Framemaker 8.0p277 will not print graphic to PDF

[Foammaker]

It has been some time since I have worked in FrameMaker and I am having difficulty this time around creating a pdf from a FrameMaker file where I have inserted an ai graphic into a FrameMaker document. Previously, the document printed but when I updated it, it would no longer bring the graphic into the resulting pdf.

I am using Illustrator CS3 to edit the ai file. I have also tried to use a pdf version of the ai file but to no avail.

Looking for help. To do a quick fix, it was necessary to take the resulting pdf and edit it in Illustrator to insert the graphic. A real pain when it will be necessary to do about twenty of these documents.

Thanks,

[Be.eM]

If I'm not wrong, FM reads native AI files as PDF anyway. Which is not one of my preferred formats with FM8. You should use EPS (from Illustrator) instead. This is an old format, and FM likes old formats

Bernd

[Arnis Gubins]

FWIW, FM tries to read an .ai file as a PDF, but it's not exactly the same as a PDF - there's a lot of additional info stored that could through FM for a loop. It stores the PDF internally and then upon output uses a filter to create an eps format into the output stream (so you're asking FM to do additional work that using an .eps file in the first place would avoid).

There is a setting in the maker.ini (omitted in the default version of FM8 & 9) called EPSLevelForPlacedPDF that specifies the postscript level to use. When missing, IIRC, FM defaults to using an archaic Level 1 postscript model, which may not handle (or understand) many things in a AI/PDF file.

[Be.eM]

… which supports the use of EPS - imho - because FM doesn't need to touch or convert the file in any way, but simply forwards the complete file to the printer/Distiller. I've used AI and PDF files for my CMYK color output tests, with mixed results through the different FM patch versions. On the other hand, with hundreds of manuals and thousands of pictures, I don't have any problems with Illustrator EPS files. If it was InDesign, I'd recommend AI or PDF as well, but it's FrameMaker, and this is (unfortunately) a different technological decade, regarding PDF output.

Bernd