Problem with image flip in ID CS3

Question

I have a document with a series of similar pages, for example a common background image and then coupons of varying value amounts on successive pages. On the "coupon" portion of the page, there is a small picture of the product. Sometimes the product image will print fine, sometimes upside down, sometimes upside down and backwards. Typically the first page of the document will print or distill fine, and then one or all of the following pages will have a flipped image. Printing each page one by one corrects the problem, since then each page is "page one". The problem occurs when printing to the color laser device as well as when distilling a pdf. When inspecting the document, it appears to be properly constructed. This is just one sort of example, but usually it is any sort of layered, complex file with multiple images. One of my staff said he has seen this happen before at his previous employment, with large InDesign files. Any thoughts on how we can prevent this from happening. We are all on mac and printing to an industrial strength commercial output, but I don't think it's the output device, since it happens when we distill a pdf as well. Thanks

Answer 1

Al and Michael,
In answer to your questions,
we sometimes when making a low res pdf for client viewing do an export 
from Indesign to a customized "small file" ppd variant that collects 
the fonts.
Usually we print to postscript and use a ppd created by one of our 
film houses, Vertis, that is the customized ppd we use to export to 
our epson proofer SWOP that generates a pdfx1a. If you would like I 
can send you these ppds. Please let me know.
Sometimes when the file is complex using the print to file and distill 
does not work, we get some stitching and boxes so when we use the 
pdfx1a export from Indesign sometimes that works. We have learned that 
it is not exact science. That is another issue, since the files that 
have the stitching issues are not the same files that have the image 
flips.
The equipment and versions we are using:
Mac g5 computer (non intel)
OsX v10.5.6
InDesign CS3 v5.04
Acrobat Distiller Professional 8.1.3
Since the problem occurs in the same documents both when outputting to 
the device and creating a pdf intermittently I would not be so certain 
that the issue is caused by the output device, however,
it is a Canon Image Press C1
Boot ROM version 55.03
Device System 63.01
and the server running it is a
EFI Fiery System 8
Version 1.01
I see some PPDs that are for the Canon that are EF4M2068 with 
different extensions. Don't know if I am looking in the right place.
The Canon people are also looking into this however like I said I am 
suspicious that there may be something in our file construction since 
we run a lot of documents here and it seems to be confined to just a 
few of them.
Any insight you can give me would be greatly appreciated.
thanks,
paula kelman
print production supervisor
fkm
713 867 3192
[email protected]
In addition to what Michael asks, what ppd is being used when you 
print to postscript for distilling? Or are you actually exporting the 
pdf?
Al