TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: Illustrator to Frame4 From:"Dan S. Azlin" <dazlin -at- SHORE -dot- NET> Date:Thu, 14 Sep 1995 00:55:13 -0400
Sounds like a font interpretation problem. Check that the fonts used in
your illustrator files are accessable to FrameMaker (e.g. does your
win.ini or system.ini files specify unusual font substitutions if the
fonts you are using are undetectable or out of the search path; do you
have Adobe Type Manager installed correctly for both Illustrator & FM;
are you applying unusual methods for scaling or positioning the text
instead of redefining point size, spacing, etc.???)
If your illustrations are complex or if there are lots of them in the FM
document, reference them externally rather than importing them into the
document file.
Also, check your system resources on your computer. Frame needs lots of
resources, especially memory, when dealing with graphics. Unfortunately,
I've observed that FM4 is not so well behaved that it cleans up after
itself completely when using system resources; i.e. it leaves lots of
little "garbage" files floating around in memory (virtual and
otherwise). In a discussion with Frame's support staff a few months
after FM4 came out I confirmed this less than sterling behavior and their
intent to "fix" the problem in FM5. (Hope springs eternal!) What this
means is that you might have to restart FM, and maybe even Windows,
periodically in order to "clean up" your system after a particularly
heavy editing session..... or when things just don't seem to work well.
Take heart, though! If our tools were perfect, we'd never get to buy new
ones, or write the manuals for the latest release...
On Wed, 13 Sep 1995, Joanna Sheldon wrote:
> Hi, Folks --
> Does anyone have experience moving Adobe Illustrator files into Frame4? I'm
> having trouble keeping all the information in the drawing when I export.
> It's not the FrameMaker connection that's the problem, as far as I can tell.
> It's from the Illustrator end. I've tried exporting to .bmp, .cgm, .dxf,
> .tif and .wmf files. The .cgm and .wmf options preserve the best image,
> whether I import them into Frame or CorelDraw 5, but they're still not
> alright. The subscripts come out in the same size and position as other
> letters on the same line.
> Strangely enough, .eps doesn't seem to be an option. Nor does there appear
> to be a "convert text to curves" option, as in CorelDraw. I have Corel 5
> and could perhaps run the Illustrator files through that in order to get
> them into the proper shape for FrameMaker...
> Do you know of a fix for this problem?
> -- Joanna
Dan Azlin ** WORD ENGINEERS, Technical Writing & Publishing **
Ph/Fax: 508-921-8908 18 School Street
Internet: dazlin -at- shore -dot- net Beverly, MA 01915-4851
