pdf fonts ugly, serious problem

[CKleijn]

We have a serious problem with the generated pdf manual. We first used the Verdana font, which gives a pdf print with some of the characters printed very ugly (to much or to little spaces between characters). Then we changed to Arial, hoping that would help, but no. Here is an example pdf generated with help and manual version 5.5.1 build 1296:

[url]http://www.controllab.nl/images/stories ... manual.pdf[/url]

and this is how it should be like (generated from Open Office Writer):

[url]http://www.controllab.nl/images/stories ... 0right.pdf[/url]

What can we do to get better printing results?

Christian

[Martin Wynne]

Hi Christian,

Try changing the PDF reference device -- Program Options > PDF Export tab.

If it is set to one of your printers -- in the Properties for that printer increase the default DPI printing resolution. 600dpi works well for PDF.

regards,

Martin.

[Alexander Hompe]

Hi Christian,
I had this problem after installing H&M on a new computer. In the "Program Options > PDF Export" the option "Use screen as reference device" was active. After changing to the "Use default printer as reference device" option the problem was fixed.
Regards,
Alex

[Tim Green]

Hi Christian,

Martin and Alex' suggestions are correct. H&M uses a printer driver to generate PDFs. You can access the reference printer driver settings in View > Program Options > PDF. By default, H&M will use the screen device driver, but you can often get better results by using a real printer driver. By the same token, some printer drivers can also cause problems, particularly optimized drivers from printer manufacturers.

If you are using a printer driver already you can try switching to the screen device, or to one of the standard drivers included with Windows. You don't have to actually have the physical printer. Just add the driver with Add Printer in the printer section of the Windows Control Panel and then select it as your reference driver in Help & Manual. If you have Windows Vista or Windows 7 we recommend using the Microsoft XPS Document Writer driver included with these versions of Windows, it produces good results. Standard LaserJets and DeskJets are good, the standard Windows Brother HL-2040 and HL-2060 drivers also deliver good results.

Important Notes:

DON'T use use "PDF printer drivers" like Adobe Distiller for this! This will not work properly and is actually counter-productive. Only use this type of driver as the output printer using the Print Manual function in the Application Menu (big button in the top left corner of the HM window).

The default page size set for the printer in the Windows control panel must be at least as large as the page size you have set in your print manual template. If it is smaller you will get clipping in your PDF pages.

If all this doesn't help please try changing the font in your project -- there are sometimes problems with specific fonts. (If you are using a font which may not be installed n the computer where the PDF will be viewed you need to embed the font in your PDF with the settings in Publishing Options > PDF > Font Embedding).

[CKleijn]

Gentlemen,

Thanks very much! My problem is solved! I only looked at Reference > Project Configuration Settings > Publishing Options and never realized there is a PDF-setting in the Program Options.

Christian Kleijn