Tablet PDF pages are blank

[cgsmom]

I have a quilting book purchased from Martingale Publishing. It is a PDF file without DRM. It views fine on both of my computers. I copied it to my iPod Touch and it views in iBooks and Kobo reader. However when I copied it to my Nook Tablet all the pages are blank. The thumbnail shows the book title and author properly. It shows the correct number of pages but all the pages are blank.

I have other PDF files that are magazines from another publisher. They view fine.

I have tried deleting the file, turning the Nook off and on. I copied it again. Nothing works. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Added on edit: I tried to open the PDF file with ADE and it shows the book title and author but all the pages are blank. Therefore, I know it is a problem with the file and not the Tablet. I have emailed the publisher, but have not received a reply. I would appreciate any help.

[Lancelot]

I have been testing Nook's reader for awhile now and have concluded it is a crappy ereader...

This problem you have with this pdf is mainly due to a limitation of BN's default reader and partly because mobile pdf based on Adobe's mobile technology isn't the same as it's desktop Acrobat reader.

1) If you can see thumbnails but not pages, you likely have a very complicated pdf with transparencies not supported by the current mobile technology...but you said it's a quilting book so I fine it harder to believe designer would create silo images and use crazy drop-shadow in this book.

2) Try opening this pdf with EZReader and see if that works. It is a more robust pdf reader than the default reader.

[dwig]

Originally Posted by cgsmom

I...
Added on edit: I tried to open the PDF file with ADE and it shows the book title and author but all the pages are blank. Therefore, I know it is a problem with the file and not the Tablet. ...

FALSE CONCLUSION!
The Nook uses Adobe Digital Editions software. Your test merely shows that there is likely a limitation in both the Nook's version and the desktop version. While it doesn't rule out a fault in the PDF file, it also doesn't show that there is no fault in the reader.

You are very likely running across a limitation in the PDF support in the ADE software since the file displays properly in Adobe Reader. The PDF file is likely a perfectly legitimate PDF.

I encountered the same symptoms with a PDF that I downloaded from the Internet Archive a while back. It displayed find in Adobe Reader on Windows but most pages were blank when viewed on my Kindle 3. Poking around with the PDF, I discovered that it used multiple layered images to display scanned text over an image of old paper pages.

The fix was to print the PDF from Adobe Reader using a PDF virtual printer driver (I use PrimoPDF, available free, but there are a number of others you could use). This created a "flattened" PDF that displayed fine on my Kindle. The resulting file was also much smaller.

[cgsmom]

Thanks for the replies. Since I posted this I continued to look for a solution. I have a program called PDF Redirect, which is a PDF printer program. I printed the book to a pdf and it worked. I can now read the quilting book on my tablet. I also purchased the ezPDF app from BN and I found that it works with the original file. So I have two solutions. the ezPDF app also displays the first page of the pdf as the thumbnail image, so I am happy about that.

Thanks again for your input.

[Lancelot]

Originally Posted by dwig

FALSE CONCLUSION!
The Nook uses Adobe Digital Editions software. Your test merely shows that there is likely a limitation in both the Nook's version and the desktop version. While it doesn't rule out a fault in the PDF file, it also doesn't show that there is no fault in the reader.

You are very likely running across a limitation in the PDF support in the ADE software since the file displays properly in Adobe Reader. The PDF file is likely a perfectly legitimate PDF.

I encountered the same symptoms with a PDF that I downloaded from the Internet Archive a while back. It displayed find in Adobe Reader on Windows but most pages were blank when viewed on my Kindle 3. Poking around with the PDF, I discovered that it used multiple layered images to display scanned text over an image of old paper pages.

The fix was to print the PDF from Adobe Reader using a PDF virtual printer driver (I use PrimoPDF, available free, but there are a number of others you could use). This created a "flattened" PDF that displayed fine on my Kindle. The resulting file was also much smaller.

Um...Of course, a complex pdf will look fine on desktop, that's due to more processing power from your desktop cpu and desktop version of Acrobat has full support of transparencies. It is very clear that NT's reader doesn't support transparencies and I can replicate the problem 100% each time. Hence, I say the reader is "crappy".

There are a number of softwares that can flatten a pdf and reduce file size but almost all goes through a variation of Adobe's distiller. The so-called flattening processing is essentially rasterizing the effects and thus requires less processing power to display the page.

[Lancelot]

Originally Posted by cgsmom

Thanks for the replies. Since I posted this I continued to look for a solution. I have a program called PDF Redirect, which is a PDF printer program. I printed the book to a pdf and it worked. I can now read the quilting book on my tablet. I also purchased the ezPDF app from BN and I found that it works with the original file. So I have two solutions. the ezPDF app also displays the first page of the pdf as the thumbnail image, so I am happy about that.

Thanks again for your input.

You are welcome. ezPDF is worth a few dollars especially if you prefer reading pdf files.