FrameMaker 7.0 & Distiller 5.0 -> Saving to PDF crashes application

[_scott_driver_]

FrameMaker 7.0p579
Distiller 5.05
Windows XP SP2

Weve been unable to save FM files to PDF. I uninstalled FM, rebooted, reinstalled FM 7, and loaded patches 576, 578, 579. Now we receive this error message, after which the application just shuts down

Internal Error: 7004, 6055410, 7658227, 0

[Arnis_Gubins]

Scott,

Save as PDF is not really reliable before version 7.0 of Distiller.
Print to file (or hook your Distiller printer instance to the PDF
port) and manually distill. You can use the Distiller "Watched
Folders" options to automate the process.

[_sherman_watstein_]

Although not very popular option, but works to add a PostScript printer to your list of printers (suggest Textronix 550)and try the following test:

1. From the book, open only one file.
2. From the menu bar select File>Print and click Setup button and select the new PostScript printer
3.check off Print to File.
4. Click Print
5. Locate the *.PS file and you should be able to double-click to open Distiller (if installed) and generate a PDF. Did you get an error message or aPDF?

[Arnis_Gubins]

Sherman,

Isn't that exactly what was recommended?

Also, please refrain from suggesting inappropriate devices for
postscript generation for PDFs. The only printer instance required for
generating postscript for PDF creation is the one supplied for
Distiller. Using other device specifications can lead to problems for
imageable areas, fonts, colour and transparency, postscript level,
resolution, etc.

[_sherman_watstein_]

Anis-

1. Since I was the only one to offer Scott an alternative to try printing to a single file with a PostScript Printer added and generating a PDF using Distiller to see if he still was getting error messages, who are you talking about when you said "isn't that exactly what was recommended?"

2. May I suggest that you re-read your FrameMaker manual and FrameMaker online help as well as review Acrobat online help on PostScript Printers. No were does it say that the only way to generate a PDF is using FrameMaker's "Save Book As...".
Also no were does it say that a valid PostSCRIPT printer as a Tektronix 550 as I suggested is "inappropriate devices for postscript generation for PDFs" I think Tektronix would certaily question your statement, as would any any ProstScript printer manufacturer.

There are still service providers that use PostScript printers and RIPs that have PostScript printers set as their default printer. These business still use PostScript files to print with.
Adobe notes that there are more than 25 oem vendors that distribute PostScript throughout the world, where installations now number more than 20 million.
If you go to Adobe's web site and search on "PostScript Printers" there are 1780 results. If you do a search on "Postscript Files" there are 9310 results. The first is "Create PostScript Files for Create Adobe pdf Online" and the 4th is"How to Create PostScript Files for Files in a FrameMaker Book".
Are you trying to tell them not to use their PostScript printers by saying that this "can lead to problems for imageable areas, fonts, colour and transparency, postscript level, resolution, etc.?"

Here is what Adobe says about Creating PostScript files (This info directly copied from FrameMaker's online help)

------------------------------------------------------------------

Saving documents and books as Adobe PDF

----------------------------------------------------------------------

You convert a FrameMaker document to Adobe PDF by setting options in the PDF Setup dialog box, and then saving the document as PDF. You can also print the document to a PostScript file, and then convert it. For information on printing to a PostScript file, see "Creating PostScript files" on page 36

You can create a description of a document called a PostScript file (also called a print file). You might use a PostScript file to download the document later to a PostScript printer or to send the document to a service provider for typesetting. In addition, you can create an Adobe PDF file;...

Distilling PostScript files manually (Windows, Mac OS, and Sun Solaris)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

If you have Acrobat Distiller installed, you can convert documents to PDF files by creating a PostScript file and then distilling the file yourself. By using Distiller, you can explicitly set some advanced settings having to do with compression, font embedding, and color conversion. However, saving as PDF (see Saving documents and books as Adobe PDF) is often faster and more convenient and produces excellent results. In fact, if you can set up Distiller Job options beforehand, they become available in the Settings section of the PDF Setup dialog box in FrameMaker. Also, if you're working on a platform where Distiller is not available, you can create the PostScript file and then move it to another platform to distill it there.

To distill a document or book to a PDF file:

To ensure that Distiller will be able to process the resulting PostScript file, use the latest version of the AdobePS printer driver (installed with FrameMaker) and the Acrobat Distiller PostScript Printer Description (PPD) file. Any other PPD file may be incompatible with Distiller.
Do one of the following:
Open a document and choose File > Print. In Mac OS, also choose FrameMaker 7.0 from the pop-up menu below the printer name.
Open a book and choose File > Print Book or File > Print Selected Files. In Mac OS, also choose FrameMaker 7.0 from the pop-up menu below the printer name.
Select Generate Acrobat Data to include the settings, and then click PDF Setup and set up the PDF file.

[Arnis_Gubins]

Sherman,

For crying out loud, the Adobe PDF printer instance is a postscript
printer!!!! Don't you even read what other people have written. I
simply said to print to file (or the PDF port) with the distiller
printer instance (aka Adobe PDF). How on earth you get that I was
suggesting the Save As route is totally beyond me.

To print to a physical postscript printer, you use the postscript
printer instance for the device. The same goes for creating PDF. The
only difference is that the output from the PDF process is electronic
whereas from postscript printers it's a sheet of paper. What you're
saying is implying something like that it's ok to use the postscript printer instance for a Lintotronic 300 to produce output for a Xerox DocuColor 8000. Not!

[Seanb_us]

Sherman,

You keep going on and on about this and you are misleading people.

The Distiller or Adobe PDF printer that comes with the Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Distiller products is a PostScript printer and is the only supported printer for creating PDFs.

Other PostScript devices may work, yes, and you might achieve good results by blind luck or, perhaps, some knowledge, however these are not things to suggest to those who are struggling and already having difficulty.

Print to file is fine, I don't think anyone said differently. Indeed, print to fine might be preferable in some circumstances. But use print to file with the Distiller or Adobe PDF printer, not just any old PostScript driver you might happen to have lying around.

Sean

[_sherman_watstein_]

Sean- Unless you can show me valid documents that Adobe has posted either in FrameMaker or in Acrobat that says that the "Adobe PDF" printer is the ONLY valid PostScript printer that is supported for creating PDFs I suggest you stop saying that I am misleading people.

There is no blind luck in my suggested printer, it was suggested by Adobe Tech support as a alternative printer. This Tektronix 550J, I suggested, is being used for commercial printing of manuals I did for newspaper RIPs and CTp printers world wide by commercial printing house.

In the case of Scott, a suggestion to print one file and use of an other valid Postscript Printer may or may not give him the errors. So far no one else has made any valid suggestions to help. We should wait to see if he responds!

I have no idea why you believe that the suggested printer is an old Postscript driver, if you have a PostScript printer installed, you can verify the driver, all you do is right click on the printer, select Printing Preferences>Advanced button and right-click on the top line." AdobePSTektronix550J1200dpAdvanced Document Settings and select about:

In the case of what you are calling "an old postscript driver laying around here is what driver I'm using:

Postscript Printer Driver
Version 5.2 (5.2.3790.97)
Jointly developed by Microsofot Corp and Adobe Systems Inc.
Copyright (C)1996-2001 Microsoft Corp.

Model name: AdobePSTektronixPhaser550J120C
PPD filename: TK550PJ1.PPD
PPD version: 1.0

Here is the current Adobe PDF printer Postscript driver being used :

Postscript Printer Driver
Version 5.2 (5.1.2600.1106)
Jointly developed by Microsofot Corp and Adobe Systems Inc.
Copyright (C)1996-2001 Microsoft Corp.

Model name: Adobe PDF Converter
PPD filename: ADPDF7.PPD
PPD version 1.1

note-PPD version of Tektronix printer does not have to be later than the Adobe PDF printer listed above. PostScript Printer Description (PPD) files describe the fonts, paper sizes resolution capabilities, and other features that are standard for your PostScript printer. PPD files are used by PostScript printer drivers to determine how to print your document. If you do not print using the correct PPD file, your document might not print correctly, or not all of the printers features will be available when you print.

The Acrobat Distiller PPD files enable you to create PostScript files which are optimized for PDF creation. Color and custom page sizes are available if you use the Acrobat Distiller 4.0 (or later) PPDs. Choosing a PPD from some other printer may result in PDF files that do not contain appropriate color, font, or page size information. If your source document is intended for PDF rather than directly for print, use the AdobePS printer driver and the Acrobat Distiller PPD to create your PostScript files.

[Seanb_us]

Sherman, please stop misleading people.

We all want to help people here. I have had to suffer you while helping people with WebWorks, eventually those people found the solution with my advice but no thanks to your overly long and wrongheaded posts.

Sean

[Dov Isaacs]

Sherman,

On behalf of Adobe Systems Incorporated, let me assure you that printing to a PostScript printer driver instance based on some arbitrary PostScript printer model (in your case, a Tektronix Phaser 550J) redirected to the FILE: port is not recommended and highly discouraged for a number of important reasons.

PostScript as generated by the OS PostScript driver is highly device dependent with the device dependencies coming from the contents of the PPD file and any driver plug-ins provided by our OEMs for their model printers! You may end up with PostScript that will yield errors if redirected to another printer model, including the Acrobat Distiller, or with anomalies in the results, including bogus PDF.

Specifically, problems you can get into:

(1) Font Embedding. The printer model PPD files list upwards of 136 typefaces as resident in the printer. If you create PostScript for distillation that rely on this information, you may (but not necessarily) end up with weird font embedding problems, unexpected font substitutions, and/or PostScript errors.

(2) Color. Many of the OEM-specific driver enhancements (including those invoked in the PPD) yield results that are inappropriate for PDF files when such PostScript is distilled.

(3) Resolutions. The Distiller's PPD provides a range of resolutions by use of the driver that are appropriate for generation of PDF. A real printer's PPD gives either no such choice or limited choice.

(4) Page Sizes. The Distiller's PPD provides a remarkable range of available page sizes plus the ability to have custom page sizes up to 200"x200" (I think that is the limit with Acrobat 7). Such flexibility is not available when using a physical printer's PostScript printer driver instance and PPD (which limits you to paper sizes accepted by that printer model, including any manual feed trays).

(5) Margins. By definition, the entire physical PDF page may be imaged. This certainly is not true for the vast majority of actual printing devices for which the margins are set at anywhere from a few millimeters to up to a half inch around the page. Many of the my headers and footers are missing issues on this forum and on various Framer lists stem directly from attempts to print in these margins when using an inappropriate PostScript printer driver instance (especially the so-called Generic PostScript one). PDF doesn't have such margins and use of the proper PostScript printer driver instance assures that this particular problem does not occur!

I am sorry if anyone in Adobe Tech Support suggested that using a Tektronix Phaser 550J PostScript printer driver instance was appropriate for generating PostScript for distillation into PDF. Such advice, if given, is absolutely wrong and not supported by Adobe Systems Incorporated. We would appreciate it very much if you assisted us by not propagating such wrong advice.

Thank you.

- Dov

[_sherman_watstein_]

Sean-I will agree that ANYONE that makes suggestions to a posted question is trying to help.

I find that people do not post suggestions on this site to mislead anyone. If I mislead Scott, then providing valid information and references as to what I said would clarify my mistake, repeating the same line "I have mislead people, and you had to suffer me" are not resources that I can check. What makes you the expert if all you are helping are opeople with Webworks?

Try taking some time quote some valid sources where I noted "wrongheaded posts" and stop generalizating. The information I posted here are Adobe headings and informed copy-pasted from Adobe FrameMaker and Acrobat online help and Adobe's own website. I guess that you consider them wrongheaded.

[_Bill_Swallow_]

Thanks Dov.

To answer Sherman's question to Sean:
http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/324684.html

True, it doesn't use the exact phrasing he's looking for, but it pretty much parallels what he was asking for.

Did scott.driver get the answers he was looking for? Can he create PDFs now? Can we end this silly thread?

[_Bill_Swallow_]

The information I posted here are Adobe headings and informed copy-pasted from Adobe FrameMaker and Acrobat online help and Adobe's own website. I guess that you consider them wrongheaded.

If that's the case, then yes, the docs are wrongheaded as well.

[_sherman_watstein_]

Bill:

What happened with your post. Had to you the slidder to read it or part of it. The link http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/324684.html is for a mac, was this the one you wanted me to read? I Still find no documentation that supports Sean's reason to attack my suggestion.

[_Bill_Swallow_]

A Mac's recommended drivers are irrelevent? Sorry, my bad. The fact that the only recommended ones are AdobePS ones doesn't matter, I guess.

Sherman, when Adobe says you're wrong, you really should just give up, ya know? By the way, did you know that Sean's a FrameMaker ACE, too?

[Dov Isaacs]

Sherman,

You've gotten your official Adobe response (see #9 above). This thread is now read-only!

- Dov