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Solon Aquila
Inspiring
June 4, 2009
Question

Import PDF into Framemaker 7?

  • June 4, 2009
  • 3 replies
  • 3460 views

Greetings

Using FrameMaker 7 in Windows XP.

I have some 11 × 17 drawings (created in AutoCad) that I receive in PDF format. They are high quality line-drawings. When I zoom in they are of high quality, the print menu shows them as 200dpi and the print quality is very good.

I need to import them into Framemaker but when I do, they come in at what is clearly NOT high quality. The notes can't be read and the like. I've tried opening them in Photoshop (low quality), I've tried doing Save As.. and choosing JPG (low quality).  I even tried saving as RTF.. same thing.

Ultimately, what I want is to bring the high quality pdf image into Framemaker, but it's not retaining the quality.

I've seen some suggestions in the forum, but none that seem to address this situation.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Solon

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    3 replies

    S
    Solon AquilaAuthor
    Inspiring
    June 8, 2009

    All,

    Thanks for all the info. I've been playing around with this over the weekend and have gotten it to open in Illustrator (I'm not sure what I was doing wrong before). It does appear to be vector (I had an Illustrator-knowledgeable friend check it out).

    I still face the odd printing (It printed VERY nicely when I opened it in Acrobat and it scaled to 8½ × 11 automatically, but it's a hinky print if I've imported into Frame).

    This leaves me with a couple of questions:

    1. How do I tell if my printer is a postscript printer?

    2. Will a vector-based PDF, when imported into frame, retain the 'vectorness' that lets it expand so well?

    Thanks, again, for all the info. I'm sure I'll get this sorted out.

    Solon

    Arnis Gubins
    Arnis Gubins
    Inspiring
    June 8, 2009

    1. If your printer doesn't have PS or PostScript somewhere in it's name (as it appears in the control panel), then it probably isn't postscript. Consequently, printing to a non-PS printer from FM will render only the low-res previews for EPS files (see #2). Note: you can always create a PDF and then print that to any printer - this acts as pseudo-RIP (raster image processor).

    2. With PDF imports, vectors stay as vectors. As I said earlier, FM converts PDF to an EPS internally, which means a low-res image preview and large non-displayed vector (or raster) component.

    Van Kurtz
    Van Kurtz
    Inspiring
    June 5, 2009

    Solon,

    I import PDFs of AutoCad drawings all the time and have no problems, in general. They ARE vector drawings, so the 200 dpi is meaningless, unless they are giving you scans of the drawings and not PDFs printed from AutoCad. The only time something is bad is when the drafts person uses a free PDF writer downloaded from the Internet, in which case the problem is with the fonts and not the vector drawings. I do this with FrameMaker 9 and have done it for many years in FrameMaker 7. As someone else pointed out, do not worry about what it looks like in FrameMaker. Just import it and print to the Adobe PDF printer to create your PDF; all should be OK.

    If still not working correctly, check that the PDFs are good and NOT bitmapped images, such as scans. If bitmapped, then you need to check your Acrobat job options to make sure Acrobat is not downsampling the images; choose the high quality print job option.

    By the way, RTF is a Word format and has nothing to do with PDF. Saving a PDF as RTF will get you no where. Stick with the original PDF.

    Good luck,

    Van

    Arnis Gubins
    Arnis Gubins
    Inspiring
    June 4, 2009

    Solon,

    FM internally converts the PDF to an EPS format. What you see displayed on screen in FM is the low-res EPS preview image of the drawing. When you ouput to print or PDF, the high-res vector components will be used. This is to speed up FM graphics response time when working with it.

    Don't be overly concerned about the screen rendering of graphics in FM, this is one area where it's only WYSIWYMG (what you see is what you might get).

    S
    Solon AquilaAuthor
    Inspiring
    June 4, 2009

    The ever-present Arnis!! LTNS and all that.

    Clearly I've been.. less than clear: This problem has been with the print the entire time. Any time I print, I get a low-res image.

    When I print the PDF file in Acrobat, I get a nice, legible, high-res line drawing.

    When I save as RTF and print from Word, I get a low-res line drawing (screen image isn't good either).

    When I try to import the file into Frame it tells me that PDF isn't compatible with Frame.

    When I try highlighting with the Snapshot Tool in PDF, then paste into frame (or 'New From Clipboard'  in Photoshop and save the JPG), the screen and the print are low-res images.

    If I could read the notes, I wouldn't mind so much, but I can't even read them.

    Here's the fun bit: When we're done with the Frame file.. we'll be PDFing it!!!

    I'm seriously tempted to just write our headers and footers over the PDF images then add them to the final book PDF!!  But I can't..

    Anyway.. it's the printing I'm having low-res problems with!

    Solon

    A
    Art Campbell
    Inspiring
    June 4, 2009

    What application are you using to create the PDF and how are you doing it? For example, from Photoshop you can SaveAs a PDF, or print to the Adobe PDF printer.

    (Just in passing, I think 200 dpi is fine for screen display, but borderline for printing either on a printer or a press)

    Art

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