Your problem is most likely due to a change in Distiller introduced in Acrobat 8.1 due to security issues:
Beginning with Acrobat 8.1, Distiller® restricts the directories that PostScript® file operators can access. The new default behavior limits directory access to the temp and font cache directories. Earlier versions of Acrobat Distiller allowed PostScript file operators to have unlimited directory access.
The following Acrobat Distiller command line options (Windows and UNIX ) and user preference (Mac) enable unlimited directory access. Such unlimited access can pose security problems.
● Microsoft® Windows®: -F command line option
● UNIX®: -allowfileops command line option
● Apple Mac OS: AllowPSFileOps user preference
For information on using these Acrobat Distiller command line options and preferences with the EMBED pdfMark command, see the pdfmark Reference.
The pdfmark Reference provides more specific information you would need:
Acrobat Distiller 8.1 and later: Include the Distiller command line option (Windows and UNIX ) or user preference (Mac) that enables unlimited file access. You should be aware that such unlimited access can pose security problems. The following Windows command line invokes Acrobat Distiller with the option that specifies unlimited file access.
acrodist -F filename.ps
You could “fix” the Windows start menu item or make a separate one that would invoke Distiller as follows:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat DC\Acrobat\acrodist.exe -F"
Or simply invoke a command line with the -F switch for distiller when you need to process these types of unusual files.
Let us know if this solves your problem.
- Dov