Tips and Tricks for Common Conversion Problems

• Problems with Conversion
• Problems with Links
• Problems with Fonts
• Problems with Text
• Problem with Layout

This article provides solutions to common problems with conversion, links, fonts, text, and layout when uploading your content to the Issuu platform.

Problems with Conversion

If the conversion fails, one or more of your pages might be too complex (in other words, they contain too many vector objects). A generic way to check some problems is to try and open the PDF in Chrome. If it looks wrong in Chrome it will most certainly look incorrect on Issuu. However, we can not guarantee that it will look correct on Issuu just because it looks correct in Chrome.

To troubleshoot, follow these steps:

• Identify these complex pages by observing which ones load slowly in a PDF reader
• Remove these pages and upload a test to see if the conversion succeeds
• Simplify the design of the complex pages or flatten them to bitmap graphics

Problems with Links

To ensure your links are working properly:

• Add long links before upload
• Links should have prefix with either www. or http(s)://
• Make sure links in the text are not separated by line breaks or placed directly next to non-link characters (add a blank space on each side of the link/email-address)
• If your links are displayed in the wrong place, export your document to view on the screen (not for print)
• If you are turning full pages into links e.g. for full-page ads, make sure the link area is smaller than the actual page. The best approach is to leave space for a margin around your link area.

Problems with Fonts

Make sure your fonts are embedded in the document you upload by exporting with fonts.

Problems with Text

If your page does not have crisp text, please ensure that:

• You do not have any images/graphics overlapping in the text. This includes semi- or full-transparent images/graphics. For example, putting text under the transparent part of an image of a circle, might cause trouble with how the text looks. To fix this, please re-arrange the layers in your document so the text is on top (even when the text is not visibly overlapped by anything).
• Always export to PDF with text as text, not with text as vector graphics.
• If you are uploading a PDF document, text is selectable when you open the document in Adobe Reader. If the text is not selectable, it is an indication that it will not be rendered crisp on Issuu
• The text is inserted as text, and not as an image (for example as an advertisement). If it is inserted as an image, the text will not always be as crisp when zoomed in as in the original document
• You only include visible layers in the output PDF.

If you are still experiencing issues, turn secondary content (like advertisements) into images. If the problem we encountered while processing a page was in this secondary content, turning it into an image will allow the rest of the content to be rendered with crisp text.

Problem with Layout

If you have problems with the text, images, or another part of your layout, please see below steps:

• Try a different PDF version (e.g. v 1.3) or a different PDF printer
• Replace your vector graphics with bitmaps
• If your text is bleeding through, you are using an unsupported layout feature (e.g. soft masks). Please use a different layout feature or replace that page/item with bitmap graphics
• If images are not showing, they are probably inserted in the content using unsupported features (e.g. frames/forms), so try to simplify or flatten your layout

If Nothing Works

As a final attempt, try re-saving your PDF in Preview for Mac (or "save as" on a PC), as it can sometimes remove unknown errors. If you want to upload a Word document or Powerpoint presentation, try exporting to PDF before uploading.