PDF Output Troubleshooting
The goal of this document is to help you troubleshoot and correct problems encountered when a PDF document is generated from VE-PROMS (vfw.exe), via a third party PDF print driver.
As you proceed through the following troubleshooting steps, it’s a good idea to write down the original settings prior to making any changes. You should also be systematic in your troubleshooting so as to prevent redundancy and avoid confusion.
• Check the page scaling settings for the printer. The following screen shot was taken from selecting “Print” from the “File” drop down menu in Adobe Reader. You might need to set the page scaling to “None” or “Shrink to Printable Area”.
PDF Output Troubleshooting
1. When printed on paper directly from VE-PROMS (ex. to a laser printer), does the paper output look good?
Why? Because when VE-PROMS prints, it simply sends the output to the currently selected Windows printer.
That printer handles the details of generating the resulting printout or file. Therefore, it is important to make
sure a directly generated hard copy looks the way it should.
NO – the printout does not look good.
For example, special characters or the lines around tables, notes, or cautions do not appear, are the wrong characters, or does not appear to be formatting properly.
• Check the selected formats for the sections in that procedure.
• Install or re-install the Volian supplied fonts.1
YES -the printout looks good.
This tells us that VE-PROMS is set up correctly. It also tells us that the PDF problem that you are seeing has something to do with the PDF printer driver.
PDF Output Troubleshooting
2. Check the setting of the PDF Print Driver.
Many PDF printing problems can be corrected by making adjustments to how the PDF print driver handles fonts. This is done through the properties settings of the PDF printer.
Note that both Cute PDF Writer and PDF995 have similar options on their property pages, but PDF Factory Pro is completely different as is Adobe Acrobat. Even if what you see on your screen is nothing like our examples, there should be some kind of setting with similar wording or concept.
a) From the Windows Control Panel, open “Printers and Faxes”. Select the PDF printer using the right mouse button and then select “Properties” from the popup menu.
• If there is a “Device Settings” tab, select it. Then, if there is a “Font Substitution Table” setting, make sure the Volian supplied fonts are not substituted.2
The example below shows the Device Settings on the property page for the PDF995 driver.
PDF Output Troubleshooting
b) From the “General” properties page tab, press the “Printing Preferences...” button. Note that you may need to press an additional button (for example an “Advanced” button) or an addition tab (for example a “Fonts” tab) to get access to these adjustments.
• Make sure TrueType Fonts are “embedded” or “download as soft font”, or something like that.
The example on the left was displayed by pressing the “Advance” button on the PDF995 Printing Preferences page. The example on the right shows the Printing Preferences for PDF Factory Pro with the “Font” tab selected.
• If there are Postscript Options, you can try changing the “TrueType Font Download” setting.
This example shows the expanded “Postscript Options” node for the CutePDF Writer print driver.
PDF Output Troubleshooting
3. Contact the PDF print driver company for help.
Some companies have troubleshooting information on their web sites.
4. Reinstall the PDF Print Driver.
A file or registry setting could be bad. Uninstalling and then reinstalling the PDF printer driver could clear things up.
5. Use an internet search engine (Google, Yahoo, etc.) to search for possible solutions.
It’s possible that some else had a similar problem and posted a solution. You could also post a question yourself if your particular problem isn’t addressed.
• Make sure to check the Blogs and News Groups.
6. Try a different PDF Print Driver.
Some of the PDF print drivers currently used by our customers:
PDF Output Troubleshooting
Font Information
The following fonts are supplied by Volian and used by VEPROMS:
| Gothic Ultra | VESymb |
| Letter Gothic | VESymb Bold |
| Letter Gothic Bold | VolianDraw |
| Letter Gothic Bold Italic | VolianDraw Bold |
| Letter Gothic Italic | VolianDraw DPC |
| Letter Gothic Tall | VolianDraw DPC Bold |
| Letter Gothic Tall Bold | VolianDraw FPL |
| Letter Gothic Tall Italic | VolianDraw FPL Bold |
| Letter Gothic Tall Bold Italic | VolianDraw Sum |
| Prestige Elite Tall | VolianDraw Sum Bold |
| Prestige Elite Tall Bold | Volian Script |
| Prestige Elite Tall Italic | |
| Prestige Elite Tall Bold Italic |
1 Click the Start button and choose Control Panel.
2 Doubleclick on the Fonts icon to display the Fonts window and select the desired font(s) to be removed.
3 Choose Delete from the File menu and the selected font(s) is deleted.
4 Close the Fonts window and reopen the Fonts window and verify the selected fonts have been deleted. If not, select the fonts again and follow steps 3 through 4 until they are deleted.
1 Click the Start button and choose Control Panel.
2 Doubleclick on the Fonts icon to display the Fonts window.
3 Choose Install New Fonts from the File menu and the Install New Fonts window
displays. 4 Select the drive and folder where VEPROMS is located. 5 Select the VEPROMS\DRIVER folder to display the list of fonts supplied by Volian
and used by VEPROMS. 6 Select the desired font(s) or click Select All to install all available fonts and click OK. 7 Close the Fonts window and reopen the Fonts window to verify the selected fonts have
been added. If not, select the fonts again and follow steps 3 through 7 until they are added.