SV: Acrobat 8/8.1 Dropping Text in PDF

[Jacob Schäffer]

Hi Dov,

Normally I don't argue your statements, but sometimes exceptions exists and require a tiny dialog:

You wrote:
< ... Lowering the resolution down to 300dpi only affects microspacing for line justification. >

	First, I'm not completely sure what you mean when you say "line justification". My mistake, but if you mean "leading" I don't think of this as a problem. However, if you mean "character spacing" I don't believe your statement is entirely correct.

	In my judgement lowering resolution (in printer properties, which I assume you refer to) to anything less than 1200 dpi WILL affect character spacing output from FrameMaker. If you try with 72 dpi and compare the result (e.g. in a PDF) with a similar 1200 dpi result I'm sure you'll agree. Often, but not always, you'll find serious and very visible spacing artifacts in the 72 dpi result.

	Hence, generally I'd hold my horses and keep resolution up, at least to 600 dpi.

You wrote:
< 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. >

	I have worked with this issue weeks and weeks to find a reasonable and reproduceable scenario, since several of our Grafikhuset Publi PDF customers ask us for advice. Unfortunately, we haven't found a bullet-proof answer so far. The best we have to answer is 

(1) Reduce the number of fonts to a minimum.

(2) Delete the FNTCACHE.DAT file and reboot.

You wrote:
< 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! >

	We have tested with a debugger and tried to nail down memory leaks in FrameMaker. No *significant* such beasts seem to exist with FrameMaker. Bravo!

You wrote:
< It has nothing to do with Acrobat or the Adobe PDF PostScript driver instance. >

	This problem has definitely nothing to do with Acrobat nor the Adobe PDF PostScript driver instance. It occur during PostScript creation via a combination of GDI, GDI+ and the universal Windows PostScript printer driver -- system components each of which are very hard to point out as direct offenders.

	And the problem -- when it's present -- occur whenever you print directly to a physical high-res device, PostScript or 'Save as PDF'.

You wrote:
< 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. >

	Hmmm ...

	Typical for Windows GDI calls are the differences in resolution between display and print. That is, in fact, a major -- if not the only major -- difference between the two device contexts, by concept.

	So, why can FrameMaker display stuff it can't print at any resolution? And why does lowering resolution sometimes help? I don't know, but I'd love to.

You wrote:
< 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! >

	Sorry, but I'd be quite surprised if you personally produce anything significant in FrameMaker, i.e. build from scratch/work with hundreds and hundreds of pages spread out in multiple chapters forming a book. Opening documents on a test basis may not reveal enough information to establish beyond doubt what's going on.

	In my view the strict cause is pending and -- apparently -- unknown, and that is a serious problem.

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

	I wish you folks at Adobe a good hunt added all the luck you can get -- for all of us :-)

- Jacob