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Lord Stewpndous
(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Campaign Setting, Companion Subscriber)
Hi,
It seems that increasing numbers of PDFs, particularly in the Chronicles range, are only part-readable in Foxit Reader, my preferred PDF reader. Is supporting Foxit fully planned for the future?
Thanks,
Toby
I would like to know this as well as my main PC at home won't run Acrobat for some reason which makes it tough to use the PDFs. My favorite recent Foxit weirdness was in the Alpha 2 release where it wouldn't display the letter 'A' in any of the headings (like feat names). Strange...
I would like to know this as well as my main PC at home won't run Acrobat for some reason which makes it tough to use the PDFs. My favorite recent Foxit weirdness was in the Alpha 2 release where it wouldn't display the letter 'A' in any of the headings (like feat names). Strange...Hi,
It seems that increasing numbers of PDFs, particularly in the Chronicles range, are only part-readable in Foxit Reader, my preferred PDF reader. Is supporting Foxit fully planned for the future?
Thanks,
Toby
I noted the same in several (non-Acrobat) PDF readers on my Linux machine. All those were based on the poppler engine. Actually, the A letters are there, if you copy and paste; they just don't display. Strange!
We can't pledge to support any third-party PDF readers because we lack the control to do so. Our print and PDF workflows are built using only Adobe products, which we generally keep updated to the latest versions. Thus, if there are compatibility issues in the final product, only Adobe or the company that makes the third-party reader can solve them.
(By the way, I'd strongly recommend never using any version of Adobe Reader older than version 8, on any platform. My opinion is that Reader 6 and 7 were pretty lousy, but 8 is actually a decent product.)
We can't pledge to support any third-party PDF readers because we lack the control to do so. Our print and PDF workflows are built using only Adobe products, which we generally keep updated to the latest versions. Thus, if there are compatibility issues in the final product, only Adobe or the company that makes the third-party reader can solve them.
(By the way, I'd strongly recommend never using any version of Adobe Reader older than version 8, on any platform. My opinion is that Reader 6 and 7 were pretty lousy, but 8 is actually a decent product.)
The problem that I have with Adobe is that it will oftentimes error out while printing watermarked files (at least the Paizo Watermarked ones). I'm not sure what the cause is, but I've verified with my downloads on 3 different computers (Customized and downloaded seperately to each computer). I switched over to Foxit because it could print my files.
The downside of this, is that if I can't use Foxit and Adobe doesn't work, I have no way of printing these files out (I don't like using the originals because my gaming material tends to get thrashed). The only way to print them is to go find some evil-doer who's stripped the watermark out and grab the files from them (which of course I don't want to do).
Is there a difference (that Paizo is aware of) between the way that you watermark files and the way someplace like RPGNow does?
Another question for the Paizo crew. Is there a difference in the way that the Chronicles and Adventure Path PDFs are put together? From the last two months Foxit reads the AP books fine but Classic Monsters and the Gazateer are both missing text from every other page.
Both products are done by the same person using the same software on the same computer.
Is it literally every other page from beginning to end, or are there any exceptions?
Lord Stewpndous
(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Campaign Setting, Companion Subscriber)
Another question for the Paizo crew. Is there a difference in the way that the Chronicles and Adventure Path PDFs are put together? From the last two months Foxit reads the AP books fine but Classic Monsters and the Gazateer are both missing text from every other page.Both products are done by the same person using the same software on the same computer.
Is it literally every other page from beginning to end, or are there any exceptions?
For me it's every other page from beginning to end.
On the Gazatteer: Page 5 and every odd numbered page past that is missing.
On Classic Monsters: Page 5 and every odd numbered page past that is missing.
The backgrounds are there and if you print it you get everything but the text and images.
Guide to Korvosa is fine.
Hope this helps.
Can everyone reporting the blank page problem with Foxit confirm that the Table of Contents and page 3 of the Gazetteer appears fine, but odd-numbered pages 5 through 63 appear blank?
The problem that I have with Adobe is that it will oftentimes error out while printing watermarked files (at least the Paizo Watermarked ones). I'm not sure what the cause is, but I've verified with my downloads on 3 different computers (Customized and downloaded seperately to each computer). I switched over to Foxit because it could print my files.
Adobe doesn't crash on me but it has a huge memory footprint and doing anything with large PDFs like the Pathfinder RPG is a bear. I have the same problem with the missing 'A's on the headers. My solution is to use Adobe to print it out, usually 10 pages at a time so it doesn't choke, but if I'm using the content online I use a different viewer such as xpdf (Linux) which seems to be the fastest.
It seems peculiar that all of the third party acrobat readers have this same issue.
The A is only missing in the headers, maybe it's the font?
Can everyone reporting the blank page problem with Foxit confirm that the Table of Contents and page 3 of the Gazetteer appears fine, but odd-numbered pages 5 through 63 appear blank?
Definitely - that is exactly the behaviour I am experiencing.
The only other odd thing I've seen has been the Crimson Throne player's guide, which only displays the bottom left corner of the background image.
Can everyone reporting the blank page problem with Foxit confirm that the Table of Contents and page 3 of the Gazetteer appears fine, but odd-numbered pages 5 through 63 appear blank?On the Gazatteer: Page 5 and every odd numbered page past that is missing.
On Classic Monsters: Page 5 and every odd numbered page past that is missing.
The backgrounds are there and if you print it you get everything but the text and images.
Guide to Korvosa is fine.
Hope this helps.
I see the exact same thing in my files using Foxit.
I've got foxit on my vista machine and have no problems. Perhaps its the unzip utility that is screwing things up. I had to forgo the one in vista for Winrar.
for those of you experiencing problems, what OS (Windows, Mac, Linex) are you using and what are you using to unzip?
Using winrar - Foxit works fine, but using the Microsoft unzip tool I have the missing A problem occasionally with other PDFs
Can everyone reporting the blank page problem with Foxit confirm that the Table of Contents and page 3 of the Gazetteer appears fine, but odd-numbered pages 5 through 63 appear blank?That is *exactly* the problem with the Gazetteer. Thank you for looking into this.
Oh, and I am running Windows XP Pro/SP2, and I use 7-zip to unzip the files. As I said, only these two files have the "blank page" problem, and I have not had a problem with un-zipping files.
-- david
Papa.DRB
For the record, I am running a very similar setup: XP Home/SP2, 7-Zip, and Foxit 2.1 build 2023 with no problems reading the PDF of the Gazetteer.
If I would hazard a guess, the little Sunburst symbol at the top of the odd pages is causing Foxit to fail to render those pages.
My first suggestion is to make sure you have the most up to date Foxit - it had a problem in early versions handling pictures. Also, it doesn't automatically install with certain picture format support, and you have to make sure it downloads and installs the additional support. It has been a long time since I had to do it, so I can't tell you at the moment exactly what to do...
But if people still have problems, let me know and I will look into it.
If I would hazard a guess, the little Sunburst symbol at the top of the odd pages is causing Foxit to fail to render those pages.My first suggestion is to make sure you have the most up to date Foxit - it had a problem in early versions handling pictures. Also, it doesn't automatically install with certain picture format support, and you have to make sure it downloads and installs the additional support. It has been a long time since I had to do it, so I can't tell you at the moment exactly what to do...
But if people still have problems, let me know and I will look into it.
I'm grabbing an update now (to 2.3.2008.2825) and will see what happens. Back in a few....
Edit: I'll feel really dumb if that's what the problem is.
The only way to print them is to go find some evil-doer who's stripped the watermark out and grab the files from them (which of course I don't want to do).
I took the latest Pathfinder RPG release to my local Kinkos and had them print it out for me (double-sided/B&W/spiral-bound=$16.) Sure, it means you have to actually take it somewhere instead of printing the 125-pager from the comfort of home but it sure saved me time not to mention the printer ink and I got a sweet binding that I couldn't have done otherwise.
If I would hazard a guess, the little Sunburst symbol at the top of the odd pages is causing Foxit to fail to render those pages.
Close—but that symbol appears on page 3, which people say works fine. I suspect that real problem is that the prior version of Foxit didn't like the font used for the numbers inside that symbol—the numbers don't begin until page 5, which is where people report the problem starting. We don't use that font in the Pathfinder Adventure Paths, or in the Guide to Korvosa—just in the Gazetteer and Classic Monsters.
(See—this is why we can't guarantee support for 3rd-party software!)
If I would hazard a guess, the little Sunburst symbol at the top of the odd pages is causing Foxit to fail to render those pages.Close—but that symbol appears on page 3, which people say works fine. I suspect that real problem is that the prior version of Foxit didn't like the font used for the numbers inside that symbol—the numbers don't begin until page 5, which is where people report the problem starting. We don't use that font in the Pathfinder Adventure Paths, or in the Guide to Korvosa—just in the Gazetteer and Classic Monsters.
(See—this is why we can't guarantee support for 3rd-party software!)
Ahhh Fonts. Will we see no respite from their evil designs!
(See—this is why we can't guarantee support for 3rd-party software!)
Myself, I don't expect you to.
But, I use third party software knowing I'll get a few "quirks" here and there. Which is why I am so used to trouble shooting problems with them. :-) But they are still usually great programs, and often worth the effort to avoid using the main program.
Just a tip for people still reading, if you are having a problem with an alternative program (Foxit for Adobe, GIMP for Photoshop, etc.) odds are that it is a problem with the alternative program. Always start with trying to update that program, and check its technical support options first.
Quite bizarre! 2.1 works, 2.2 (which I was using) doesn't and 2.3 works fine.
I just confirmed this myself. Due to this topic popping up I found I was two releases behind in my Foxit.
So I went ahead and downloaded 2.2 and it did not read the Gazetteer as reported. And, also as reported, 2.3 works fine.
As another note, you no longer have to have Foxit install picture support. Nice change. ;-)