Save As PDF Was: RE: Strange PDF Problem

[Ridder, Fred]

Just to provide some historical context for this, the big
issue with Save As PDF was always that of printer 
drivers, and only on Windows systems. 

In FrameMaker versions through 6.0, Save As PDF 
always used the current Windows printer driver, which
might or might not have been a PostScript driver and
might or might not have been for a printer that supported
color. (Remember all those queries to the list about
people who lost all their colored text when they went
to PDF? The inevitable cause was a monochrome 
printer driver.) 

As of FrameMaker 7.0, Save As PDF always uses the
"Adobe PDF" printer driver, which is the correct thing
as far as it goes. The problem is that if the default printer 
is not Adobe PDF, this represents a *change* in the 
printer driver, which means a change in font metrics 
(which are supplied by the printer driver on Windows 
systems). And a change in font metrics can mean 
changes in certain line breaks, which in turn might 
affect page and even chapter breaks and make the 
page numbers in the generated files incorrect. So 
Save As PDF is a lot less broken now, but it still has 
a couple of significant gotchas unless you make the 
Adobe PDF printer your default.  

Personally, I never use Save As PDF. I'm a big fan
of the watched folder approach for books or printing
directly to the Adobe PDF virtual printer for single 
files.

My opinions only; I don't speak for Intel.
Fred Ridder (fred dot ridder at intel dot com)
Intel
Parsippany, NJ

  

-----Original Message-----
From: framers-bounces+fred.ridder=intel.com at lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces+fred.ridder=intel.com at lists.frameusers.com] On
Behalf Of Diane Gaskill
Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 7:56 PM
To: framers at frameusers.com
Subject: Save As PDF Was: RE: Strange PDF Problem

Steve,

I remember many messages on this list about the Save as PDF function
being
broken in Frame 6.0 and an announcement on this list that it was fixed
in
Frame 7.0.  If I remember correctly, the announcement came from Dov.
Though I generally print to PS and distill, I have used the Save as PDF
function successfully quite a few times in 7.0.

Diane

-----Original Message-----
From: framers-bounces+dgcaller=earthlink.net at lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces+dgcaller=earthlink.net at lists.frameusers.com]On
Behalf Of Syed Zaeem Hosain
Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 1:17 PM
To: Steve Rickaby
Cc: framers at frameusers.com
Subject: Re: Strange PDF Problem


Steve Rickaby wrote:
  > No, because I don't use 'Save as PDF'. Isn't the general view that
it's
broken and therefore deprecated? Or has it
been fixed in 7.2?