i'm having trouble Fusion Quitting on Compose

[psmosser]

I'm working on a binder. Each record in the data will be 1-3 pages of the binder when composed. The rules need to look at 2 fields to set which pages to use. I have them all working but it is causing Fusion to crash on output after record 22. The files tend to be large for these jobs as each page calls either a PDF which is in the 100mb range or a tif that is about 60mb.

 

Here is the rule I'm using to call the pages.

 

//Call pages based on 2 different fields. Pages are in the proper order. This is just turning them off and on.t.

 

if ((Field("New Page Rule2") == "FrontImage") && (Field("Page Switch") == "FrontImage"))

{

FusionPro.Composition.SetBodyPageUsage("P2", true);

}

else if ((Field("New Page Rule2") == "Backer") && (Field("Page Switch") == "Backer"))

{

FusionPro.Composition.SetBodyPageUsage("P1", true);

FusionPro.Composition.SetBodyPageUsage("P2", true);

}

else if ((Field("New Page Rule2") == "Belgard") && (Field("Page Switch") == "Backer"))

{

FusionPro.Composition.SetBodyPageUsage("P3", true);

FusionPro.Composition.SetBodyPageUsage("P1", true);

FusionPro.Composition.SetBodyPageUsage("P2", true);

}

else

 

return "";

[Alex Marshall]

Why not use Acrobat's menu option, "Document>>Reduce File Size" on the large pages?

[psmosser]

Why not use Acrobat's menu option, "Document>>Reduce File Size" on the large pages?

 

I had considered doing that but I'm not sure that the size of the PDF is the issue. My previous software (CREO Darwin) didn't have a problem composing them. I'm trying to recreate it in FusionPro without changing the base files first. There are 100's of these PDFs that would need to be optimized if that is the solution.

Thanks for the suggestion!

 

Anyone have any other ideas?

[psmosser]

Why not use Acrobat's menu option, "Document>>Reduce File Size" on the large pages?

 

That option downsamples images to 150DPI and these are high end product catalogs so that's not really an option. However, I did use Acrobat's "Optimize" function to knock those PDFs down to about 10mb in size. After doing this FusionPro does manage to write the entire file so it appears the large PDFs being called were the issue.

 

Now, my next question is this. Is there a way to optimize the PDF output from FusionPro at compose? The file that I ended up with was 1.6gb. My previous software was producing the exact same file at 375mb without having done the optimization on the backers beforehand. Can I get the file size down on these somehow?

[Dan Korn]

Now, my next question is this. Is there a way to optimize the PDF output from FusionPro at compose? The file that I ended up with was 1.6gb. My previous software was producing the exact same file at 375mb without having done the optimization on the backers beforehand. Can I get the file size down on these somehow?

That question is impossible to answer in the context of this forum, as it requires an examination of your files. However, you can try adjusting some of the job parameters in the Composition Settings dialog, specifically the downsampling settings on the Graphics tab.

[psmosser]

That question is impossible to answer in the context of this forum, as it requires an examination of your files. However, you can try adjusting some of the job parameters in the Composition Settings dialog, specifically the downsampling settings on the Graphics tab.

 

Dan,

 

The only adjustments I see available are to downsample everything to 72DPI. Also under "Output" I have checked "Compress output" already. Are there any settings that I may be missing or any other way to effect compression/optimization through java?

 

To give you a better idea of what I am working with here I'll try to describe what the job is.

 

These are 18" x 12" product catalogs. Each page is a full bleed hi res product image as well as multiple variable fields. (i.e. product name, color, category) At each category break there is a divider or "tab" page. Those are the PDFs that were causing the composition problem. There is one additional page that inserts if the tab page would end up on the back of a sheet to move it to the front. Basically a filler page with a logo so that the tabs are always facing up.

 

We house a library of 1,000's of these hi res product images on one of our servers and they are pulled via a lookup. The same with the divider tab pages.

 

We keep a database that the company pulls from to decide at each run which products they want in the catalog and export a new csv file each time.

 

Hopefully without somehow sending you very large files that help to explain what we are working with.

 

Thanks for the response. I have dozens of these templates that we recompose regularly and I would like to transition them all into FusionPro.

[Dan Korn]

Hopefully without somehow sending you very large files that help to explain what we are working with.

FusionPro composes jobs with large graphics all the time, usually with no problems, or at least no crashes. Your job sounds fairly typical, actually. So there's not much I can do to analyze the problem merely from your explanation. Ultimately, we need to be able to reproduce the problem in order to fix it. If you can put together a minimal sample job which reproduces the crash, Support can work with you to get it to us for analysis.

 

There are no other settings to reduce the output file size, other than to downsample the graphics before composing with FusionPro. My other suggestions are:

 

• Try a different version of FusionPro. (Neither your profile nor your signature specifies which version you're using.)
  
• Try a different output format. If you're printing to a digital press, try a VDP-optimized output format such as PPML, which references graphics instead of including them in the output file.
  
• Try chunking the output to multiple files. This sometimes reduces the memory load on the PDF Library.
  

[psmosser]

FusionPro composes jobs with large graphics all the time, usually with no problems, or at least no crashes. Your job sounds fairly typical, actually. So there's not much I can do to analyze the problem merely from your explanation. Ultimately, we need to be able to reproduce the problem in order to fix it. If you can put together a minimal sample job which reproduces the crash, Support can work with you to get it to us for analysis.

 

There are no other settings to reduce the output file size, other than to downsample the graphics before composing with FusionPro. My other suggestions are:

 

• Try a different version of FusionPro. (Neither your profile nor your signature specifies which version you're using.)
  
• Try a different output format. If you're printing to a digital press, try a VDP-optimized output format such as PPML, which references graphics instead of including them in the output file.
  
• Try chunking the output to multiple files. This sometimes reduces the memory load on the PDF Library.
  

 

I will contact support and see what we can do about getting files to you. I don't know any way to make them smaller or more manageable because it will compose unless I try to do the entire job. This is actually the smallest of these catalogs anyway.

 

I did try VDX which gave the same results as single file. We use a Kodak NexPress for printing. I can use a multi part VDX but files of this size cause problems over the network when ripping so we have moved to single file (PDF,VDX) to solve the issues on that end. Our rip cannot handle standard PPML or VPS. VPS would be my preference if it worked with that rip but it does not.

 

Thanks for your feedback Dan.

 

I updated my profile and signature info also.

[Dan Korn]

I will contact support and see what we can do about getting files to you. I don't know any way to make them smaller or more manageable because it will compose unless I try to do the entire job. This is actually the smallest of these catalogs anyway.

 

I did try VDX which gave the same results as single file. We use a Kodak NexPress for printing. I can use a multi part VDX but files of this size cause problems over the network when ripping so we have moved to single file (PDF,VDX) to solve the issues on that end. Our rip cannot handle standard PPML or VPS. VPS would be my preference if it worked with that rip but it does not.

 

Thanks for your feedback Dan.

 

I updated my profile and signature info also.

Okay, thanks for the additional info. Could you try composing to some other output formats, even if they're not supported on your press? That would be good data to help narrow down the issue.

 

I would also trying chunking the output to multiple files.