9 Replies Latest reply on Mar 24, 2009 7:50 AM by pguerett

    Reducing generated pdf size

    alukyro Level 1
    alukyro Mar 5, 2009 4:18 AM
      Hi,

      I have a simple xdp containing only text fields set to read only. A xsd data connection have been set up and the fields are bound to this. Topmost subform are set to repeat when encountering a specific elemet in the xsd.

      All works fine when a limited amount of xml is sent to the adobe server. However, when I try with bigger xml files the server times out.

      I have noticed that files generated by Adobe LC is generally much bigger than whats generated in a product like Jasper reports. I've tried setting up a similar report in Jasper an after about 3 minutes it returnes with a generated pdf file containg about 700 pdf pages (Adobe LC timed out presented with the same xml-file)

      Sending just a small snippet of the xml to Adobe LC Server and Jasper yielded following results:

      PDF-size from LC Server: 1MB
      PDF-size from Jasper: 150KB

      There is no difference in the visual appearance of the pdf files.

      (The 700 pages pdf from Jasper reports had just a size of 1MB.)

      My questions are:

      1. Is there a way to reduce the pdf file size generated by Adobe LC server? (Using a service or somehow?)

      2. Can I tweak anything on the server or else where that would make the big-xml job complete without timeout?

      Kind regards

      Lars
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        • 1. Re: Reducing generated pdf size
          pguerett Level 6
          pguerett Employee Mar 5, 2009 5:27 AM (in response to alukyro)
          In the Designer template you can have a look at the Save options in the Form Properties Under the File menu. By deafult, there is font embedding and Generate accessibility tags set on. Turn these off and you should be getting a PDF of similar size.
          • 2. Re: Reducing generated pdf size
            alukyro Level 1
            alukyro Mar 5, 2009 5:47 AM (in response to alukyro)
            Hi Paul,

            These options are already turned off. Further more it says on the tab: "These options aply only when saving form designs as PDF files. They do not apply to pdf files rendered using LiveCycle Forms ES."

            Speaking of fonts, I am using Times New Roman, which as I understand already should be included in adobe reader (No embedding should therefore occur).

            Here is a bit more about my setup:

            I am using the following services: renderPDFForm and AssembleService (for flattening the document).

            I have tried optimizing the xdp in every possible way. Setting read only on text fields, setting a max length on text fields, using only few subforms etc. Still I find the rendered pdf to be quite big, compared to the contents and what Jasper report generates (from the same xml).

            With regards to the xml feeding. Is it possible that the served xml file is to big for the Adobe Server to handle?

            I can easily send you an archive containing the processes, xdp, xsd and sample xml file, if you would like that. Maybe you can spot something which could be optmized.

            Kind regards

            Lars
            • 3. Re: Reducing generated pdf size
              alukyro Level 1
              alukyro Mar 5, 2009 5:58 AM (in response to alukyro)
              I have just tried removing all but one field in the xdp. This time no timeout occured and a 2100 pages pdf was shown correctly. The size of the pdf is aprox. 6 MB.

              Problem is that the xdp contains 40 text fields which are prepopulated form the xml.
              • 4. Re: Reducing generated pdf size
                alukyro Level 1
                alukyro Mar 5, 2009 9:48 AM (in response to alukyro)
                Tried with 20 text fields - timeout now occurs :(

                I'm quite positive that its due to the size of the generated pdf form.

                I'm starting to think Adobe LC may not be the answer in situations where large amounts of xml data is used to populate forms, unless something can be done to somehow reduce the size of the pdf being generated.
                • 5. Re: Reducing generated pdf size
                  pguerett Level 6
                  pguerett Employee Mar 5, 2009 10:17 AM (in response to alukyro)
                  Can you send the form, data and process to livecycle8@gmail.com and I will have a look at why the PDF is so large. The timeout I can fix but I do not remember the exact parameter.
                  • 6. Re: Reducing generated pdf size
                    alukyro Level 1
                    alukyro Mar 24, 2009 12:45 AM (in response to alukyro)
                    Stil having problems with Adobe timing out. Anyone have any idea on how to tweak my renderPdfForm process or something in the admin ui, to avoid this?

                    Kind regards

                    Lars
                    • 7. Re: Reducing generated pdf size
                      pguerett Level 6
                      pguerett Employee Mar 24, 2009 7:22 AM (in response to alukyro)
                      I do not think it is a timeout ...I think your data file is too big and you are running out of heap space hence causing the timeout. Even when I bumped up the timeout values it dod not make a difference. When I ran your form and data using output (with a parameter that loaded the data in chuncks) it completed in the 30 sec timeframe. The difference between the two products is the way that data is loaded.
                      • 8. Re: Reducing generated pdf size
                        alukyro Level 1
                        alukyro Mar 24, 2009 7:37 AM (in response to alukyro)
                        Unfortunately we don't have a licence for utput services, only Forms. Is there a similar paramter I can set (loading the file in chunks) using Forms Service?
                        • 9. Re: Reducing generated pdf size
                          pguerett Level 6
                          pguerett Employee Mar 24, 2009 7:50 AM (in response to alukyro)
                          Not that I am aware of .... you may want to talk to your sales rep and see if they will do something for you.