pitchforks and torches.

KaeYoss wrote:
Is your PDF viewer up to date?

Considering it was part of the updated operating system I installed on the day it was released, I sure as God hope it is.

Berik wrote:
So I assume that means that it's [...] a Snow Leopard problem

If you look at my original post, that's the conclusion I came to as well. I had no problems viewing anything before the update.

So to recap, I'm just throwing an FYI out to whoever- there may be a compatibility issue with the PDFs and Snow Leopard or the version of Preview it comes with. :)

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

IconoclasticScream wrote:
So to recap, I'm just throwing an FYI out to whoever- there may be a compatibility issue with the PDFs and Snow Leopard or the version of Preview it comes with. :)

Well, that's disappointing. Yes, we've seen this problem before with a particular PDF text-rendering engine for Linux; it didn't like the capital A in one of our fonts. (The embedded font uses CID 0 for that character, which is apparently non-standard behavior.) It took a few months, but the bug was eventually fixed by the developer. Sounds like Preview is having the same problem. It's not a problem in Adobe Reader.

I'm not on Snow Leopard yet, but Gary is; I'll have him confirm and report the bug to Apple.

The Exchange

Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Just to add in that I just upgraded to Snow Leopard and my preview is having the same issue. No capital "A"s exist.


I'll also confirm the same bug.

10.6 since the day it was released. I just purchased Pathfinder at a friend's house, and thought maybe the download was scruffy, came home and re-downloaded and had the same problem. It's on ALL the PDFs I'm seeing. The Corebook, Bonus Beastiary, Beastiary Preview, etc.

Apple is hammering out 10.6.1 right now and it's suppose to be out before the end of the weekend, hopefully this fixes the issue, cause I don't want to install Reader on my MBP...


I just installed Snow Leopard easier today and I'm not experiencing this problem when using Preview. Not sure what that means the problem is, but I thought I'd share. :)

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

There's an update available for Snow Leopard. Download it, and like magic all of your "a"s reappear.


IconoclasticScream wrote:
There's an update available for Snow Leopard. Download it, and like magic all of your "a"s reappear.

Good to know. I've delayed upgrading specifically cause I didn't want to lose my "a's" on all my Pathfinder stuff. Hmmm, I'm not sure what that says about me...


IconoclasticScream wrote:
There's an update available for Snow Leopard. Download it, and like magic all of your "a"s reappear.

No they don't. I'm running 10.6.1 and all the 'A's are gone in Preview.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

The Far Wanderer wrote:
IconoclasticScream wrote:
There's an update available for Snow Leopard. Download it, and like magic all of your "a"s reappear.
No they don't. I'm running 10.6.1 and all the 'A's are gone in Preview.

Hmm. Gary's the only one in the office running 10.6.1, and the problem still exists for him.

Those of you who are reporting the problem solved in 10.6.1, is your version of Preview listed as "5.0 (501)", or is it higher?

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

Ignore my post about the problem being fixed. I must have been looking at the wrong type of heading. I still have As missing in section titles all over the place.


It's irritating in adventure paths but in the core rulebook it's a mess. Though for comedic purposes it does introduce new feats like Lertness.

Paizo Employee Director of Sales

The Far Wanderer wrote:
Though for comedic purposes it does introduce new feats like Lertness.

...you mean "fe ts", right?

The Exchange

Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Preview Version 5.0 (501) - Mac OSX 10.6.1

I have a "Fe t" called " lertness" too.

Paizo Employee Senior Software Developer

I've filed a bug with Apple for this.


Gary Teter wrote:
I've filed a bug with Apple for this.

Th nks G ry.


Cosmo wrote:
The Far Wanderer wrote:
Though for comedic purposes it does introduce new feats like Lertness.
...you mean "fe ts", right?

H h h .

The Exchange

Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Gary Teter wrote:
I've filed bug with pple for this.

Corrected.

Paizo Employee Director of Sales

lizor wrote:
G ry Teter wrote:
I've filed bug with pple for this.
Corrected.

:)


Hope Apple sort this out - my Bestiary pdf is a mess with all the 'A's missing.

And the two Chronicles products - Seekers of Secrets and Princes of Darkness don't show their front page in icon view.

Anyone else getting this problem?

Scarab Sages

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Well, I just installed 10.6.2 and it did NOT fix the problems with the missing A's. That is rather disappointing.


Bill Faulkner wrote:

Well, I just installed 10.6.2 and it did NOT fix the problems with the missing A's. That is rather disappointing.

Yeah I had hoped that 10.6.2 would do the job.

*Waits for 10.6.3*

Paizo Employee Senior Software Developer

The bug is still marked as "open" in Apple's database. I've updated it with a notation that it's not fixed in 10.6.2.

Scarab Sages

Gary Teter wrote:
The bug is still marked as "open" in Apple's database. I've updated it with a notation that it's not fixed in 10.6.2.

I actually filed an internal bug for this over the summer during the SnowLeopard pre-release testing, when I was working for Apple. They're aware of it, but it didn't seem to get very high priority consideration.

Sovereign Court

I'd like to bump this if I could because it's still an issue on Readdle for the iPad. I'm scouring the net looking for a solution.

The Exchange

Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

I just upgraded to 10.6.3 and it seems to have fixed it. I have my "A's" back!

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Alizor wrote:
I just upgraded to 10.6.3 and it seems to have fixed it. I have my "A's" back!

Bless you, Steve Jobs!

Is it working for everybody else with 10.6.3?

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Warforged Gardener wrote:
I'd like to bump this if I could because it's still an issue on Readdle for the iPad. I'm scouring the net looking for a solution.

I'd probably contact the developer directly if I were you. You can tell them that the issue is with documents with embedded fonts that use CID 0.

Scarab Sages

Vic Wertz wrote:
Is it working for everybody else with 10.6.3?

No. I haven't verified if it's exactly the same ones as before, I still have PDFs showing up with missing As.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Alizor wrote:
I just upgraded to 10.6.3 and it seems to have fixed it. I have my "A's" back!

Can you tell us what your current version of Preview is?

The Exchange

Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Version 5.0.2 (504)

But... sadly I noticed that only some of the PDFs were fixed. My PFS scenarios are still missing A's, but my APs and RPG books now have them. Are there two different fonts used?

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Alizor wrote:

Version 5.0.2 (504)

But... sadly I noticed that only some of the PDFs were fixed. My PFS scenarios are still missing A's, but my APs and RPG books now have them. Are there two different fonts used?

Yep.

Sovereign Court

Vic Wertz wrote:
Alizor wrote:

Version 5.0.2 (504)

But... sadly I noticed that only some of the PDFs were fixed. My PFS scenarios are still missing A's, but my APs and RPG books now have them. Are there two different fonts used?

Yep.

It's worth noting that Readdle renders the files fairly well on the iPad, but there is some text distortion. I haven't noticed missing A's in the latest downloads, but the letters in some headers seem to rearrange themselves until you zoom in close enough. It's very odd.

Have the fonts changed between the Playtest PDF and Kingmaker?

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Warforged Gardener wrote:
Vic Wertz wrote:
Alizor wrote:

Version 5.0.2 (504)

But... sadly I noticed that only some of the PDFs were fixed. My PFS scenarios are still missing A's, but my APs and RPG books now have them. Are there two different fonts used?

Yep.

It's worth noting that Readdle renders the files fairly well on the iPad, but there is some text distortion. I haven't noticed missing A's in the latest downloads, but the letters in some headers seem to rearrange themselves until you zoom in close enough. It's very odd.

Have the fonts changed between the Playtest PDF and Kingmaker?

They're probably different fonts...

Liberty's Edge

Running 10.6.3; Preview 5.0.2

All A's present, sir.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Andrew Turner wrote:

Running 10.6.3; Preview 5.0.2

All A's present, sir.

Have you checked any Pathfinder Society Scenarios?

Liberty's Edge

Vic Wertz wrote:
Andrew Turner wrote:

Running 10.6.3; Preview 5.0.2

All A's present, sir.

Have you checked any Pathfinder Society Scenarios?

Just scanned through Pathfinder Society Scenario 29: The Devil We Know Part I: Shipyard Rats.

All the A's are present and I don't see any other font issues, either.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

Running 10.6.3, Preview 5.0.2 (504). Still missing As in the Bestiary and Core Rules.

Liberty's Edge

IconoclasticScream wrote:
Running 10.6.3, Preview 5.0.2 (504). Still missing As in the Bestiary and Core Rules.

My Bestiary looks fine; but some of the section headings in the Core Rules Book are indeed missing capital A's.


Andrew Turner wrote:
IconoclasticScream wrote:
Running 10.6.3, Preview 5.0.2 (504). Still missing As in the Bestiary and Core Rules.
My Bestiary looks fine; but some of the section headings in the Core Rules Book are indeed missing capital A's.

Take a look at the Table of Contents in your Bestiary. I'm still missing the A's from "T BLE" and " PPENDIX...". The a's have reappeared in my Bastards of Erebus, however.

Liberty's Edge

Daeglin wrote:
Andrew Turner wrote:
IconoclasticScream wrote:
Running 10.6.3, Preview 5.0.2 (504). Still missing As in the Bestiary and Core Rules.
My Bestiary looks fine; but some of the section headings in the Core Rules Book are indeed missing capital A's.
Take a look at the Table of Contents in your Bestiary. I'm still missing the A's from "T BLE" and " PPENDIX...". The a's have reappeared in my Bastards of Erebus, however.

Right, you are. I missed that last night.


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

Just to bring this back to attention: the upper case A letters of the Jubilee font are still missing, for example in the new APG PDF. This is with Preview version "5.0.2 (504)" on Mac OS X 10.6.4.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Zaister wrote:
Just to bring this back to attention: the upper case A letters of the Jubilee font are still missing, for example in the new APG PDF. This is with Preview version "5.0.2 (504)" on Mac OS X 10.6.4.

Yeah—the earlier reports that Apple fixed the bug in their PDF rendering engine were erroneous. They still need to fix it.


FYI - anyone running Ubuntu linux - the default PDF viewer has this "missing A" font problem, but if you install Acrobat reader, it will display the PDFs properly.


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
DMR wrote:
FYI - anyone running Ubuntu linux - the default PDF viewer has this "missing A" font problem, but if you install Acrobat reader, it will display the PDFs properly.

I'm running Gentoo Linux, and in case your viewer under Ubuntu is poppler-based - I use Okular, which is - you might want to update to poppler 0.14.1 to fix the problem.

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