Problems Viewing and Printing PDFs Created from FrameMaker

[tspaul]

I got no responses to this issue in the Acrobat forums (I posted 6 days ago), so since at least some of the PDFs were created through FrameMaker, I am posting here to see if anyone in this forum has seen the problem.

At our company, we regularly create PDFs, usually from FrameMaker version 9. In most cases, we have no problems with the PDFs, but once in a while, we are notified that customers get the following problems:

• If they try to print the PDF, they see a series of messages which consistently include "The document could not be printed" and "There were no pages selected to print." If they choose a page or range to print, this often works, but certain pages will not print. In one case, I saw a message saying there was a problem with the PDF with the number 14, but this does not always appear.
• Often, the pages that will not print, when viewed at a normal magnification, appear as very small thumbnails that look like the dotted line down a black highway. The rest of the pages are at a normal magnification and can be read.
• Often, these same PDFs crash when certain bookmarks are clicked.

This always seems to happen when the PDFs are viewed within a browser on our website or in our web-based software. I've been told by our tech group that it happens in other browsers, not just Internet Explorer, and it still happens if they save the PDF out of the browser down to the desktop and try printing from there.

In the cases I've seen, when I go back and look at the original generated PDF file in Adobe Reader or Acrobat (not within a browser), none of these problems occur. Redelivering the file to the web location often fixes the problem.

I've read many posts about this in various locations on the Internet and one in the Adobe Forums, but none seem to come up with the cause to this problem - they just come up with workarounds for printing the file.

One other note - one of our engineers and tech writers found that one PDF with this problem appeared to have Fast Web Viewing turned off, even though nothing was done differently when the PDFs were generated.

Does anyone have any information on what causes this problem and how we can avoid it?

Tammy

[Bob_Niland]

If you have the full Acrobat product ("Pro"), you might want to try a couple of things:

1. Print to .ps and Distill separately. This may provide more control (and things to try).
2. Whether you do #1 or not, try post-processing the PDF:
   Open in Pro.
   Document > Examine Document
   Uncheck [_] Bookmarks
   [Delete] (metadata, hidden text, file attachments)
   File > Save As
   Save as Type: Adobe PDF Files (Optimized)
   This performs a significant restructuring of the document. In our work it can reduce the files size to as low as 30% of initial PDF size.

We do both of the above for reasons other than document stability, but we have never had a complaint about rendering or printing.

_______

Note: deleting useless metadata removes stuff that doesn't need to be in there (like imported image thumbnails and EXIF data), but also removes the PDFinfo. You'll need save, close, open, and type that in by hand if it matters.

[tspaul]

So this isn't something that you've done in response to this problem, but something that you do in general? Just making sure. It sounds like a good recommendation, but I am wondering if I could get replies from people who have run into this problem...

[Harry28586]

If you just need a simple resolution to this you can try checking the option that says "Comvert CMYK to RGB" in the PDF settings and if that's already checked ,kindly uncheck it and then try it.

Harpreet.

[tspaul]

What I'm looking for most is prevention of this problem. Are you talking about when you generate the PDF - removing the setting then?

What makes this problem so difficult is that it doesn't always happen, and usually the original file is just fine. There is no difference in the settings during generation between files that work and those that have this problem.

[Mike Wickham]

I'm not sure why, but my original post came through blank. Here is a

second attempt:

> Often, the pages that will not print, when viewed at a normal

magnification, appear as very

> small thumbnails that look like the dotted line down a black highway.

The rest of the pages

> are at a normal magnification and can be read.

I almost didn't reply to your post because I'm not sure that I am making

anything but a wild guess. But I seem to recall many years ago that

there were some reports on the frameusers.com listserv of some PDF pages

showing up as tiny pages-- similar to what you describe. I'm not sure if

I can trust my recollection, but I THINK the fix was to go into the PDF

printer properties, and reduce the dpi setting from 1200 to 600 or even

300. I don't remember the exact reason, but I think it had something to

do with a problem in the way Windows GDI interacts with documents

containing large-size type (such as 72-point glyphs). Anyway, I may be

remembering it wrong, or may be off on the wrong track altogether, but

it won't hurt to make the change and try. You can always change the

setting back.

And if it doesn't work, consider posting your operating system, Acrobat

version number, and whether or not FrameMaker 9 is fully patched. It

might help someone else chime in with help.