AboutWayne Johnson Expertise Basic set-up of books, master pages, generation of List of Effective pages (LEP), Indexing, auto-numbering. Various ways to import graphics, including advantages and disadvantages of importing into a text frame or importing into a "blank" page. Using a "book" to generate PDF files, with hyperlinking. Customization of function keys, currently setup for Frame 7.0 i.e. change F1 to turn "Change bar" On and Off, F2 to "Cut" a selection, F3 to copy, F4 to Paste, F6 to set line to "TOP OF PAGE" and Shift F6 to start line "anywhere" these can be easily your current config files and if you do not like them - old config files can be restored.
I have no expertise in Structured Framemaker, (i.e. XML or SGML).
Experience 10 years working with Framemaker, all version through Version 7.0
Primarily writing to Aviation ATA spec 100. Currently responsible for maintaining all company published maintenance documents in Framemaker and PDF and making them accessible through the company intranet.
Expert: Wayne Johnson Date: 5/5/2008 Subject: Massive file bloat with Frame & PDF updates
Question Problem:
When we update FrameMaker files with a new template, built from an existing template (changed logos and fonts), the PDF file size dramatically increases. The PDF size of one book file went from 3MB to 10.3MB (at best). This jump in file size occurs as Distiller is processing the "last page" of the postscript file.
This is an extreme example of a problem we've had every time we've updated our existing FrameMaker template (current FrameMaker version 7.2); each change has increased the size of both the Frame file and the PDFs created from it.
Troubleshooting efforts that we've made:
1. Converted logos to SVG (resulted in poor quality rendering in PDF), PDF file size = 10.5Mb
2. Imported EPS logos by reference rather than copying them into the document, PDF file size = 10.7MB
3. Reduced the size of the logos in Illustrator before placing them in the template, PDF file size = 10.7MB
4. Converted EPS logos to grayscale, PDF file size = 10.5Mb
5. Deleted one master page that was unlikely to be used, PDF file size = 10.3MB
6. Experimented with various job options in Distiller, no PDF file sizes below 10.3MB
(To render the colors properly in the PDF we created a new joboption based on Smallest File Size, but it uses/preserves the CYMK color model.)
7. Experimented with various color models in FrameMaker, no PDF file sizes below 10.3MB
8. Recreated the new template by starting a new file and importing elements, no difference in file sizes
9. Removed logos completely (this is not an option), PDF file size still at 4.6MB
10. Tried to force optimize the file, the operation failed ("Could not open file…")
Answer Cheryl
1. Are you Logos at the top of each page the same in both document, (i.e. your current document and the new template)?
2. If you take 1 of your documents and remove all text from the document and all pages except page 1 - and compare your file size to the new template (which should also have only 1 page), how do the file sizes compare.
3. You might try typing "reduce Framemaker file size" in your search engine and there might be some answers there.
If you can send me 1 of your documents (unconverted to your new format) and your new template - I can take a look at it and try and see what is going on. Use pkzip to reduce the file size.
