FileMaker Created PDFs Not Showing in GMail View

[FMAaron]

I have a number of scripts that build PDFs that are saved to the local computer and then automatically sent via GMail SMTP to our user's Google Apps Gmail accounts.

I am able to view the PDF on my desktop without issue. The person I send the PDF to is able to download the PDF and view it on their desktop. The issue arises when they click "View" from within GMail.

Gmail displays everything except the text. I can see any boxes that I have drawn into the layout or container fields that contain pictures. All of the text uses normal fonts (Ariel and Helvetica) with the color set to Black.

Why would GMail not be able to display the text from a FileMaker created PDF when normal PDF viewers on both a Mac and a PC are able to view them? I have tested this using Firefox, IE, and Safari.

At first I thought it was an issue with funky fonts or coloring. But I use all normal, websafe fonts with normal colors.

Thanks for any advice!

(I have not attached any examples to this post as all of our PDFs contain student information. If an example PDF would be helpful I could generate something without info and post it.)

[Matt Klein]

Hi FMAaron -

Unfortunately, I have nothing to help you out with on this issue. I just wanted to let you know you are not alone and no one seems to have an answer at all.

I posted something similar to this about a year ago and didn't get a single reply.

It seems like PDFs generated by FileMaker can only be viewed in Acrobat Reader itself. I have had several issues when sending PDFs to other vendor's apps where there proprietary PDF viewers would show the PDFs as nothing but boxes in place of the letters.

My original run in with this, and the subject of my post of a year ago, was when delivering PDFs directly to a printer via FTP. Many printers have FTP servers that will allow you to deliver PDFs directly to them and the printer will then print the PDF. However, every time I delivered a PDF that was created in FileMaker to the printer, the same boxes in place of letters problem appeared. If I delivered a PDF that was not created by FileMaker, it printed fine.

Does anyone out there have any idea about this? I'd even take a link to an article or tech info record that explains it.

Anyone from FileMaker in here? Can you explain this?

[Matt Klein]

Update: A possible solution. I did some research and found that myFMbutler's PrinterSwitch plug-in includes a PDF printer driver and allows you to create PDFs in much the same fashion as the Save Records as PDF... feature in FileMaker.

The only difference is that the PDFs created by the plug-in do not share the same issue I described in my last post to this thread.

It's a shame that we would have to resort to a third-party product when the functionality is in FileMaker, but at least there is another option out there. There may be others too.

Edited October 7, 2009 by Guest

[FMAaron]

Thanks for the update Matt. I find it interesting that they work from the PrinterSwitch plugin as they don't work from the Mac print option to save as a PDF. Isn't that doing the same thing: taking the PDF creation away from FileMaker?

I always assumed a PDF was a PDF. Guess not.

[Matt Klein]

Just in the spirit of full disclosure, I did not test the Printer Switch plug-in on a Mac, though I imagine it would be fine on a Mac too.