Title: Error: /syntaxerror in pdfopen
Last modified: August 22, 2016

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# Error: /syntaxerror in pdfopen

 *  Resolved [Bigsipper](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bigsipper/)
 * (@bigsipper)
 * [11 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-syntaxerror-in-pdfopen/)
 * I uploaded a bunch of pdf files (about 50 of them), and now see
    the following
   error rendered on my page – any ideas what I can do to fix this:
 * Array ( [0] => GPL Ghostscript 8.70 (2009-07-31) [1] => Copyright (C) 2009 Artifex
   Software, Inc. All rights reserved. [2] => This software comes with NO WARRANTY:
   see the file PUBLIC for details. [3] => Error: /syntaxerror in pdfopen [4] =>
   Operand stack: [5] => (/tmp/gs_xSHcao) (<<\r\n /ASCII85EncodePages false\r\n /
   AllowTransparency false\r\n /AutoPositionEPSFiles true\r\n /AutoRotatePages /
   None\r\n /Binding /Left\r\n /CalGrayProfile \(Dot Gain 20%\)\r\n /CalRGBProfile\(
   sRGB IEC61966…) [6] => Execution stack: [7] => %interp_exit .runexec2 –nostringval––
   nostringval– –nostringval– 2 %stopped_push –nostringval– –nostringval– –nostringval–
   false 1 %stopped_push 1862 1 3 %oparray_pop 1861 1 3 %oparray_pop 1845 1 3 %oparray_pop–
   nostringval– –nostringval– %array_continue –nostringval– –nostringval– –nostringval––
   nostringval– [8] => Dictionary stack: [9] => –dict:1152/1684(ro)(G)– –dict:1/
   20(G)– –dict:75/200(L)– –dict:75/200(L)– –dict:106/127(ro)(G)– –dict:286/300(
   ro)(G)– –dict:7/15(L)– [10] => Current allocation mode is local )
 * [https://wordpress.org/plugins/document-gallery/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/document-gallery/)

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

 *  Plugin Author [Dan Rossiter](https://wordpress.org/support/users/danrossiter/)
 * (@danrossiter)
 * [11 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-syntaxerror-in-pdfopen/#post-5574733)
 * Hi Bigsipper,
 * It sounds like Ghostscript doesn’t understand one or more of the PDFs you are
   using. I’ve heard of this happening occasionally with some weird formats.
 * One thing I would suggest that may resolve the issue is upgrading your version
   of Ghostscript. Based on the stack trace you provided, it looks like you are 
   running 8.70 which was released in ’09 and it’s possible it will have issues 
   with newer derivations of the PDF format. That said, I cannot guarantee that 
   will resolve the problem.
 * On my end, I need to figure out why you are having that error dump displayed.
   That shouldn’t be making it onto the frontend.
 * Can you run a quick test for me? I would like to see if we can get anything useful
   from the DG logging.
    1. Go to `Dashboard -> Settings -> Document Gallery -> Advanced` and enable logging.
    2. Go to the Thumbnail Management tab, select all of the generated thumbnails and
       delete them.
    3. Go to your gallery and reproduce the problem you described above.
    4. Go to `Dashboard -> Settings -> Document Gallery -> Logging` and see if there
       are any `Error` or `Warning` logs (you can filter this in the top right of the
       log screen). If there is anything recent in there, paste those errors/warnings
       here.
 * EDIT: Also, as a short-term fix, you can disable the Ghostscript generation method
   which should prevent the errors you’re seeing. You’ll likely get the default 
   PDF icons (unless Google Drive is active), so not an ideal long-term fix.
 * EDIT 2: Can you tell me what PHP version you are currently running?
 * -Dan
 *  Plugin Author [Dan Rossiter](https://wordpress.org/support/users/danrossiter/)
 * (@danrossiter)
 * [11 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-syntaxerror-in-pdfopen/#post-5574739)
 * Update:
 * I’ve found the issue that’s resulting in you getting the big stacktrace in the
   gallery output and the fix will be implemented in the next release (hopefully
   some time today). This won’t change the fact that generating thumbnails for the
   PDFs that are currently failing. For that, I still recommend updating Ghostscript
   since you are using a version that is about 5 years old (a century in software
   terms).
 * -Dan
 * PS: If you’ve found this plugin useful, please take a moment to [rate it](http://wordpress.org/support/view/plugin-reviews/document-gallery#postform).
   Thanks! 🙂
 *  Plugin Author [Dan Rossiter](https://wordpress.org/support/users/danrossiter/)
 * (@danrossiter)
 * [11 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-syntaxerror-in-pdfopen/#post-5574743)
 * Update 2:
 * If you update to version `2.3.1` (just released), the error stack trace you’re
   seeing should no longer be displayed.
 * -Dan
 * PS: If you’ve found this plugin useful, please take a moment to [rate it](http://wordpress.org/support/view/plugin-reviews/document-gallery#postform).
   Thanks! 🙂

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

The topic ‘Error: /syntaxerror in pdfopen’ is closed to new replies.

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 * 3 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [Dan Rossiter](https://wordpress.org/support/users/danrossiter/)
 * Last activity: [11 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-syntaxerror-in-pdfopen/#post-5574743)
 * Status: resolved