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Quite A Box Of Tricks

Known problems

 

Quite A Box of Tricks:
Known problems

The following describes known problems in Quite A Box Of Tricks 1.8. This page was updated on 19 November 2007.

Mac OS X.5 problems

In Mac OS X Leopard, buttons and information may be missing, particularly in the About plug-in, which will mean you may be unable to start. In addition, when converting to CMYK with an ICC profile, you may get the message "ColorSyncOpenProfileFromBuffer[2] failed with code -108 or else a crash".

Fix: Fixed in version 1.8c. Download now!

Banding in shadings

On certain imagesetters, shadings converted to greyscale or CMYK may show banding due to using an 8-bit representation for a smooth shading.

Fix: Fixed in version 1.8c. Download now!

Cannot see "i" pointer tool button - Acrobat 8.0 Macintosh.

In Acrobat 8 on Mac OS X, you may not be able to see the icon of an "i" with pointer on the toolbar. This is due to changes in the way Acrobat 8 shows icons. The icon is present in the Advanced Editing taskbar, but may be blank.

Fix: Fixed in version 1.8b. Download now!


The following describes known problems in Quite A Box Of Tricks 1.7.

Mac only - plug-ins do not load in Acrobat 8.0.

In Acrobat 8, all new plug-ins were required, to support Intel processors (but are needed even on Power PC/G5). Quite made a new plug-in available, and it was released in November 2006. Upgrade to 1.8.Download now!

Error converting DeviceN (multi-spot) colours

Errors can occur when converting multi-spot colours to CMYK or greyscale e.g. colours can turn into white. This occurs only in Acrobat 7.0 on the Macintosh.

Fix: Fixed in version 1.7b. Download now!

Error converting Indexed separation colours

Errors can occur when converting Indexed separation colours to CMYK e.g. colours can turn into white. This occurs only in Acrobat 7.0 on the Macintosh. These are very rarely seen in PDF files.

Fix: Fixed in version 1.7b. Download now!

Error using ICC profile in Mac OS X.

In very recent versions of Mac OS X, including Mac OS X.3.8, attempting to convert RGB to CMYK with Quite A Box Of Tricks will produce an error message. This was caused by Apple's changes to ColorSync in Mac OS X.

Fix: Fixed in version 1.7a. Download now!

Scaled stamps do not flatten correctly.

If an Acrobat stamp annotation is placed, then scaled, then flattened by Quite A Box Of Tricks, the scaling is ignored.

Fix: Fixed in version 1.7a. Download now!

Cannot see "i" pointer tool button - Acrobat 6.0 or 7.0.

In Acrobat 6, you may not be able to see the icon of an "i" with pointer on the toolbar.
Fix: This on the Advanced Editing toolbar, which Acrobat 6.0 hides by default. Use View > Toolbars > Advanced editing if required.

Cannot find plug-ins folder to install - Acrobat 6.0 or 7.0 Mac.

In Acrobat 6 or 7, you cannot find the plug-ins folder (Macintosh only).
Fix: Use the new installer with version 1.7. Or, in Acrobat 6.0 or 7.0 on the Mac you need to use the Plug-in Manager to add or remove plug-ins.


The following describes known problems in Quite A Box Of Tricks 1.6.

Mac only - plug-ins do not load in Acrobat 7.0.

In Acrobat 7, all new plug-ins were required (why?). Quite made a new plug-in available, and it was released in January 2005. Upgrade to 1.7.Download now!


The following describes known problems in Quite A Box Of Tricks 1.5.

Cannot access preferences file - Acrobat 6.0 Mac

In Acrobat 6, the message "Cannot access preferences file" is repeatedly issued (Macintosh only).
Fix: You must run version 1.6 for Acrobat 6.0. Download now!

Settings lost in Batch Processing

Batch processing may lose its settings.
Fix: This is fixed in version 1.5f. Download now!

Shadings change during scale/rotate/mirror

Certain colour gradients or shadings can change when you scale, rotate or mirror a page.
Fix: This is fixed in version 1.5c. Download now!

Messages occur during batch processing

When using the new Acrobat 5.0 / Box Of Tricks 1.5 feature of Batch Processing, one or more messages are issued after each file processed. This is wrong; the messages should be stored, and all issued together at the end.
Fix: This is fixed in version 1.5a. Download now!


The following describes known problems in Quite A Box Of Tricks 1.2.

Very small images do not convert or go to a random colour

This is a bug in Acrobat 5.0. Although we have not yet received full information from Adobe on the bug, we have made our best efforts to fix this problem by working around the problem.
Fix: This is fixed in version 1.5. Download now!

Colour and greyscale conversion problems

A number of problems were found which affected colour and greyscale conversion for a very few files. Features affected included very small images, which might not be converted, and smooth shading from Illustrator 9.0 or InDesign 1.5, which may give errors.
Fix: This is fixed in version 1.5. Download now!

Crashes in demo mode

This problem occurs only when running the demo, which places crosses over the page. When files are over about 13 inches a side, Acrobat may crash.
Fix: This is fixed in version 1.5. Download now!

Colour conversion problems

On a few files, conversion to CMYK produces incorrect results, or the message that the PDF file was not understood (if it was made with Distiller 4.0).
Fix: This is fixed in version 1.2b. Download now!

Illustrator 8.0 gradients and meshes do not convert

If an Illustrator 8.0 file is saved as an EPS with the PostScript 3 option, and distilled with Acrobat 4.0 compatibility, gradients and meshes will use a new feature called "smooth shading". Quite A Box Of Tricks 1.2b cannot convert these to greyscale or CMYK, but will not put out any warning messages. There may be applications other than Illustrator 8.0 using this technique, but we are not aware of any at this time.
Work-arounds: (a) Save the EPS with the PostScript level 2 option.
(b) Or, distill the file with Acrobat 3.0 compatibility.
(c) Or, use Object > rasterise on the image in Illustrator.
(d) Or, if you need to convert to CMYK, make the conversion in Illustrator.
Fix: This is fixed in version 1.2f. Download now!

Page does not refresh

Under certain circumstances, a page may be converted, but appear the same on screen. We had thought this was a problem only with Acrobat 3.0, but occasionally it happens in Acrobat 4.0. This will be fixed in a later version, but it seems that covering the Acrobat screen then showing it again can cause the corrected file to appear.
Fix: This is fixed in version 1.2f. Download now!

Error: Expected 'EI' while parsing an image

Very rarely, after or during Quite A Box Of Tricks processing, Acrobat will report the error "Expected 'EI' while parsing an image" (or similar - other messages mentioning 'EI'). This is a bug in Quite A Box Of Tricks. We estimate the chances of this as 1 in 10,000 or less, which is why it never showed up in testing, but some types of file have a higher risk. In addition, this is much more likely with PDF files created with e htmldoc utility.
Fix: This is fixed in version 1.2f. Download now!

Crashing when closing down Macintosh

If Acrobat is still running when you close down a Macintosh, you may get an error message or crash. This does not happen if Acrobat is closed down normally.
Fix: We believe there is an underlying bug in Acrobat 4.0, but there is a work-around in version 1.2f. Download now!

'JPEG Unknown' for images made in Distiller 4.05

Distiller 4.05 fixes many of the compression problems found in Distiller 4.0, but since it has changed the Info function in Quite A Box Of Tricks can no longer report the compression choice made when the file was created.
Fix: This is fixed in version 1.2f. Download now!

Problems when running "Jade"

Quite A Box Of Tricks may cause problems if run with the Jade plug-in from BCL Computers also installed.

FIX: Please contact support@bcl-computers.com for an updated version of the Jade plug-in.

"Memory leaks" when using automation with pdfBatchProcess Pro

If Quite A Box Of Tricks is used to shrink many files over a long period it will gradually use more and more memory. This is known as a "memory leak". There may be several causes of this problem, but a serious bug in Quite A Box Of Tricks is a major cause.

FIX: fixed in 1.2h. Download the latest version now.

Incorrect conversion of Lab colour to greyscale

A few PDF files may use Lab colour for vector elements such as text. If converted to greyscale, this will produce incorrect results.

FIX: fixed in 1.2h. Download the latest version now.


Older releases

The following describes known problems in Quite A Box Of Tricks 1.0. You can download an upgrade free!

"Bad parameter" on image info with Acrobat 4.0

On some files, the message "bad parameter" may appear, and no image info will be available. This only occurs with Acrobat 4.0, and is a bug in Acrobat 4.0. This is worked around in version 1.2. Download now!

Bad conversion of some images

Under certain circunstances, images may not be converted to greyscale properly. They may appear damaged, not convert, or generate error messages. This includes 4-bit indexed colour and Lab colour, both of which are rarely seen. Very occasionally, conversion to CMYK is affected too. This is fixed in version 1.2. Download now!

Text information not available

In certain cases, text is not highlighted when using the info tool. This most often happens with vertical text, and with landscape pages. This has been identified as a bug in Acrobat Exchange. This is worked around in version 1.2. Download now!

PS/EPS Export problems (Macintosh only)

On certain Macintosh systems with Acrobat 3.0 there seem to be problems with using Export PS for files converted with Quite A Box Of Tricks. We have not been able to find a definite cause, or a reason why certain systems are affected. There have been no reports of similar problems with Acrobat 4.0.

Bookmarks not working in manual

This was fixed in an updated packaging of 1.0. Please download again.