Text missing from PDF

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

I am a long-time and very experienced user of FrameMaker, Acrobat, and all associated tools. My XP-SP2 system is thoroughly debugged and fully updated.

When I create PDFs in Frame, sections of the text come up missing. The document remains correctly formatted and organized - there are simply missing sentences, paragraphs, etc. in no discernible pattern. I have tried every fix I can think of and all those I have found by searching online - to no avail.

These documents are created from scratch in Frame 7.2p158; I have updated the installation at least once without solving the problem. The PDFs are being created by every known process: print to Distiller (7.0) within Frame; Save As PDF; print to generic PostScript and pass to Distiller. The missing text remains consistent within all processes.

The fonts involved range from junk of unknown origin to (most of my fonts) true Adobe Postscript. Changing fonts does not cure the problem, although it sometimes changes which parts disappear. There is no particularly complex formatting involved (no equations, no unusual character overrides). These documents are mostly contracts and other simple but rigidly formatted documents. None involve imported graphics.

I have tried all variations of saving to MIF and RTF and re-importing. This sometimes changes the faults, but does not cure them.

This problem occurs ONLY with FrameMaker. I can export perfect PDFs, some from very complex source documents, from Word, InDesign, CorelDRAW and a dozen other tools, using any fonts on my system.

(I am dismayed at how hard Adobe support has gotten to use - as the owner of nine of their most expensive apps, I should be able to get better online support without calling in and begging permission!)

If anyone can point me to a known bug, a known fix, or a good starting point for unraveling this problem - or confirm that they've seen a similar error - I would appreciate it!

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Peter - Yes, that makes sense. Since XP converts all fonts for use, there would be inconsistencies between all-Adobe rendering and a mixed rendering.

I don't typically work with a group where such differences would matter (Only finished PDFs and fully packaged InDesign files leave my hands these days), but it's a point well worth noting.

[Helge Blischke]

Back to the missing text again:

Courtesy of Bernd, I got some sample files which exhibit this bug. As far as I was able to trace it down, the bug shows up whenever some system component decides to switch from downloading the fonts (or appending native glyph descriptions to a partially downloaded font) to convert the glyphs to bitmaps and download those as part of a Type3 font.

As this bug occurs with both the joined Adobe/Microsoft PS driver for Win2000/XP and the old (kernel mode) NT4 driver, I suspect the issue is not due to the printer driver itself but rather to the Wondows GDI.

To be sure, I'd like to know if this missing text syndrome does occur with other applications as well.

Helge

[Art Campbell]

Helge,

A variation is reproducable using Office 2003 Word and Acrobat 6 and 7, but I don't know if it's the same bug or not.

In this case, only Word's bullets are missing from the .pdf files -- all text is there. But the bullets themselves are gone.

Art

[_Bernd_Meissner_]

Art,

this sounds more like the system having problems with ZapfDingbats or WingDings... there have been some quirks, if I remember correctly.

As an additional info: I'm in the lucky position to have one of the problematic manuals ready in FrameMaker and in Indesign. Same layout, same images, same fonts. Exporting the Indesign version results in a perfect PDF, but this is expected behavior... Indesign doesn't use the WIN PS driver in the way FM does.

Bernd

[Art Campbell]

Bernd,

That's what I was thinking too, that's why I added the disclaimer about not being sure it was the same thing. I haven't trested it after deleting the cache though -- if I have a few minutes I'll try it just to see if there's any affect.

Art

[n42]

Our company and our customers are plagued by this BUG for years.

At least I found a method to identify erroneous PS files, when this BUG occurred first time in our company June 2003.
All erroneous PS files have this resource loaded (which may correspond to Helges Type3 font suspicious):

%%BeginResource: file Pscript_T3Hdr 5.0 0

Since then we scan our PS files for this "Pscript_T3Hdr"-occurrence automatically after printing. When such a PS is identified we ask the user to repeat the printing, which in 95% results in a proper PS printing one more time again.
But reflecting, ... printing again with success seems to differ from your BUG reports, isn't it?

As soon as one of our (alerted) user (I never experienced this BUG) reports an erroneous PS, I'll check Bernds method removing FNTCACHE.DAT and removing this BUG permanently.
Thank you Bernd and all others.

Best regards
Norbert

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

I removed all the CJK fonts from my system and deleted FNTCACHE.DAT.
I have not had a recurrence of the missing-text problem since, even after quite a bit of work time with formerly problematic documents and a number of system restarts.

[_Bernd_Meissner_]

Hi all,

this is a good moment to keep you all updated on the current progress. Yes, these T3-font definitions usually appear in corrupt PS files, and don't appear in the working versions of the same files.

News so far: I've got a kind of receipt that allows to cause and cure the bug. It works here, and it works for Adobe's support, too (this is good news, I think :-))

I just copy this from an e-mail I wrote earlier this day, maybe it helps some of you who are still searching:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
INFECTING a system with the 'missing text bug'

1. Install too many fonts (if possible, some CJK fonts):
FNTCACHE.DAT remains unchanged (until reboot), nothing happens

2. Reboot once
FNTCACHE.DAT is rewritten, but on first reboot it behaves as if this file was deleted beforehand... the bug still does NOT occur.

3. Reboot twice
Now the previously written FNTCACHE.DAT is used by the system for the first time. If the FNTCACHE.DAT is too large, the bug strikes.

CURING a system from the 'missing text bug'

1. Temporarily:
Delete FNTCACHE.DAT and reboot *once*. The file will be rewritten, but is not read by the system on first reboot. If you reboot again, the bug is back.

2. Completely:
Remove as many fonts as possible. In my case it was enough to uninstall most CJK fonts. Reboot once. If the fntcache.dat file size is below 1.5 MB, the bug won't happen again, no matter how often you reboot.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

I can't tell if the 'magic number' of 1.5 MB is an absolute value or depends on your hardware/system configuration. I'm using a P4/3.0 with 2 GB of RAM.

Bernd

[n42]

Hi Bernd,

So far I can confirm this 1.5 MB limit. I got the fntcache filesizes from 5 users:
A 3.762 KB
B 1.517 KB
C 1.525 KB
D 2.121 KB
E 4.115 KB

User B and C recognized the bug no more than two weeks ago.
User A, D and E have this bug for a long time already.

I'll try now to cure their system according your "specification".

Thanks a lot.

Best regards.
Norbert

[Art Campbell]

On a new system with XP SP2, FM 7.2 and Acrobat 8, the bug is still present and the workaround is still working.

FNTCACHE size is hovering around 1.5... I've deleted a number of fonts, but the font size isn't decreasing as much as it should.

Anyone playing with Vista yet that can check out how it handles fonts?

Cheers,
Art

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

I have an RC2 system, but after spending a lot of time installing my tool set on XP64, and then on RC1, and having to scrub to bare metal for each successive install... I've decided to wait until final release before I install my whole Abobe set again. But I will be an early adopter - I plan to pick up Vista Ultimate in bulk for all the systems under my purview as soon as it's released to retail in January. (I just lost an hour fixing a temperamental XP system that has too many post-fix things jammed into it, and I really look forward to better OS-level integration of all that stuff, no matter what new bugs it brings.)

[Art Campbell]

Nitro,
Can you take a peak into whatever \System32 has morphed into and see if fontcache.dat is still there?

Art

[_Amit_Agarwal_]

Hi,

I wish to look into the problem you are facing.

Would it be possible for you to send them those .fm files from which the text comes missing?

Regards,
Amit

[_sherman_watstein_]

Nitro--There has been a .later thread titled "Missing Text in FrameMaker, January 9, 2009 and I had pointed out that I pointed out:

To solve this the missing text, I have to print the FM book at least twice and distill twice without deleating the previous files (must be overwritten). This bug shows up as the number of files in the book increases in number and the total page count get larger. I'm at 485 pages (sorry, no idea when it starts).

Rebecca Officer wrote--Printing twice has always worked for us, for PDFs.

Bibo Baggins wrote-Hi all - Well printing to a PS file twice and then generating the PDF seems to have fixed the problem for now.

[_georgelowndes_]

I regularly have this very same problem, it first happened to me about a year ago and I found the solution of removing the FNTCACHE.DAT file the only one that worked, I tend to regularyl print foreign language documents containing complex font information and therefore my FNTCACHE.DAT file gets clogged up regularly, I simply remove it and restart the machine and all is well until I next print a complex document.

Is there a way of preventing the FNTCACHE.DAT file from getting so large?

My temporary soution would be to set up a macro that would remove the FNTCACHE.DAT file every time I start up the machine but this surely shouldn't have to be done!

[Arnis Gubins]

George,

You actually should be deleting the FNTCACHE.DAT file when you
shutdown the machine, not after start up. The data is already read
before you can delete it when the system boots up. If it's not there
on start-up, then Windows recreates it and in the process does a
cleaner job than when fonts get added during a session.

[Art Campbell]

George,

The font cache is built from the Windows installed fonts, so the only way to control is is to minimize the number of fonts you have installed. There are a number of font management programs out there that let you do this. However, the international fonts with glyphs for multiple languages are the largest ones.

Just as an interesting tidbit, I haven't had this problem since migrating to the Tech Comm Suite with FM 8 and Acrobat 8 3-D. And I'm not deleting the cache.

Art

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Well s'prize s'prize that completely new releases fixed this idiotic problem... :P

[Art Campbell]

There was another thread on this, although I'm not sure that it was on Adobe. But if the font cache is deleted on startup Windows just runs without it. Which also seems to eliminate the problem because the font files are read directly, eliminating any corruption in the font cache.

Art

[_thomas_bro_]

For the record.

I have a very large FNTCACHE.DAT file 10.MB). and can print to PDF without text missing using this procedure:

1) Open FM
2) Open any BOOK/FM file
3) Print it ordinarily with options "Print to File" & "Generate Acrobat Data" selected.
4) The resulting PRN/PS file, which is created is not to be used for anything
5) Now choose File Save As PDF (FM7), or Save as PDF (FM8).
6) PDF's are OK!!!!

Repeat this next time you open FM or start a new Windows session.

I haven't got the faintest idea what goes on. But it works. I have several cases in which the FNTCACHE.DAT file however small I make it, still 'forces' incorrect PDF's with missing text.

keep smiling
thomas

[_Bernd_Meissner_]

> But if the font cache is deleted on startup Windows just runs without
> it. Which also seems to eliminate the problem because the font files
> are read directly, eliminating any corruption in the font cache.

No. The FNTCACHE is read before any autostarting commands have any effect. Deleting it on/before shutdown is the *only* way to go.

Bernd

[Guest]

I'll just throw this in real quick.

If you want to automatically delete the font cache, as well as a wide variety of Windows detritus, at boot, take a look at CCleaner:

http://www.ccleaner.com/

It's free (watch out for the installer's attempts to force-feed you a Yahoo toolbar), and in addition to cleaning a wide range of default junk, can be told to delete specific files and folders...

Cheers & hope this helps,
Riley

[_Charlii_]

I had the same issue with random text disappearing. I deleted the .dat file and it's all good now! Excellent!

I have no idea how you figured that out, but I certainly never would have, so thanks for posting!

-C

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Unfortunately, I've had the problem return. My font list is clogged with dozens of "garbage" fonts installed by various apps (all high quality and commercial - I don't install shareware or junkware). I have tried deleting the Asian fonts, but many won't let me - even as Administrator it says I don't have permission.

I also can't locate the .DAT file any more. Has everything changed under Vista? How can I fix this problem under Vista 64?

And is there any permanent fix, say with FM 8.x or Acrobat 9?

[AxialInfo]

There is a new Microsoft HotFix update that takes care of the issue on Windows. Here is a posting about it:

http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.59b5ba92?50@@