Re: FMP7 bug: writing PDFs on Mac Quartz

[zab...@gmail.com]

Martin,

Thank you for pursuing this issue. I ran into it with an application
that critically needed to print to PDF, and I often needed to do it
from OSX.

It worked fine on Windows.

Did you find out if Filemaker has any plans to fix this?

-- ge

[Greg Pratt]

In article <slrnd2p3op...@ID-685.user.individual.de>,
Martin Trautmann <tr...@gmx.de> wrote:
>several months ago I reported about problems while creating PDFs from
>FileMaker 7 on the Mac OSX.
>
>This bug was reported to Apple, as well as to FMP. Apple did some
>further investigation. FMP never asked back.
>
>The problem was that the PDF included the font definitions again and
>again. I created a PDF recently which had about 50 pages. After fixing
>the PDF inclusions (by very non-standard methods) its file size was
>180 KB. However, what FileMaker created included almost 1600 font
>definitions, increasing the file size to 13 000 KB (LucidaGrande and
>LucidaGrande-Bold).

You hit the nail on the head. For each record, FMP7 will generate a
subsetted copy of the font, complete with its own random-ish font name,
in the PostScript output. (PDF is just PostScript on acid.) Using just
one font to display each record, if you printed 1500 records, FMP7 would
dump 1500 copies of the font into the PostScript/PDF output. Barfolicious!

>Latest analysis now showed that the problem is probably not related
>to OSX and can't be fixed by a better PDF creator. The problem is
>FileMaker itself and its way how to export data to the printer/PDF.

Also correct. I've found no other program that does this under Mac OS X.
It's the printing engine that passes this junk off to the OS that is the
problem. I imagine that FileMaker's programmers thought they were being
clever.

>Workaround:
>
>A) use Windows (not verified yet, but the PS writing there works
> differently).
>
>B) don't create PDFs from FMP7. Use an old version or another program.

You forgot an option "C"... revert to FileMaker Pro 6. It isn't just PDF
creation that is the problem: any PostScript printer output will suffer
from the same problems. Most PDF distillers will choke on files are large
as you describe, as will many PostScript printer engines.

Unfortunately, FileMaker's lack of attention to this bug has shaken my
previously strong faith in the company and it's products. Fortunately, I
don't *need* any of the features introduced in FMP7. But I've also come
to the conclusion that I may not be buying an FMP8, if and when such a
product ever arrives.

--
Gregory Pratt g...@panix.com
East Rutherford, NJ, USA http://www.panix.com/~gp/
"The only good spammer is a dead spammer."
PGP Key Fingerprint: DC60 FCDE 91E2 3D41 91A3 45DB B474 3D3A 3621 AAFE

[zab...@gmail.com]

>So other applications have the same malfunction?
>Or was it FMP7 in any other application?

Sorry for any confusion. I meant an application that I had written in
FM7.