Re: Text Characters Missing in Printed FrameMaker Document or in PDF

[Dov Isaacs <isaacs@xxxxxxxxx>]

John,

We know that when the problem occurs with large paper sizes -- text
starting at some point on the page just doesn't "print" (whether to
a PDF printer or to a "real" printer) -- the problem is that FrameMaker
(under Windows only) is addressing GDI (the print/display subsystem of
Microsoft Windows) with 16-bit numbers representing the pixel number in
both the horizontal and vertical directions. When you get the product
of resolution in pixels per inch and the distance (in inches) greater 
than 32768, you end up with a negative number as a coordinate and the 
operation is effectively ignored by GDI. With "letter or A4 size paper"
at 1200 dpi, you shouldn't be seeing this type of problem, although at
2400 dpi for "letter / A4" or 1200 dpi for "ledger / A3" I would definitely
expect the problem to occur.

If in fact, the same issue is involved with paper sizes as small as 
letter / A4, my guess is that in some calculation, a value overflows
16-bit signed variables and is causing a similar effect.

Based on your feedback, I will alert some customers who have seen similar
problems and have not been able to fix it to check what resolution they
are running at and if not running 600 dpi, to try that. (One simply would
need to change the resolution in terms of driver settings, not permanently
modify the PPD, to properly deal with this!)

Thanks for your report. Maybe we will get to the "root" of the problem
(pun intended)!

        - Dov


At 5/28/2004 09:33 AM, John Root wrote:
>Actually, the particular case for which I investigated and discovered this
>workaround (hack) was letter sized output.
>
>In any case, Dov, what is the cause of the problem?
>
>John
>
>
>On 5/27/04 10:39 PM, "Dov Isaacs" <isaacs@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> The "change the resolution hack" typically works for
>> larger page sizes, such as ledger / 11x17 / A3. Most of
>> the reported problems of text drop-out are on standard
>> letter / A4 pages for which the higher resolution (1200 dpi
>> at least) is not the cause of the problem (regrettably).
>> 
>>       - Dov 

*

>> At 5/27/2004 12:50 PM, John Root wrote:
>>> Yves,
>>> 
>>> I investigated on a problem like this on XP and discovered the following
>>> workaround. Adobe confirmed the problem as a known issue, but it's not
>>> documented.
>>> 
>>> For some unknown (to me) reason, using a resolution of 1200dpi with the
>>> Distiller printer on XP sometimes causes text in certain fonts to drop out
>>> of the output stream resulting in missing text in the final PDF. Setting the
>>> output resolution to some other value typically solves the problem.
>>> 
>>> If you are printing to PS then Distilling to PDF, try changing the output
>>> resolution of the Distiller printer to 600dpi (default is 1200dpi) in the
>>> printer setup before generating PostScript for Distiller.
>>> 
>>> If you are using Save As PDF, you'll have to edit the Distiller PPD
>>> (ADIST5.PPD) in WINDOWS/SYSTEM32/SPOOL/DRIVERS/W32X86/3
>>> so that the line
>>> 
>>> *DefaultResolution: 1200dpi
>>> 
>>> reads
>>> 
>>> *DefaultResolution: 600dpi
>>> 
>>> Save this file, then delete the file ADIST5.BPD from the same directory on
>>> your system. Windows will create a new ADIST5.BPD based on the modified
>>> ADIST5.PPD.
>>> 
>>> Now when you use Save As PDF, the default resolution will be 600dpi, and
>>> hopefully, your missing text will no longer be missing. If it is, then
>>> you've got a different issue, sorry!
>>> 
>>> John
>>> 
>>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>>    John Root
>>> Publishing Systems
>>> jroot@xxxxxxxxxxxx
>>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*

>>> On 5/27/04 3:03 AM, "Yves Barbion" <yb@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>> Hi,
>>>> 
>>>> I've just experienced this "issue". It's a known bug and described on the
>>>> Adobe Web site: http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/2108e.htm
>>>> 
>>>> "Some text characters are missing from an Adobe PDF file created from
>>>> Adobe FrameMaker or from a FrameMaker document printed to a PostScript
>>>> printer. This issue occurs with Mac OS or Windows."
>>>> 
>>>> Configuration:
>>>> - FrameMaker 7.0 and 7.1 on Windows XP Professional
>>>> - Acrobat Distiller 6.0 (tried various job options, even those recommended
>>>> by Dov Isaacs)
>>>> - Using Adobe PDF printer driver instance.
>>>> 
>>>> The problem occurs when I save a complete FrameMaker book as PDF (or print
>>>> to PDF). The PDF files of the individual chapters are okay (apart from the
>>>> bookmarks and hyperlinked cross-references).
>>>> 
>>>> Any solutions? Downloading and installing the latest version of the
>>>> PostScript printer driver, as recommended in the Adobe knowledge base
>>>> article, didn't help.
>>>> 
>>>> Yves Barbion 
>>>> Senior Technical Writer
>>>> Adobe-Certified FrameMaker Instructor
>>>> ____________________________________
>>>> 
>>>> ATEK - U & I Learning
>>>> Molenaarsstraat 111
>>>> B-9000 Gent 
>>>> Belgium 
>>>> Tel.: +32 9 265 74 72
>>>> Fax: +32 9 265 74 84
>>>> mailto:ybarbion@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>> 
>>>> http://www.atek.be
>>>> http://www.uni-learning.com


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