I use OpenOffice 2.4 in Debian Linux 5.0 Lenny, but recently had a problem with exporting OpenOffice.org documents to PDF. Debian Lenny doesn't have OpenOffice.org 3.0 packages yet. I think the problem originates from using obscure Postscript fonts. I used Caslon Book BE in my OpenOffice.org Writer document, but the output of the exported PDF file was unreadable. Actually, the problematic PDF file didn't display any spaces.
Eventually, I fixed this problem. I saved the document as a postscript printout and converted it to PDF using pstopdf13.
ps2pdf13 input.ps output.pdf
Another thing I did to fix the problem was to change Times New Roman fonts in my formulas to Times New Roman PS. I also had to convert all pictures in the document to encapsulated Postscript format and embed them in the document. For EPS conversion of the pictures, I used GIMP.
