[pdftex] pdftex output doesn’t open with Adobe Acrobat

[Jens Adam]

Esteemed pdfTeXnicians:

Every now and then I cannot open a PDF produced with pdftex with Adobe Acrobat. An error message tells me the document is damaged beyond repair.

The version of Adobe Acrobat (9, X, Reader, Professional) or the platform (OSX, Windows) doesn’t matter. Other PDF viewers (OSX Preview, Windows Sumatra, Windows Foxit Reader) open the document without complaint.

I tried various versions of pdftex on various platforms (TexLive 2009, 2010, 2011 on OSX and Windows) with out finding a difference.

The problem appears to be related to png images placed with \includegraphics. But it is not a problem of the png file but the position of the image within the produced document.

After some experiments I was able to construct a small file to demonstrate the problem

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\begin{document}
\includegraphics{raster_gimp-2-6-11.png}

\includegraphics{vector_inkscape_pdf14}
\end{document}

This produces in all my tests a pdf which Adobe Acrobat reports as damaged. If you swap the images like

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\begin{document}
\includegraphics{vector_inkscape_pdf14}

\includegraphics{raster_gimp-2-6-11.png}
\end{document}

Adobe Acrobat opens the pdf normally.

Both variants of the MWE with log and pdf plus the two image files and this description are available for your perusal under

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/67202910/pdftex-problem.zip (ca. 110 kB)


Thanks for your help

Jens