extra line printed in pdf output

[JimFritz]

An extra or erroneous line is being added to the pdf hardcopy.  When viewing the pdf on screen, it is fine, no extra lines.  When the pdf is sent to either a printer or a plotter, an extra line shows up.  The extra line is the same color as the polyline data that is part of the pdf.

Very annoying .....

Any help on this would be appreciated.

Jim F.

[JimCousins]

How are you creating the PDF, printing out of ArcMap or exporting? Try switching if you can.
If you have Adobe Acrobat, try printing the pdf to a new pdf, and see if that cleans up the file, or if the line is then visible in the new file.
I take it that this is a specific mxd, not every one you produce?
You might check and repair the geometry of the shapefiles, and see if this goes away.
Regards,
Jim

[MichaelUpshall]

Has anyone ever found a solution to this problem? I am having the exact same issue now. A new line is seemingly connected to a line layer and extends diagonally across the page. This line is also only visible when the map is printed. I have tried both printing to a PDF and exporting as a PDF and am having the same results. I have data driven pages set up over a number of MXD files containing different geology data. This line always occurs in the same map in all of the MXD's.

[ChristopherBlinn1]

Mike,

Does it appear when you export the map as a JPEG or PNG?

In the past, I have always exported to an image format, then created a PDF of the map image.  Exporting straight to PDF always changed something, whether that be my layout, color scheme, or text characters.

Let us know if the export to different file type removes the erroneous line.

Thanks,
Chris B.

[MichaelUpshall]

Thanks Chris,

The line is removed in a .PNG file. This creates a new problem in that the PDF created from the .PNG doesn't have the same quality as the other maps I export directly to PDF.

Any suggestions on this matter?
I think ESRI really needs to address this issue. We use PDF's as our final report files to clients. It would be nice to know that our maps don't have these issues popping up.

Mike

[ChristopherBlinn1]

Mike,

The only other suggestion I have would be to increase the DPI for the PNG from the default 96, to perhaps 300 or 600.  It is unfortunate that this is still an issue, being it has been around since the beginning of version 10 (possibly even before then, but that is too far for me to remember).

Chris

[KimMcAndrews]

I know this is a bit late in answering this forum but I have been experiencing the same issue.  The way I fixed it was to go to the Advanced Options tab in my printer properties (we have an HP T1100) and there is an option under Printer Features for Max. Application Resolution.  Instead of the default I chose 300.  This, for some reason, got rid of my strange lines.

I also learned that if you choose to "Show Preview before Printing" the previews actually show the mysterious lines.  I kept changing settings until I found the change above, where the extra lines disappeared in the preview. 

I don't know if this helps others but it solved my problem with this particular map!

[MichaelUpshall]

I know this is a bit late in answering this forum but I have been experiencing the same issue.  The way I fixed it was to go to the Advanced Options tab in my printer properties (we have an HP T1100) and there is an option under Printer Features for Max. Application Resolution.  Instead of the default I chose 300.  This, for some reason, got rid of my strange lines.

I also learned that if you choose to "Show Preview before Printing" the previews actually show the mysterious lines.  I kept changing settings until I found the change above, where the extra lines disappeared in the preview. 

I don't know if this helps others but it solved my problem with this particular map!

This seems to work! I found similar settings in the advanced settings for our Konica Minolta C652 Series. My only concern is that we send both hard copies and digital copies of reports / maps to clients. If our clients print additional copies, that line will surely show up again.

[KimMcAndrews]

This seems to work! I found similar settings in the advanced settings for our Konica Minolta C652 Series. My only concern is that we send both hard copies and digital copies of reports / maps to clients. If our clients print additional copies, that line will surely show up again.

I wondered this as well.  We have another plotter, HP 790ps, and that didn't ever do the lines.  I can't seem to find a pattern on why the lines printed with one of our plotters and not with the other one.  So it would be worth a shot for your client to try to print and see what happens.

[RichardMyers]

I have had a similar issue with imagery data when exporting to pdf. However it leaves a blank square.