Disappearing text in PDF: Workaround

[Suchitra Govindarajan]

Jessica and others,
I've had a chronic case of the disappearing text
problem at my current workplace. After doing some
testing, I found a workaround that works very well. I
and my colleagues have used it for the past year or so
with no problems. Maybe it will work for you?

Our environment and problem
===========================
We use Acrobat 7.0.7 and FrameMaker 7.2, and we make
PDFs by printing to the Adobe PDF printer.
 
In our case, the problem appears at higher resolutions
such as 1200 dpi or 2400 dpi. The pattern is seemingly
random-- leader lines in the TOC, and random words
(not characters) go missing. Sometimes inline graphics
disappear. (Other graphics are never a problem.)

Workaround
==========
Use the Print to Adobe PDF printer method but print
twice in order to get a good PDF:
1. In the first round, set all your Adobe PDF printer
preferences (page size, job option, resolution, etc.)
and make a "bad" PDF.
2. In the second round, print again to the Adobe PDF
printer but DO NOT open the Print Setup window (your
settings will be preserved). The PDF created this time
around will not have any text drop-outs.

NOTE: You can do Round 1 with just a couple of pages,
so you don't waste time. The effect is still the same.
==========

To summarise, the problem seems to appear when you
open the Print Setup window. Even if you don't make
any changes, once you click OK in this window, your
PDF is doomed. Strange huh? 

Hope that helps,
Suchi

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