[iText-questions] serious problem concatenating pdfs together

[Sean Langford]

Hello!

I'm having some problems printing various pdfs which have had several other pdfs concatenated to it. This can be reproduced using itext's Concat example/utility as so:

java Concat a.pdf src1.pdf src2.pdf;
java Concat b.pdf a.pdf src3.pdf;
java Concat c.pdf b.pdf src4.pdf;
java Concat d.pdf c.pdf src5.pdf;
java Concat e.pdf d.pdf src6.pdf;
java Concat f.pdf e.pdf src7.pdf;
java Concat g.pdf f.pdf src8.pdf;
java Concat h.pdf g.pdf src9.pdf;
java Concat i.pdf h.pdf src10.pdf;
java Concat j.pdf i.pdf src11.pdf;
java Concat k.pdf j.pdf src12.pdf;
java Concat l.pdf k.pdf src13.pdf;
java Concat m.pdf l.pdf src14.pdf;
java Concat n.pdf m.pdf src15.pdf;
java Concat o.pdf n.pdf src16.pdf;
java Concat final1.pdf o.pdf src17.pdf;

Using itext to concatenate pdfs in this way sometimes results in a pdf which can be viewed, but cannot be printed. Each source file individually is a valid pdf which is viewable and printable. The number of documents appended seems to matter; if any of the source files are omitted, the resulting pdf file will print normally. Also: opening this file in Acrobat 4 and making a trivial change and then saving seems to 'fix' the file making it printable.

This behavior is repeatable in acrobat 4, 5, 5.1 and gv on windows and linux using several different printers. Strangely there is no error from the OS, the printer or the pdf viewer when trying to print.

However, if I take these pdfs and Concat them like so:

java Concat final2.pdf src1.pdf src2.pdf src3.pdf src4.pdf src5.pdf \
src6.pdf src7.pdf src8.pdf src9.pdf src10.pdf src11.pdf src12.pdf \ src13.pdf src14.pdf src15.pdf src16.pdf src17.pdf

the resultant 'final2.pdf' is *smaller*, views identically, and prints normally.

I've posted the set of files which causes this failure on my website:

http://seanlangford.com/PdfConcatBlues.zip

Anyone have any experience or insight on what might be causing this? Is this a pdf limitation, or a bug in itext?

Thanks!

Sean Langford




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