Spool file by PDFviewer is 3 times larger then Adobe Reader

[familymehta]

Hi,
When printing PDF using Adobe and PDF viewer, the size of the spool file is different.
From Adobe it is smaller - almost one third from that of PDF viewer. This makes printing from PDF viewer is slow.
Can any one explain why? and show how to reduce the spool size in PDF viewer?
For example:
A PDF with size 100KB
Printer: OKI DATA with Post Script Level 3 driver.
Adobe creates spool file of 384 KB
PDF Viewer created Spool file of 1.09 MB with default settings.
Changed setting to
Print Options -> Advanced -> Print Text as Curves -> Auto
PDF Viewer created Spool file of 877 KB
Changed setting to
Print Options -> Advanced -> Print Text as Curves -> Always
PDF Viewer created Spool file of 677 KB

So this stil produces large spool file then Adobe.

Help please.

Kind Regards,
Nitin Mehta

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

familymehta,

Thank you for reporting this. There is certainly a technical explanation why the spool files are that big, and as we always try to be faster/smaller/lighter than the competition we will surely investigate.

Could I ask you to try and test with a larger file e.g. 5MB and check if the difference is still in magnitudes of remains 150-300k above that of adobe/foxit's spools?

Best regards,
Stefan

[Ivan - Tracker Software]

Adobe Acrobat sends native Postscript during printing on PostScript printer.
PDF-XChange uses Windows GDI for printing, and there is difference.

I can check what causes slow printing (and for sure job size isn't a reason), but will need the PDF file for the testing. You can post it here (please zip before posting or the files will be removed), or send it directly to me: Ivan@tracker-software.com .
Please also include the topic number in message body.

P.S. When you print, lets say, a simple BMP file from different applications, in most cases you will get different spool job size, so, the spool size really is not a factor.

[familymehta]

Hi,
I am sending zip containing two PDFs. Which have the following results.
File : FNDSCRUR_3048623_1.PDF 5KB
By PDF Xchange viewer: 795 KB
By Adobe Reader: 281 KB
By Foxit Reader: 218 KB

File: Oracle_GFS.pdf (5.82 MB)
By PDF Xchange viewer: 81.9 MB
By Adobe Reader: 11.2 MB
By Foxit Reader: 41.8 MB

Kind Regards,
Nitin.

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Hi familymehta,

did you send the attachments directly to Ivan? They were not included in your last post. As Ivan mentioned, attachments need to be zipped in order for the system to allow them through.

regards

[familymehta]

Hi,
I did send it directly to Ivan.
Ivan also tested them on HP printer and found the spool files are smaller with Xchange Viewer.
After that I also tested them with another printer type available to me, i.e., Canon IR C5185, where results are similar to that on OKI B6100.

Since I don't have HP printer, I created a fake HP LaserJet 5P/5MP printer on LPT1 and then printed to that printer so I can see the file size on the printer queue information.
I found the following for the 5KB file;
Adobe 282 KB
Xchange viewer 509 KB
Foxit 218 KB

Tried to find the same printer which Ivan tested, could not find it in Add printer.
Found HP LaserJet 2100 PCL6 and HP LaserJet 2100 Series PS
and installed them for testing.
The 5KB file tested again.
Results HP LaserJet 2100 Series PCL6:
Adobe = 192 KB
Xchange = 1.06 MB - with option Print Text as curves = Always
Xchange = 144 KB - with option Print Text as curves = Auto
Xchange = 144 KB - with option Print Text as curves = For Embaded fonts
Foxit = 853 KB

Results HP LaserJet 2100 Series PS:
Adobe = 280 KB
Xchange = 718 KB - with option Print Text as curves = Always
Xchange = 144 KB - with option Print Text as curves = Auto
Xchange = 320 KB - with option Print Text as curves = For Embaded fonts
Foxit = 320 KB


So it seems problem is with the PostScript drivers.

Kind Regards,
Nitin.




My PC is running Windows XP Professional Version 2002 Service Pack 2.

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Thanks for posting that familymehta,

I hope this will prove to be a benefit to others.

regards

[ralf]

Hello,

same problem with our Ricoh printers. Especially when printing scanned PDF documents with PDF viewer. The spool files are always 3 to 4 times bigger than the Acrobat spool files. And thus printing these documents with PDF viewer takes much longer.

Ralf

[familymehta]

Hi,
I have reolved the issue with Adobe reader for which I was looking for an alternative print program for PDF. Thus if PDF viewer produces bigger spool file, it is not suitable for our environment. Thus I am no longer testing PDF viewer.

The work arround though for the PDF viewer is - if possible use PCL5 or PCL6 drivers for the printer instead PostScript driver. This makes no difference for Adobe, but a huge difference in size for PDF viewer. The spool file with PCL driver from PDF viewer is even smaller then that from Adobe.

Tip: When using Adobe Reader for printing-
Go to Advanced setting and set Font and Resource Policy to "Send For Each Page". This will make difference in speed.

Regards,
Nitin.

Regards,
Nitin.

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Hi familymehta,

I'm really sorry to hear that you have stopped testing PDF-XChange Viewer. Our developers inform me that the issue is not trivial and that we are working on a solution but that is a great deal of work to get right. I accept that this is our problem not yours and would ask your indulgence as there are many features and issues that require the dev team's attention. One thing you could try is to 'print as image' - this should redically reduce the spool size.

Other than that it's really a case of we will attend to it as soon as is practical and will endeavour to keep that time frame as reasonable as possible.

sincerely

[SteveO]

Hi,

is there any news about this? I have the same problem. I am in the evaluation phase, because we want to integrate a PDF Viewer in our Software.
The spool files are always much bigger than the files which are created by Adobe Reader.
For Example:

PDF A, size 53 KB
Adobe => 278 KB
PDFviewer => 2,06 MB

PDF B, size 210 KB

Adobe => 311 KB
PDFViewer => 4,36 MB

I am testing with a "HP Color LaserJet 3800".

With the "print as Image" option the size is rising about more than 100 MB.

Best regards,
Steven

[Ivan - Tracker Software]

Can you send me your files ? (you can use Ivan@tracker-software.com email to send files).

[SteveO]

Did you receive the files?

[Ivan - Tracker Software]

Yes, I did. Thank you.

As I see for now, the problem is with used fonts: your PDF files contain CFF fonts which we don't convert to TTF (or OTF) fonts for now for printing - we draw text as curves in this case.

And this is what makes the spool file so large.

We will resolve this in the near future.

[SteveO]

Thanks for help! I'm looking forward to that.

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Excellent SteveO

Regards,
Stefan