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C
chrispitude
Inspiring
March 28, 2012
Question

Very slow PDF generation when conditional text is hidden in FM 9.0

  • March 28, 2012
  • 3 replies
  • 2052 views

I am working on 96-page chapter of a larger book. A 7-page section of the chapter needs to be hidden until the next release, so I hid it with conditional text. After doing this, the "Save as PDF" printing process goes from taking 6-7 seconds to taking several minutes. If I unhide the conditional text in the same session, printing is very quick again.

I have no problem generating very PDF files with the PDF printer in other applications (Word, PowerPoint). The issue is specific to FrameMaker and the use of conditional text. What might be causing this?

I am using FrameMaker 9.0p255 and Distiller 9.0.

- Chris

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    3 replies

    J
    JoH
    Inspiring
    August 30, 2018

    Right now I'm facing the same issue with FrameMaker 11.0.2.384.

    Printing a document with hidden conditional text (to a PostScript file via Adobe PDF) takes about 3 seconds per page, or 10 minutes for the entire 200-page document.

    With all conditional text shown (250 pages), printing takes less than a minute. As you can imagine, it's not an option to print the document with all conditional text shown.

    Has anyone found a viable solution?

    Have things improved after FM11?

    Thanks,

    JoH

    Jeff_Coatsworth
    Community Expert
    Jeff_CoatsworthCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    August 30, 2018

    Since FM2019 now comes in a 64bit flavour & a brand new PDF engine, PDF creation now flies.

      Jeff_Coatsworth
      Community Expert
      Jeff_CoatsworthCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      March 28, 2012

      What's the time like if you print to the AdobePDF printer instance? Any diff? What about hiding the text, saving the doc and then sending to PDF?

      C
      chrispitudeAuthor
      Inspiring
      March 28, 2012

      Hi Jeff,

      These were good suggestions to try. Saving the document first has no effect on PDF generation.

      However, I did find that printing to the Adobe PDF printer remains fast when the conditional text is hidden. That's quite an interesting finding! I did also notice that these two methods of PDF generation aren't identical:

      • "Save as PDF" opens an Adobe Distiller window, while printing to the Adobe PDF printer opens a different "Creating Adobe PDF" progress box (looks like it's from the printer driver itself).
      • "Save as PDF" generates a 1188k PDF file, while printing to the Adobe PDF printer generates a 1049k PDF file.
      • "Save as PDF" defaults to placing the PDF in FrameMaker's working directory, while printing to the Adobe PDF printer defaults to saving to the last place to saved a printed PDF file (awkward when working with multiple directories, as I often do).

      When I do a "Save as PDF", FrameMaker does still spool to the PDF printer. It is this spooling that takes a long time. Once spooling is complete, then the Distiller window opens and the PDF is created very quickly.

      I would still like to get "Save as PDF" working since it knows where to place the PDF file. No solution to the runtime yet, but at least there is progress...

      C
      chrispitudeAuthor
      Inspiring
      March 28, 2012

      I should emphasize that it's the hiding of the conditional text that causes the problem. If the conditional text exists but is shown, printing is fast.

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