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Adobe InDesign: Bugs

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  3. Expected result
  4. Actual result
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19 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. [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!

    41 votes

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    8 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

  4. 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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  5. 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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  6. 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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  7. "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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  8. InDesign performance issue: Hangs when exporting to PDF

    1. Latest Indesign CC, Windows 10
    2. ID would sometimes not finish the export to PDF task and hangs for minutes. It must then be killed in the task manager. During this it constantly consumes a big lot of RAM and CPU power. See attachment.
    17 votes

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    32 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 15.0.1

    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 face any problem with the updation process.


    Adobe InDesign Team

  9. ALT Text not appearing in group

    InDesign 2020

    Issue: I have a screenshot with alt text included (typed in the Object Export Options dialogue). I then have a simple red box (rectangle tool, no fill, 2pt stroke) highlighting a section of that screenshot. When I group those objects, and export a tagged PDF, I get an error in Acrobat stating that no alt text exists.

    Expected result: Alt text should appear.

    Actual result: No alt text is present, or the assigned alt text is not recognized and is flagged by Acrobat's accessibility checker.

    This issue did not exist with ID 2019.

    13 votes

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    4 comments  ·  PDF Export  ·  Admin →
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  10. Missing Glyphs on PDF export in InDesign v17.0

    using the google font Signika, quotation marks and colons give me a missing glyph upon export to pdf. When using v16.4, this is not an issue.

    12 votes

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    8 comments  ·  PDF Export  ·  Admin →
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  11. Exported interactive PDF does not honour reading order.

    1 – InDesign 2020 15.0
    2 – Have standard copy with headings and body copy with PDF export tags applied (H1, H2, P etc). Add images between sections of text. Drag elements into the Articles panel in the correct reading order and tick 'Use for Reading Order in Tagged PDF.
    3 – Images should be in the right order
    4 – Images are not in the right order. All figures are in a <Art> tag. This was not an issue in InDesign 2019.
    5 – Order should be first block of text, image (1) and then second block of text…

    11 votes

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    1 comment  ·  PDF Export  ·  Admin →
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    Fix for this issue is now available in the latest update of InDesign 2020 – that is, InDesign 15.0.1

    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 face any problem with the updation process.


    Adobe InDesign Team

  12. InDesign and Acrobat accessibility conflict

    Adobe InDesign version: 2019 CC

    We are currently trying to establish the best workflow in creating fully accessible PDF's for screen readers and I believe we have come across a bug in the communication between InDesign and Acrobat.

    Quick summary:

    H1 elements on multiple lines read as separate elements unless assigned manually in Acrobat
    The Structure and Article order does not transfer to the PDF

    To explain the issue clearly I have numbered the images in the process order.

    1. Image: 1 InDesign Accessibility setup.png
    2. I have setup ‘paragraph styles’ and used the correct ‘Export Tagging’ tags for each style.
    3. I…
    10 votes

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    3 comments  ·  PDF Export  ·  Admin →
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  13. PAC 2021 Error for InDesign generated PDF : Object reference not set to an instance of an object

    I am still getting Object reference not set to an instance of an object when testing pdf files in PAC 21. This error apparently relates to 'PDF Export using ZIP compression for images shows an “Insufficient data for an image” error on opening in Acrobat.

    This was supposed to be fixed in ID 18.5 but its now happening with every PDF I check for accessibility, even a single page with simple text.

    Working for local government and its imperative our PDF files exported from ID are fully accessible and tested. Seek an urgent fix.

    8 votes

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    6 comments  ·  PDF Export  ·  Admin →
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  14. InDesign 18.2 crashes/fails during PDF export for documents containing placed indd containing Adobe Fonts

    Problem/Actual Result
    I have Indesign files that have .indd files linked as images. Each time I export an Indesign file that has an .indd links, I receive the attached messages saying that the file cannot be exported.

    Steps to reproduce the issue:
    - I have exported each page to find out which assets are causing Indesign not to export, it is always an .indd asset.
    - I have tried removing any transparency from each of the .indd linkages
    - I have removed any transparency or object style on any bounding box an .indd file sits in.
    - I have tried…

    7 votes

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    2 comments  ·  PDF Export  ·  Admin →
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  15. Data Merge to PDF (using the new single page export feature) does not work properly

    Using the packaged folder attached, go to the Data Merge panel and select Export to PDF. Click OK on the first dialog box and in the second dialog box, make sure the "Create Separate PDF files" checkbox is checked.
    Expected result - 6 PDFs that have correct content in each PDF.
    Actual result - 6 PDFs that have incorrect content. PDF 1 is fine, but PDFs 2-6 are the same content as PDF 2.

    5 votes

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    5 comments  ·  PDF Export  ·  Admin →
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  16. Variable font: Italic character wrongly displayed when exported to PDF format from InDesign.

    I'm reporting this bug on behalf of the type design studio Dalton Maag. To reproduce: use the provided test font, write the lowercase letter "p" in Indesign, and choose the "Hair Italic" instance, or equivalently, set:
    - the font's weight axis to the minimum,
    - the width to its default value
    - the italic axis to its maximum.

    Glyphs are shown without fault within InDesign itself. However, when exported to PDF format and opened on Acrobat Reader, there is an issue with how the letter “p” is displayed (see aktiv_vf_p_bug.png).

    We are suspecting the issue is caused by a point…

    3 votes

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    0 comments  ·  PDF Export  ·  Admin →
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  17. 3 votes

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    5 comments  ·  PDF Export  ·  Admin →
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  18. Image tags all grouped in their own article at the end of the tags panel

    I have set up articles in multiple files InDesign 2020 (files first created in InDesign 2019 and updated to 2020 yesterday and today). When I export to PDF, all image tags are added to a new article in the bottom of the tags panel in Acrobat DC rather than in the articles that I assigned them to in InDesign. Luckily, I preserved a version of InDesign 2019 and can open them in there and export to have the tags show up in the correct place. FYI, I also made sure my layers order in InDesign is as I want it…

    2 votes

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    1 comment  ·  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 15.0.1

    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 face any problem with the updation process.


    Adobe InDesign Team

  19. Variable font issues when exporting to PDF

    The "%" sign is showing an issue when I export to PDF. The font works with all other programs and the creators of the font have verified it is made to specification, but InDesign PDF export has an issue with it.
    Font is RobotoFlex

    1 vote

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    0 comments  ·  PDF Export  ·  Admin →
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