Skip to main content
April 23, 2014
Question

Saving Framemaker Book to a PDf

  • April 23, 2014
  • 3 replies
  • 2176 views

I am trying to save a book in Framemaker to a PDF file using "Save book As". The process runs to a point and then stops and gives me an error message. The message says "When you create a PostScript file you must rely on system fonts and use document fonts. Please go to the printer properties, "Adobe PDF settings" page and turn OFF the option "Rely on system fonts only; do not use document fonts." I have tried this a million time with all sorts of variations and I cannot get the tool too create the pdf. I am using Windows 7 and Frame 7.2. I was running Windows XP up until 3 months ago and never had a prioblem. Now I cannot make any PDF files from Framemaker using the "Save book as" feature. Anybody have any advice?

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    3 replies

    Arnis Gubins
    Inspiring
    April 23, 2014

    Try addressing the original problem first and do what the prompt says:

    Also, for FM7.2, do not use the "Save Book As", select all of the files in the book panel, and then use the Print option with the "Generate Acrobat Data" and print to file settings enabled:

    Once the postscript file has been created, manually run Distiller using the appropriate joboptions file. Printing directly to PDF in the older versions of FM had issues.

    Inspiring
    April 23, 2014

    "Printing directly to PDF in the older versions of FM had issues."

    Arnis, did you mean to say "saving as PDF," rather than "printing?" I

    recall that Save as PDF was the buggy option we always told everyone to

    avoid.

    Arnis Gubins
    Inspiring
    April 23, 2014

    Mike,

    I did also mean printing directly to the PDF printer instance to create the PDF without doing the mor reliable postscript + Distiller two-step (the SaveAsPDF route had many more issues though). There were variables from the Acrobat installations (Adobe changed some default locations, as well as the printer instance name, with the Acrobat versions around the FM7 period) that were quite installation dependent. Some users were lucky, others lived in purgatory...

    It still hadn't sunk in to many users that the Adobe printer instance had to be set and used as the default, and the SaveAs routines didn't always switch to the correct printer instance (IIRC, they just checked for a postscript instance and if it wasn't the default, grabbed the first one they found in the installed printers list.)

    Bob_Niland
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    April 23, 2014

    > Windows 7 and Frame 7.2.

    This is not a supported configuration and probably does not work, due (I'm guessing) to driver API changes from XP to Win7, which would affect generating PDF and Ps output. This would affect Save-as-PDF and Print-to-Ps+Distill (unless you have a newer version of the full Acrobat product).

    As it happens, I'm going to attempt something similar: FM 7.0 on Win7 64 Pro. However, I'm going to install that old FM in "XP Mode".

    XP Mode is a 32-bit virtual machine running actual Windows XP inside Win7. It is (now maybe "was") available for Windows 7 Enterprise, Professional and Ultimate (but not Basic, Home or not-so-Premium). When XP went off support life earlier this month, Mr.Bill may have taken down the ability  to download XP Mode (or not, since some large enterprises are able to  purchase continued support for XP at some great cost). XP Mode never was supported for Win8. There are other VMs for Windows available.

    If XP Mode is still available, you also need a CPU that has hardware virtualization, which all recent 64-bit AMD processors do, but which is fused-off in many low end 64-bit Intel processors. AMD processors need a separate unobvious hot-fix patch installed before you do anything else about XP Mode.

    April 23, 2014

    I have acrobat X pro. I tried running frame in the Compatibility mode for XP but I still get the same error.

    Bob_Niland
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    April 23, 2014

    > I have acrobat X pro.

    You might try printing to a PostScript file, then Distilling that.

    > I tried running frame in the Compatibility mode for XP but I still get the same error.

    "Compatibility mode" and "XP mode" are two completely different things.

    CM is standard on Win7 (probably all editions). CM is just some app settings.

    XPM is a massive optional download for only some versions of Win7. It's also an older version of XP, which needs Windows Update run on it, which ends up downloading and installing some 200 updates, in multiple passes, as updates beget updates. If you had installed XPM, you'd remember it.

    Jeff_Coatsworth
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    April 23, 2014

    FM7.2 on a Win7 machine – wow!

    Anyway, can you create a PDF by printing to the AdobePDF printer instance?

    April 23, 2014

    Yes that works. But through our configuration control I need to have the bookmarks and all references associated with the book. If I use Adobe PDF printer it makes the file but none of the bookmarks come with the file.

    Jeff_Coatsworth
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    April 23, 2014

    I thought you were able to control that part by using the “Generate Acrobat Data” setting when printing to PDF. I know it works in FM9+ but it may not be there in 7.2.