Acrobat 8/8.1 Dropping Text in PDF

[Dov Isaacs]

I'll endorse Art's response here! And both add to it and
refine it a tad ...

There are two distinct sets of "missing text" scenarios
that we know about.

The first such scenario is a associated with larger page
sizes and higher resolutions. As you go beyond US Letter 
and A4 paper sizes, field overflow associated with intermediate
byproduct of the product of multiplying a page location by
the resolution can readily overflow a 16-bit signed field
and cause the "location" of text or other graphic objects
to go negative (off the page). This scenario is totally
repeatable between systems if you use the same settings.
The cure is to either cut the resolution value (as you
can readily do with printing to the Adobe PDF PostScript
printer driver instance or by cutting the page size.
Generally speaking, the former is easiest and safest (esp.
when creating PDF). Lowering the resolution down to 300dpi
only affects microspacing for line justification. 

The second scenario is as Art describes it. We have heard
of customers experiencing it on some systems but not others
using "allegely" the same document and configuration. We
have even seen internally at Adobe, but cannot reproduce
it at will. On most systems, deleting the FNTCACHE.DAT file
followed by a reboot will "solve" the problem, at least for
a while. I have suggested that systems with this problem
be fitted with a logout script that automatically does this
delete every time you "bring down" your system and thus
proactively avoid repeats. Note however, I have heard of at
least one system for which this hack did not work.
Why does this happen? And why does deleting the font cache
fix it? Don't really know! It has nothing to do with Acrobat
or the Adobe PDF PostScript driver instance. Since application
programs, including FrameMaker, do not and cannot directly
access the FNTCACHE.DAT file, I can only guess that whatever
is causing this is the byproduct of FrameMaker having its own
character set and of its use of old Windows GDI calls for
display and print.

Note that from our experience, the number of fonts on a
system doesn't seem to be a common vector for this
problem to occur. I typically have more than 1400 typefaces
installed oncurrently on each of my systems and for better
or worse, I'v never been able to duplicate the problem
on these systems!

We will need to see whether the next major release of
FrameMaker resolves the problem once and for all!  :-)

	- Dov



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Art Campbell
> Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2007 7:57 AM
> To: David Spreadbury
> Cc: framers at lists.frameusers.com
> Subject: Re: Acrobat 8/8.1 Dropping Text in PDF
> 
> David,
> 
> This comes up often enough that it should be a FAQ; there are 
> reams of information in the archives here and in the Adobe FM 
> User Forum (where there's a full discussion; I think Adobe 
> may have issued a tech note).
> 
> Near as anyone can figure, one known problem is a combination 
> of Windows and Frame font handling. Try this:
> 
> Find the C:\WINDOWS\system32\FNTCACHE.DAT file and note its 
> size. Then delete it. Reboot the system; the font cache will 
> be rebuilt. Don't open other applications, especially 
> browsers that may hit the font cache. Print the file to PDF.
> 
> If that clears the problem, you may want to look at reducing 
> the number of fonts on your system, especially the CJK fonts. 
> By most reports, if the FNTCACHE.DAT file tops 2,000, the bug 
> surfaces. The fix will work for a while, but will need to be 
> repeated unless you can remove enough fonts to get below 
> whatever your system's threshold is.
> 
> Art
> 
> On 6/21/07, David Spreadbury <dspreadb at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > We are running into a similar problem since upgrading to 
> Acrobat 8 from Acrobat 7.
> >
> >   We purchased the CS3 set, Illustrator, Photoshop, and Acrobat.
> >
> >   When we create a Postscript file from FrameMaker 7.2p158, 
> the PDF has random missing text. Sometimes complete pages, 
> othertimes maybe a few words in a sentence.
> >
> >   Of four systems, three are experiencing this problem.
> >
> >   We have completely removed Acrobat from these machines 
> and reinstalled. I say completely because we let Windows 
> delete the Acrobat instance through Control Panel, then 
> manually removed all instances of Acrobat 8 from C:\Program 
> Files\Adobe\Acrobat.
> >
> >   Then reinstalled Acrobat from the CS3 DVD. Problem remains.
> >   One user when so far as to install Acrobat 7, instead of 
> Acrobat 8, problem still exists.
> >
> >   I have deleted the AdobePDF prineter instance and 
> manually created it. Problem still exists.
> >
> >   One thing we are seeing is that the postscript file size 
> is considerably larger when the PDF fails.
> >
> >   4,285 is a good PDF
> >   4,940 is a corrupted PDF.
> >
> >   Any have any ideas???
> >
> >   Please respond directly as I am on Digest.
> > ---------------------------------
> -- 
> Art Campbell