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Adobe InDesign: Bugs

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  1. Version of Adobe InDesign, InCopy or InDesign Server
  2. Steps to reproduce the issues
  3. Expected result
  4. Actual result
  5. Test file, screenshot, video or GIF capturing the issue (optional)
If you are facing a crash in InDesign, please submit the crash report as well. How to Submit Crash Report
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506 results found

  1. InDesign 2020 won't overwrite PDF

    Since updating to Indesign 2020 I can't overwrite pdf files from the export menu it says 'file is still open' when it's not. Yet another thing broken on the yearly beta test.

    135 votes

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    97 comments  ·  PDF Export  ·  Admin →
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    FIXED  ·  amaarora responded

    Fix for this issue is now available in the latest update of InDesign 2020 – that is, InDesign 15.1.2

    In the Creative Cloud Desktop application, click on the Updates section on the left. You should be able to see the Update available for InDesign. Please update your InDesign application to this version to try out the fix.

    Let us know in the comments section if you still face this problem.


    Adobe InDesign Team

  2. Do not use Osaka font for PDF page information

    When exporting a PDF with the Japanese version of InDesign for Mac, the Osaka font is used for the characters in the page information. If there are voiced or semi-voiced sound marks of Japanese characters in the file name, an error will be displayed and the characters will be garbled because Osaka does not support those characters.

    1. Name the indd file "だじづでど.indd".
    2. Export the PDF.
    3. An error is displayed and the file name of the page information is garbled.

    Osaka is no longer a very old font on the Mac. Don't use Osaka now.

    Use a font that supports semi-voiced…

    64 votes

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    9 comments  ·  PDF Export  ·  Admin →
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  3. Wrong use of German term »Nutzen« in the PDF export options dialogue

    The term »Nutzen« is not used correctly as this usually refers to how many units of a design you put onto a printing sheet.

    What it should read in the options is simply »Doppelseite« or »Doppelseite fortlaufend« or »Doppelseite (Deckblatt)« or »Doppelseite fortlaufend (Deckblatt). The term »Nutzen« should be omitted completely.

    41 votes

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    9 comments  ·  PDF Export  ·  Admin →
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  4. [ID-4256474]InDesign 2025 removes all PDF export setting files with double-byte and accented characters from InDesign 2024

    During the installation of InDesign 2025, all .joboptions files with PDF export settings were removed, even in the older version 2024! This is absurd!

    40 votes

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    7 comments  ·  PDF Export  ·  Admin →
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    The fix of the issue is now available in the latest InDesign 2025(v20.0.1.032). We recommend you upgrade to the latest version for the fix.

    If you are unable to see the update, go to the Creative Cloud application click on the context menu on the top right, and click on Check for App Updates.

    Adobe InDesign Team

  5. 18.4 and 18.5 exported PDF corrupted

    Hi guys,

    Our books are printed in house with Xerox Nuvera 288 Presses. We recently faced this issue, and tho it should be addressed in 18.5 updated, we're still facing the same problem in 18.4 with 18.5 (Images attached below) where the whole book is printed out, but have left a single page blank.

    In this example, this page 85 went blank every time we ran it through the press when exported with 18.4 and 18.5, but got no problem with 18.3. This error also happened to 9 out of 10 book titles (exported with 18.4 and 18.5) that we…

    40 votes

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    63 comments  ·  PDF Export  ·  Admin →
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    The fix of the issue is now available in the latest InDesign 2024(v19.5.0.084). We recommend you upgrade to the latest version for the fix.

    If you are unable to see the update, go to the Creative Cloud application and click on the context menu on the top right and click on Check for App Updates.

    Adobe InDesign Team

  6. Id CC 2020 pdf export failure

    I get an error "Failed to Export the PDF file" when exporting file previously created in Id CC 2019.
    Id does not give any details about the error. It simply stops exporting. I've never seen such a message before (I've been working with Id since version 1.0).
    The same file is exported from CC2019 without any problems.
    Windows 10 with all updates.

    30 votes

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    45 comments  ·  PDF Export  ·  Admin →
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  7. CC2018 exporting pixelated PDF

    Every export setting is giving same result.. Some have hidden items showing up. all have pixilations. Illustrator is exporting perfectly, I use 1 of 2 export settings for everything we do here.

    29 votes

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    35 comments  ·  PDF Export  ·  Admin →
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    Fix of the issue is now available in InDesign’s latest November’17 update.
    Please upgrade to the latest version InDesign CC 13.0.1 for the fix.

    If you are unable to see the update, go to Creative Cloud application and click on the context menu on the top right and click on Check for App Updates.

    Thanks,
    InDesign Team

  8. PDF Export

    InDesign CC2019 / PDF Export Print (Druck)
    It is no longer possible to export correctly to PDF x3 or x4; and it is no longer possible to change the export settings of colour profiles (for example to FOGRA 39 or ISO Coated etc…)

    26 votes

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    26 comments  ·  PDF Export  ·  Admin →
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  9. Accessible PDF Exported from ID contains SPANS in Reading Order panel

    InDesign Version: 13.1

    To reproduce issue, create an InDesign document with some styles, map styles to tags and export to PDF with tags (accessible pdf).

    Expected result is that in the Reading Order panel (and Content pane), each paragraph is wrapped in an appropriate container.

    The actual result is that each line of text within a paragraph is wrapped in a span container.

    Although this doesn't seem to directly affect the accessibility of the file, it makes additional remediation difficult because of the many containers found in the PDF file.

    25 votes

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    4 comments  ·  PDF Export  ·  Admin →
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    Hello All,
    We acknowledge that the issue is slowing you down and we regret the same.
    Our investigation suggests that the issue lies in the latest update of Acrobat and there is little that can be done at our end to resolve the issue.
    The problem has been communicated to the relevant team.
    In the meanwhile we are closing this thread for InDesign.

    Regards,
    InDesign Team

  10. Export PDF, cannot cancel background task

    Sometimes, there is no way to cancel a background pdf export task.

    No way to close the document either, only hard quitting works.

    24 votes

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    12 comments  ·  PDF Export  ·  Admin →
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    Hello All,

    Thank you for your support. The issue is now fixed in the latest update of InDesign.
    Please upgrade to the new InDesign 14.0 from your Creative Cloud Application.

    If you are unable to see the update yet, click on the menu (three dots) on the top right corner of Creative cloud app and click on “Check for App Updates”.

    Let us know your feedback in the comment section.

    Thanks,
    Abhinav Kaushik
    InDesign Team

  11. [ID-4224415]Accessibility Tags order to match in InDesign and PDF

    Accessibility tag tree is not matching as per InDesign XML tag structure. We are doing more manual work to re-arrange the tag tree as per PDF view in Acrobat. We need to fix this bug in InDesign and match the tag tree as per InDesign tag structure for the accessibility PDF.

    Attached sample file and screen shot FYR....

    23 votes

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    8 comments  ·  PDF Export  ·  Admin →
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    Under Review  ·  amaarora responded

    Thanks for reporting. We will review the issue shortly

    -InDesign Team

  12. [ID-4216893]Interactive PDF go to destination not working

    Using InDesign CC 2019 14.0.1

    I have a 24 page report designed for print, with an additional layer which when visible adds interactive buttons to the top left corner of each page so I can also export an interactive PDF. The buttons are:

    Go to previous page
    Go to next page
    Go to destination linking to the contents page

    The document also contains URL hyperlinks and the contents links to each section of the report using bookmarks, but is not set up as a TOC. I'm not using any functions under the SWF/EPUB only section.

    When exported as an interactive…

    22 votes

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    26 comments  ·  PDF Export  ·  Admin →
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  13. Rollover images "stick" in Interactive PDF

    Hi, I am working on the document that contains multiple rollovers. All of them "stick" at one point or another, the images will change to "rollover" state but not to the normal state when hovering off. This is very confusing for the end-users. Please see attached pdf. I am using InDesign CC 2018.

    20 votes

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    8 comments  ·  PDF Export  ·  Admin →
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    Thank you all for reporting the issue to us.
    We have concluded our investigation into the issue. As per our findings, the bug belongs to Acrobat and there is little that can be done at InDesign’s end.

    We have already notified the concerned team, internally and they would be working on the same.

    For now we are closing this thread for InDesign.

    -InDesign Team

  14. Hyperlink alt text is ignored in the latest version of Indesign

    When creating or editing a hyperlink there is an option to add alt text. If you add alt text to your link and export an accessible PDF the alt text is ignored. I have a document with a ton of hyperlinks that all need alt text which we have added but don't come through because of this bug. Now I'm forced to add them again to the PDF.

    19 votes

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    5 comments  ·  PDF Export  ·  Admin →
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    According to the ISO-32000, the Hyperlinks are NOT supposed to be populated into the Alt-Text field. They should be entered into the Contents Key (see attachment) instead.
    InDesign currently does place them in the correct place [see screenshot attached].
    While someone using Acrobat can also add them to the Alt-text field, this is technically less correct than entering into the Contents key but either will pass an Accessibility checker.

    InDesign implemented this correctly based on the above information (provided by Accessibility experts, like Dax Castro, thanks Dax).

    Closing this issue.


    Adobe InDesign team

  15. Links export to PDF creates "Null Alt Text" attribute in tagged PDF

    When an ID 15 file with hyperlinks is exported to Tagged PDF, unless you assign alternative text to the Links in ID, the Link tags will have a "null text" attribute which prevents the content of the Link tag from being read by a screen reader. This is a problem for several reasons. Not everyone chooses to add alternative text to hyperlinks. It's a UA, but not a WCAG 2 requirement. An automated accessibility checker like Acrobat's or even PAC is not going to flag this. Most people do not do a "Jaws check" of the PDF they are remediating…

    19 votes

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    3 comments  ·  PDF Export  ·  Admin →
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  16. Variable Fonts don't display correct via PDF export

    I'm very excited to see variable fonts in InDesign, thank you!

    However, when using variable fonts in an InDesign document, exported PDFs show overlaps (as in the crossbar of /A), as well as inconsistent stem weights, spacing, and alignments in various glyphs. These issues occur in multiple variable fonts I've tested.

    If I use static fonts or convert fonts to outlines using Type > Create Outlines these issues don't show up. These issues are present when viewing PDFs in both Acrobat and Preview (see screenshots attached). These variable fonts work fine in web browsers and other applications that support variable…

    19 votes

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    6 comments  ·  PDF Export  ·  Admin →
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    Closed: Fixed  ·  amaarora responded

    Hi,
    This has been fixed with InDesign version 15.0.2
    Please update to the latest version to check the fix

    Thanks

  17. Data Merge not populating fields CC2019

    I use Data Merge for variable data production every day. I am using IDCC2019 v14.0.1. iMac 27 inch late 2013. OS High Sierra 10.13.6. Processor 3.2 GHz Intel Core i5. 16 GB memory.

    This problem started with IDCC2019. I link to .csv for data merge. When exporting to PDF, I choose a record range – for example 1-1000. In the PDF result, the first page is not the first record. It is a random record in the middle – for example, 319. It merges records 319-1000. Then the remaining pages of the 1000 page output are not populated – in the…

    19 votes

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    8 comments  ·  PDF Export  ·  Admin →
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    Hello All,

    Thank you for reporting the issue to us.
    We have fixed the issue in the latest version of InDesign, Id 14.0.3

    Please upgrade your InDesign application to the latest version to try out the fix.

    If you are unable to see the update yet, go to Creative Cloud desktop application, open the menu (three dots) from the top-right corner and click on ‘Check For App Updates’.

    If you face any problems with the new update, do let us know in the comments.

    You may also follow the below given link for the list of all fixed issues in Id 14.0.3
    https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/kb/fixed-issues.html

  18. anchor

    1) Version of Adobe InDesign: CC 2018 (latest release)

    2) Steps to reproduce the issues:
    i) Create a text box with type tool. Enter text.
    ii) Create a text field with "buttons and forms" or insert a picture.
    iii) Anchor text field (or picture) to the end of the text in the text box.
    iv) Drag text box into Articles panel.
    v) Ensure "Include Article" is selected.
    vi) Select "use for reading order in tagged PDF" in Articles panel menu.
    vii) Export to PDF (save as interactive is using the text field).

    3) Expected result:

    Text field (or picture) will…

    19 votes

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    5 comments  ·  PDF Export  ·  Admin →
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  19. Exporting accessible PDF – wrong BoundingBox

    InDesign Version: All

    Background:
    An accessible PDF needs for all graphics and pictures a bounding box.
    This is used by AT e.g. to set a focus to a visual impaired user.
    Using the PDF export a bounding box is defined for all linked images.

    Problem:
    Often the bounding box does not fit to the visible area.
    AT user get wrong information, in fact the file is not accessible.

    Steps to reproduce the issues:
    Place an asset, where only a part of the linked asset is visibily placed in InDesign, the rest is cropped.

    Expected result:
    Bounding box fits to visible…

    18 votes

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    1 comment  ·  PDF Export  ·  Admin →
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    Under Review  ·  amaarora responded

    Thanks for reporting the issue. We will review the bug shortly

    -InDesign Team

  20. "Insufficient data for an image" error is shown on opening PDF in Acrobat

    We are experiencing issues with exporting to PDF. Hi res PDF Compatibility Acrobat 7 (PDF 1.6).
    The PDF is created normally, but when opening the PDF, it sometimes happens that the image is not displayed on one or more pages. The error message for this specific page is: ERROR: Insufficient data for an image.
    We tried to solve this problem within our team. Eventually, we discovered that the issue did not occur for one of our colleagues. Further investigation revealed that this colleague was still using an older version of InDesign (18.3). The colleagues experiencing problems had automatic updates enabled…

    17 votes

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    11 comments  ·  PDF Export  ·  Admin →
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