MultiPage PDF file crashes when opened with Adobe Acrobat Reader DC on Windows 10

[pahuja_rajeev]

Hi,

Multipage PDF file saved here https://drive.google.com/open?id=1gYJpEF_85FEC8FJMtenxOrPIFM8AiiBE  crashes Adobe Acrobat Reader DC (version 2019.010.20099), when opened on Windows 10.

It open's fine:

- with Adobe Acrobat Reader DC when rendering flag in preferences "Use Page cache" is turned OFF on Windows 10 (by default it is ON)

- with Adobe Acrobat Reader DC (version 2019.010.20099), when opened on Windows 7

- with  Adobe Reader X, XI

- with Adobe Acrobat Pro extended 9.0

- with other PDF viewer e.g. google chrome, GSView etc.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks

Rajeev

[Dov Isaacs]

Hi Rajeev,

I downloaded and opened this file in the most recent version of Acrobat Pro DC (2019.010.20100). It opens without a problem and I can page through all 50 pages with either the Use Page Cache feature turned on or off.

That having been said, this is one of the most overly-complex PDF files I've ever encountered. Layers of transparent images overlaying each other. Transitioning from one page to another is exceptionally painful. (For the record, I am running of a Xeon-equipped workstation with 64GB of memory and SSDs along with a 4K screen!) Given that each page effectively shows a single image, at least as perceived by the viewer, there is no good reason why whatever created this file output something so freak'in complex in the first place.

Trying to simplify this file either by downsampling images or flattening transparency yields Acrobat failures, at least on Windows, due to running out of memory address space. On Windows, Acrobat (and Reader) are 32-bit applications limited to something less than 4GB of address space.

Exactly what created this PDF file? Creator and library metadata is missing from this file.

Perhaps you can provide some further information as to your hardware configurations? I suspect that the Windows 7 and Windows 10 systems are different, especially in terms of memory, video card and screen, etc.

I'll look at this file some more, but quite frankly, the solution for this type of file is in its creation. It is simply way too complex for what added value it is providing.

More later …

          - Dov

[pahuja_rajeev]

Thanks Dov for your reply.

One of the Windows 10 m/c configuration, where Adobe Acrobat Reader DC crashes :

OS version: 10.0.17134

Video Card: NVIDIA Quadro K4100M

Video RAM : 4GB

Display Resolution: 1920 x 1080

Processor:Intel Core i7-4800MQ CPU

RAM: 16GB

Sytem type: 64 bit OS

one of the Windows 7 m/c configuration, where it opens fine is:

OS version: 6.1.7601 service pack 1 7601

Video Card: NVIDIA Quadro 600

Video RAM: 1 GB

Display Resolution : 1280 X 1024

Processor:Intel Xeon CPU ES-1620

RAM: 16GB

System type:x64 based PC

Adobe needs to look at how older Adobe products mentioned above open's fine on same Windows 10 m/c

Also could  you try same document with lesser RAM on Windows 10 and Windows 7 m/c.

You mentioned  Acrobat Pro DC (2019.010.20100), is it same as Adobe Acrobat Reader DC ?

also does there exists newer version of Adobe Acrobat Reader DC i.e. newer than "2019.010.20099" ?

Thanks for your help.

[Dov Isaacs]

Hi Rajeev,

Based on the configuration information you supplied, I doubt whether hardware resources have anything to do with the problem you are seeing. What I was looking for was whether you may have been running under a 32-bit version of Windows on Windows 10 (you aren't) or whether you had some video subsystem that would have / could have “eaten” part of the available address space (you don't).

What is true is that while monitoring virtual memory usage while paging through your document with the page cache mode enabled on my system, use of virtual memory comes very close to hitting the 4GB (minus memory-mapped hardware work areas) limit. Turning off the cache eliminates that much need for virtual memory.

Acrobat Pro DC is not the same as Reader DC. It is a major superset of Reader. If Reader was having address space problems, Acrobat Pro would have had such problems to a greater degree.

Note that an update to both Acrobat and Reader were released today. Please get the update and see if the problem still occurs although quite frankly, I know of no changes that would explicitly deal with type of issue. Please advise as to whether the update helps at all.

As indicated previously, the real problem is with the file itself. It is overly complex given what it trying to render. A single flattened image of each of these pages (perhaps with some overlying text) would not degrade the viewing experience, but would dramatically cut file size, the likelihood of any crashes (even with cache mode), and page rendering times.

          - Dov

[pahuja_rajeev]

Hi Dov,

Updating Reader to latest version did not make any change, Adobe Acrobat Reader DC still crashes.

Flattening is not an option for us, as we loose vector details.

It looks like a bug in Adobe Acrobat Reader DC (current versions), related to how memory is dealt/consumed. As older adobe products and other viewers are working fine.

Thanks

Rajeev

[Dov Isaacs]

Actually, the file you provided for me to look at had no vectors at all in it. That's why I suggested flattening the content before creating PDF.

However, what this situation does provide is further ammunition for the case for 64-bit versions of Reader and Acrobat to deal with large memory address space requirements for very complex pages and/or long documents. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

          - Dov