Solution to Traveller PDFs not showing images in PDFKit based renderers (macOS and iOS)

[apastuszak]

@Timolution

Thank you for the app recommendations. I like PDF Pro that I think I may buy the subscription. PDF Viewer seems to work OK on MacOS. I haven't tried to print with it yet.

 

[Timolution]

@apastuszak You're welcome. Despite being a staunch GoodReader user, I do like PDF Pro a lot as it tends to be faster in rendering complex layered PDFs (and of coursee allowing me to enjoy MGT2 PDFs in all their graphical glory). Unless you need annotations/notes and PDF editing/form filling support the free version is actually quite complete as a reader. And in any way, even with a subscription (wished they offered a one-time buy option, but alas) it is still ludicrously more cheap than splurging for Acrobat Pro (which is overkill anyway if you only want to read and annotate).

Unfortunately printing on iOS or macOS will remain an issue, as generally applications need to hand off these duties to the system printing framework which uses (as you can guess) the native PDF rendering framework and thus does not render the images... As a workaround it's better that you rasterise the PDF (transform all pages to images) using ghostscript or imagemagick, and then print the rasterised version.

 

[apastuszak]

I loved GoodReader. But it uses the native PDF renderer.

I guess I'll need to use PDF Pro for a little while to see if I need those features.

One problem with all these apps stores is there is no way for a developer to charge you for an upgrade. Buy an app, and it's free to you forever. So, a lot of developers now charge a subscription because they can't keep developing an app for free. I get that. And, if a developer actually updates an app regularly, then I will pay a reasonable price for a subscription. But there are way too many apps, with a subscription price of $9.99 a month that have not had an update in close to a year.

 

[apastuszak]

I do read in a different application, but quickly scrolling through the PDF in the native PDF reader on macOS after buying there did initially not seem to be any missing images this time.

Putting the PDF side by side in the native reader and one using a different renderer I do however notice that the small planet pictures in the sector maps are missing (confirmed by raw image extraction that these are CMYK referencing JPEG2000s). But to be honest that is such a minor issue imo, and I am more than happy to report that the rest of the beautiful art in the PDF is now actually showing.

View attachment 1306	View attachment 1307
Native macOS/iOS renderer​	3rd Party PSPDFkit Renderer​

Can you check this same page in MacOS Sonoma? I wonder if Apple fixed this now that we have newer versions of MacOS and iOS.

 

[apastuszak]

I think Apple fixed this. I opened up Core Rules 2022 Update on MacOS Sonoma and I am not seeing any missing images. I'll try the iPad out tonight and report back.

 

[CordwainerFish]

The first and last pages of the Bayern PDFs are still blank, so no.

 

[apastuszak]

So, they fixed some images, but not all images. I'm going to open another incident with Apple.

 

[apastuszak]

On the phone with Apple support now. With any luck, they'll open a ticket and let me submit a PDF to them for review. If we can get this fixed at the source (Apple) that's a better solution that Mongoose fixing it. Better to fix is globally than have to deal with each PDF publisher having to deal with this.

 

[apastuszak]

Wow, that support call was an experience. I work in IT, so by the time I call in, I've done everything that level 1 support is going to ask me to do.

I had to reboot my computer in safe mode after explaining the issue and how it affects multiple Apple devices. When that still didn't work, she wanted me to wipe my computer and reinstall MacOS.

At that point, I put my foot down and told her I want to speak to Level 2 support. The level 2 guy was kind of at a loss what to do. I told him to open an incident with the PDFKit development team, include a link to this thread and let me send you a PDF you can attach to the ticket.

He put me on hold and came back about 5 minutes later and said that this is a known issue and they have a bug open for it.

Hopefully, this will get fixed one day…

I know there are other PDF readers I can use. But it's so convenient to just dump a bunch of PDFS into Apple Books on my Mac and have them magically show up on my iPad.

Call Apple and open an incident. It will help raise the higher on the stack of things to fix.

 

[CordwainerFish]

(By the dubs, I finally got around to trying the Ghostscript conversion and not only did it work on the file I guinea pigged, it made a *smaller* file on /printer.)