Large File Sizes in FrameMaker 9.x

[gg518]

We have upgraded from 7.1 to 9.0p255. Opening and saving files in 9.x (without making any changes), increases all file sizes 9 MB each. Has anyone else had this issue?

Thanks.

[Art Campbell]

I haven't specifically checked that, in part because I don't have lots of 7 files lying around, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if a 7 file grows when you open and save it as a 9. The FM file format has changed twice, with the 8 and 9 releases, in order to store the data associated with new features for that release (Unicode, track changes, and so on).

It does seem like a lot of file size creep, but is it causing a problem or are you just mentioning it in passsing, as something you noticed?

Art

[gg518]

Thanks for the info Art. It's a huge CPU hog. While saving files in a book my computer slows by over 50%. Creating a PDF does the same thing. It definitely wasn't to this extreme with 7.1. My test book and files originally totalled 29.2 MB, saving them in 9.x increased the size to 210 MB. 9 MB per file is quite extraordinary, don't you think?

[Michael_Müller-Hillebrand]

gg,

Your experience is definitely not typical. I have FM9 files as small as ever.

I can think you might have graphics imported which are represented internally in a completely different way and therefore create the increase. Could you share the before and after sizes and tell us a little bit about the content of the files (apart from text).

Also, please try »MIF washing«: Save the file as MIF in FM9, reopen the MIF files and save as .fm again. Any changes?

- Michael Müller-Hillebrand

[gg518]

Michael,

Thanks for your reply. I had already tried saving as .mif, then re-saved again as .fm, but the file sizes still increased. As I'm performing these tests in our template files, there's not much too them except for text. The only graphics associated with the files are embedded into the reference pages (for notes, tips, cautions, and so on), as well as in our headers (master pages). These graphics are no more than a combined 387 KB. Per your request, the following table contains two files that I've been working with.

FrameMaker File examples	7.1 File Size	9.x File Size
File1.fm	401 KB	9257 KB
File2.fm	526 KB	9380 KB

Based on your comments, I ran another test with File2.fm, where I completely removed the graphics from the reference pages, but left the header graphics in the master pages. The file size decreased to 178 KB. If I re-add the reference frames and graphics into the references pages, the file size increases again to 9380 KB.

Does that sound like an issue with the reference pages?

gg

[Michael_Müller-Hillebrand]

Am 04.10.2010 um 17:06 schrieb gg518:

|| FrameMaker File examples || 7.1 File Size || 9.x File Size ||

| File1.fm | 401 KB | 9257 KB |

| File2.fm | 526 KB | 9380 KB |

Wow!

Next thing I would do is to compare the MIF versions of the files.

The main difference between FM7 and FM9 regarding MIF is the text encoding, which is UTF-8 in the latter. But since your documents are likely to contain no or only a little bit of English text it is most definitely not the problem. Also FM9 now has 16 instead of 8 default colors, not a space hog either.

BTW, I also recommend storing certain graphics on Reference Pages or Master Pages, so I am interested in your findings.

- Michael

[Van Kurtz]

gg,

It is not necessary to store graphics in reference pages. You can import graphics BY REFERENCE into a reference page. This might be the problem, especially if one of the graphics is large and imported by copy.

Van

[gg518]

Van,

Yes, I understand that we can import by reference in the references pages. In fact, that does resolve the issue. What I'm trying to figure out is why it's different in 7.1 vs. 9.x. We have embedded the graphics (file sizes are no more than 48 KB each and there are only 6 graphics) in the references pages for quite a few years with no issue.

Thanks.

gg

[Winfried Reng]

Hi,

In "File | Preferences" there is an option "Save FrameImage with Imported Graphics".

Do you possibly have this option activated? This is only necessary when you move

to other platforms. Therefore you can safely deactivate this option. Maybe that helps.

Best regards

Winfried

[gg518]

Winifried,

Thanks for the suggestion, but the check box you're referring to is not selected.

gg

[Guest]

gg, what file format(s) were the graphics on the reference pages originally?

[gg518]

Sheila - they are all saved as .gif files.

gg

[Guest]

I don't recall anything specific about .gif files, but several of the graphic import filters have changed over the different FM versions, and some older versions are still accessible by making changes to the maker.ini files.

If you're so inclined you might try opening and then re-saving the existing .gif files (assuming you still have them as separate files) in a different graphics app, using a different filename. Again I don't recall this being an issue specifically with .gif files, but I've seen enough differences with output of jpg and png files from various apps to think it would be worth a try here.

Do you know what app created the original .gif files?

[gg518]

Thanks Sheila - I tried all your suggestions, but nothing works. It appears will have to import by reference.

[Van Kurtz]

gg,

Although I import everything by reference, I tried importing some jpegs by copy, and the file sizes went up roughly equal to the added sizes of the jpegs. So, for what it is worth, I am not seeing the behavior you described.

I was going to mention this before but decided not to. We have been updating our template periodically for the last three or four years. The template was getting large, well over a megabyte. At some point, either with a change to the template or a FrameMaker update, it went down to a little less than 200K. I do not know why. I can only suggest to make sure your version of FrameMaker is up to date.

Van

[gg518]

Thanks Van - yes, we recently just installed 9.x and have the latest updates (version 9.0p255).

[Guest]

I found an MS KB article that discusses filesize increases with Word when using embedded GIF images; I have no idea whether a similar situation applies to FM or not, but I suspect it might.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/224663

>> When you save a Microsoft Word document that contains an EMF, PNG, GIF,  or JPEG graphic as a different file format (for example, Word 6.0/95 (*.doc) or Rich Text Format (*.rtf)), the file size of the document may dramatically increase.

>> For example, a Microsoft Word 2000 document that contains a JPEG graphic  that is saved as a Word 2000 document may have a file size of 45,568  bytes (44.5KB). However, when you save this file as Word 6.0/95 (*.doc) or as Rich Text Format (*.rtf), the file size may grow to 1,289,728 bytes (1.22MB).

>> This functionality is by design in Microsoft Word. If an EMF, a PNG, a  GIF, or a JPEG graphic is inserted into a Word document, when the  document is saved, two copies of the graphic are saved in the document.  Graphics are saved in the applicable EMF, PNG, GIF, or JPEG format and  are also converted to WMF (Windows Metafile) format.

If you haven't yet done so, you might try examining an FM sample file with wonderful freebie MIFBrowse by Graham Wideman. Even though it does not mention current FM versions, it works perfectly.

MIFBrowser

http://www.wideman-one.com/gw/tech/framemaker/mifbrowse.htm

[gg518]

Sheila - Thanks for providing the link to the MS KB article . I certainly will take a look. And thank you for providing a link to the free software. I'm always hopeful that some day soon we'll have an answer to our issue.

[Guest]

Any resolution to this problem?

I'm having a similar issue with a large increase in file size. I my case some graphics were accidentally copied into the file instead of imported by reference, which bloated the file size. But now, with the graphics deleted and re-imported the file size has not reduced back to it's original size.

Original size approx. 350K.

Jumped to 79Mb. (That’s ridiculous)

Deleted graphics and re-imported by reference, now Only 10Mb.

Tried saving to MIF and reopening and saving in .fm 9, no change.

Tried optimizing for PDF, no help.

How do you clean out the old framevector facets?

Thanks,

Chris