iPad/iBooks pdf's showing as a negative image

[ehurdler]

I have a new iPad 2. Let me start out by saying I have the paid magazine subscription for Runner's World already. I get one in the mail every month. But....I have found scanned copies online of a physical issue I already own. I have taken this scanned PDF and placed it in iBooks, so it shows up in the pdf's collection. These pdf's are showing up as almost what I would describe as a negative photo.

I have tried other pdf readers with the same issue occurring. Has anyone else had this issue, and know how to resolve this if possible?

I have tried creating an epub from the pdf using Calibre. Works fine, pages all show up correctly. Only problem is that they are smaller now. They do not go out full screen as a normal pdf would. The iBook/epub that was created has margins all the way around. I did find a setting in Calibre to remove all margins, but this did not work. Looks like it removes the margins of the epub, but iBooks with its reading view, it adds its own margins.

Has anyone come across any of my scenarios and corrected them?

 

[btbrossard]

Is the problem only with the PDFs from this one source? If so, there is probably some incompatibility or corruption going on.

The way to fix this is to resave the PDF. Obviously you did this and the PDF now works but is smaller. Did I read that correctly?

Try a different PDF tool or look for options in the tool your currently using to try and keep the original size.

For corrupt PDFs, I've always has luck using Acrobat's "Save As" and then selecting "optimized PDF".

 

[melving8]

I have a Running Times PDF magazine that is doing the same negative image thing... How I fixed it is to extract each page sequentially as a high-res image in Acrobat then combine\re-save them as another PDF file. Once I've done this the PDF looks normal. I did this in Acrobat... I'm not sure if you can do the same in Preview.

 

[audiophilehi]

I have a Running Times PDF magazine that is doing the same negative image thing... How I fixed it is to extract each page sequentially as a high-res image in Acrobat then combine\re-save them as another PDF file. Once I've done this the PDF looks normal. I did this in Acrobat... I'm not sure if you can do the same in Preview.

I have the same problem as well. Can you describe in detail on how to do this with Acrobat?

Thanks

 

[TheWheelMan]

I'd bet that the PDFs were created with some cheap PDF creator. I've always found that PDF reader apps on Apple hardware, except for an Adobe Reader App, can be real funky with certain PDFs. I work extensively with PDFs a lot in my job, so I know quite a bit about dealing with them.

 

[audiophilehi]

I have a new iPad 2. Let me start out by saying I have the paid magazine subscription for Runner's World already. I get one in the mail every month. But....I have found scanned copies online of a physical issue I already own. I have taken this scanned PDF and placed it in iBooks, so it shows up in the pdf's collection. These pdf's are showing up as almost what I would describe as a negative photo.

I have tried other pdf readers with the same issue occurring. Has anyone else had this issue, and know how to resolve this if possible?

I have tried creating an epub from the pdf using Calibre. Works fine, pages all show up correctly. Only problem is that they are smaller now. They do not go out full screen as a normal pdf would. The iBook/epub that was created has margins all the way around. I did find a setting in Calibre to remove all margins, but this did not work. Looks like it removes the margins of the epub, but iBooks with its reading view, it adds its own margins.

Has anyone come across any of my scenarios and corrected them?

Hi,

Just found a solution with the conversion with Calibre!!

Tap the screen 2 times and you will have full view. You can also pinch to zoom in and out.

 

[kpkilburn]

Is there another fix for this other than redoing the PDF? I ask because I'm almost positive my PDF worked before and only recently starting showing the negative images. Not all are negative though.

For reference, the book is Color Atlas of Forensic Pathology by Jay Dix, so the pictures are quite important. Also, it shows up fine on my MacBook and PC ( not sure what versions of Adobe Reader). I do have Adobe Acrobat Pro, so I could use it to redo the PDF if really necessary.

Thanks.

 

[lgonick]

ditto on negatives, but no funky pdf creator

I'd bet that the PDFs were created with some cheap PDF creator. I've always found that PDF reader apps on Apple hardware, except for an Adobe Reader App, can be real funky with certain PDFs. I work extensively with PDFs a lot in my job, so I know quite a bit about dealing with them.

I got the same results making a pdf from InDesign. Re-extracting each page would be a huge pain in the...

 

[Randy P.]

Reversed colors in pdf's in iPad

I'm having the same problem. I did create the pdf with program called Scansoft PDF Create (via "printing" from web pages), but they look absolutely fine when I look at them on my PC. Only when I look at them on my iPad using iBooks do the images all appear to be reversed colors. It's hard to blame that on the pdf files.

I'd love a suggestion because I have a ton of huge documents and they all look like crap on my iPad.

 

[msparks13]

Fix

Little after the fact, but in case any one googles to this like I did, I did find a work around for this. Only on a mac. I tried every other suggestion out there and nothing worked.

I am running Lion and I simple Save as in Preview didn't do the trick for me.
Two options, One a little easier then the other.

1. Open the file in preview. Chose File-> Export. Set the obvious and then under quartz filter select reduce file size. Then hit save. Put the file on your iPad and you should be good to go. This will also circumvent and "large" file size issues you may get from other ways to "fix" this.

2. If you need to have the images in even higher quality, as the first option may decrease the quality slightly then there are more steps.
Select the file you need and choose open with-> ColorSync Utility. Top left of the screen is the button to open filter inspector (three circles, one green, blue and red). Click the downward triangle next to Reduce file size and select duplicate. Rename the copy to anything and then Press the downward triangle on this file. Select Add domains. Then Expand the field (triangle on the left of the name). Expand Image Expansion. Change the quality bar to max. Expand Domains and check PDF workflows. Close the filters box.
On the bottom of the original screen that was opened there is a filter option. Select the file you just created and click apply. Then save the file and you are good to go with a higher quality.

This will fix any color issues with pdf images on iPads. I had pdf images that the colors were off on, almost negative and this worked like a charm. Once its set up its very easy and quick for future pdf image problems.

 

[Misticism]

For designers running into this issue with their PDFs

I found a more base level cause for this issue that may help designers exporting PDFs.

The Problem:
Images (not all) appear perfectly fine when viewing a PDF on a desktop computer but when viewing the same PDF on an ipad (possibly iphones as well, but this hasn't been explicitly tested by me) some of the images appear as negatives.

The Cause:
Grayscale PSD (photoshop file extension) files.

The Solution:
Convert to grayscale TIF. I've tested JPG and TIF, neither of these formats in grayscale have cause the "negative" appearance.

All testing has been done on iPad 2, using GoodReader app. PDFs exported from inDesign CS5 with "Press Quality" PDF preset.