ErrorPDF · .pdf
PDF Broken Cross-Reference — Corrupted Object Index
A PDF file with a damaged or inconsistent cross-reference (xref) table, causing readers to fail when locating objects within the file.
Why It Fails
PDF readers use the xref table to locate objects (pages, fonts, images) by byte offset. If offsets are wrong due to file modification or corruption, the reader cannot find the objects it needs to render pages.
Expected Error Behavior
Adobe Reader shows 'There was an error opening this document. The file is damaged.' Chrome PDF viewer shows blank pages. Some readers attempt xref reconstruction.
Affected Software
Adobe ReaderChrome PDF viewerFirefox PDF.jsPython PyPDF2Java iText
How to Fix
Use qpdf --qdf to rebuild the xref table. Ghostscript can also repair PDFs: gs -o repaired.pdf -sDEVICE=pdfwrite damaged.pdf