Imorted barcode graphics in FrameMaker 10 are not displaying properly in my PDFs

[duckygirl]

I have imported barcode graphics (that were embedded in a Microsoft 1997 Word document and I don't have the original imported images) into FrameMaker 10. However, when I create a pdf and view it in Adobe Reader 10 or Adobe Acrobat 10.1.3 and then print the document, the barcodes will not scan. Some of the barcodes are code 39. If I print the FrameMaker document, the barcodes don't scan either. The barcode graphics also don't display properly in Microsoft Word, but they scan fine from the Word document and the pdf. I can get the barcodes to display properly in Word if I right-click on the barcode and select Edit Picture.

I have tried importing the Word document into FrameMaker, making bitmap images of the barcodes in Photoshop and then importing them into FrameMaker and trying to do a special paste into FrameMaker. However, the barcodes still don't look right, print right or scan at all.

I don't have a lot of experience with barcodes, graphics or FrameMaker, so any light that can be shed on this issue is appreciated.

[Guest]

How are you creating the PDF from FrameMaker? Are you selecting the Print to File option to use Distiller or leaving it unchecked? Or are you using the Save As PDF option from the file menu instead?

I do not have any experience with bar codes, but my experience with bitmaps has not been positive in FM. Have you tried converting them to JPGs or EPS files? If using EPS files, you will have to create a PDF using the File > Save As PDF method and you need to uncheck the Convert CMYK Colors to RGB option to get the EPS file to display correctly:

DISCLAIMER: The EPS file will NOT look right when viewed in FM, but it should look correct in the PDF and when it is printed.

Not sure if any of this will help, but you could give it a try.

Smitty

[duckygirl]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I have been using the File > Save As PDF method for creating pdfs. I am not sure what the file format is for the barcodes in Microsoft Word. They display as pasted in pictures but have no properties. Once the barcodes are imported into FrameMaker, some of them have a PNG FrameVector format and the rest have a DIB format.

[Art_Campbell1]

OK, to simplify this a bit, a barcode is not an exotic specie -- it's just

a graphic file. If you embed a crisp .PNG or .PDF in FM it should print

correctly, no matter what the subject matter is.

What I'd do is either:

- Select the graphics in Word and Save As Image to export them (or just

save the Word file as HTML -- it'll write out the graphics as .JPGs, but at

least they'll be there. Or

- if the barcodes have a legend on them (usually numbers on the bottom

of the code) just go to any of the online Bar Code generation sites and

pump them in to get a fresh graphic.

Then:

1. Save or convert the graphic to something besides a .jpg. --- a .png

or PDF -- In Photoshop or another editing program, bump the resolution to

300 dpi or so for print quality resolution. If necessary, convert it to

black and white and clean up any grey edges.

2. Import into Frame.

3. Print to the Adobe Acrobat logical printer; don't use SaveAsPDF. Pick

a job option that doesn't apply .jpg compression to images -- it'd be

better not to downsample them at all.

Art

Art Campbell

art.campbell@gmail.com

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a redheaded girl." -- Richard Thompson

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[Bob_Niland]

> I am not sure what the file format is for the barcodes in Microsoft Word.

If you are importing them by importing a Word document, then you have the additional question of:

What is the Word import filter doing with graphics?

It could be subsampling on import, and/or converting to an internal format that gets trashed during PDF render.

If you need to control graphic rendering in the final PDF:

1. You need to control and optimize the source graphics.
2. You need to import non-destructively (which graphics import does, but document import may not).
3. You need to control and optimize the Save-as-PDF Print-to-PDF or Print-to-Ps&Distill paths.

Pretty much every time I'm asked to include a barcode in a document, I end up either regenerating it in a robust format, or optimizing the provided graphic in Photoshop. I also know precisely what our PDF rendering paths do to various graphics types (so we use bitmap for graphical barcodes, because it only resamples above 900 dpi, to 600, and uses a repeat-count (ZIP or LZ) compression).

[Bob_Niland]

What is the format of the imported files?

I'm guessing it's a raster format, and being subsampled by your PDF job options.

Code 3of9 fonts exist, and frankly, that's the way to do 1D bar codes.

For 2D barcodes, like QR Code, I normally figure out precisely what dpi they need to be so each minimum size block is one pixel in a bitmap, then flatten them to bitmap (nearest neighbor), and import them at that size (which is usually well below any PDFresampling threshold).

[Mike Wickham]

I'd greatly prefer an EPS vector bar code over a bitmap, and especially

would avoid JPG (which tends to make fuzzy characters). If you resize or

change the dpi of a bitmap, it can easily destroy the readability of the

bar code.

There are some free online generators which might work for you. Here is

one I found that generates EPS output:

http://www.terryburton.co.uk/barcodewriter/generator/