PDF is so sloooooooo... - Dumpshock Forums

PDF is so sloooooooo..., ..ooooooooooooooow.

Veggiesama View Member Profile	Oct 2 2005, 10:14 PM Post #1
Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 286 Joined: 5-September 05 Member No.: 7,688	At first it runs okay, but after running it for 5 minutes it begins to drag and you have to restart Adobe for it to speed up again. I've got a copy of Acrobat Professional. Hell, I'd go for black & white, super-low-res, or just plain text if possible. This is just terrible. I'm considering just splicing the chapters into seperate pdfs. Anyone found any way to optimize the PDF? I remember reading somewhere on these forums that someone did, but I can't find the post. Maybe it was a different forum.

calypso View Member Profile	Oct 2 2005, 10:20 PM Post #2
Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 238 Joined: 18-August 05 Member No.: 7,569	I know :/ I tried finding a way to remove all images from the PDF, and ran it through the PDF Optimizer in Acrobat, but to no avail. Calypso

blakkie View Member Profile	Oct 2 2005, 10:22 PM Post #3
Dragon Group: Members Posts: 4,718 Joined: 14-September 02 Member No.: 3,263	Is the file you are using named FPR26000_SR4acr5.pdf? Because i don't see that problem at all. I'm using Adobe Reader 7 (w/Windows NT) one machine and Adobe Professional 6 (w/Windows XP) on another.

Squinky View Member Profile	Oct 2 2005, 10:23 PM Post #4
Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,479 Joined: 6-May 05 From: Idaho Member No.: 7,377	Go here: http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/faq in the section for Plugins there is a "Why is adobe pdf so slow" or something....It might help.

calypso View Member Profile	Oct 2 2005, 10:23 PM Post #5
Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 238 Joined: 18-August 05 Member No.: 7,569	Yeah, and my machine is no pig either. 2.2GHz, 1GB of RAM.

Squinky View Member Profile	Oct 2 2005, 10:24 PM Post #6
Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,479 Joined: 6-May 05 From: Idaho Member No.: 7,377	Runs slow on mine also, 1.2 gig ram and Athlon 64 3200...

blakkie

Oct 2 2005, 10:30 PM

Post #7

Dragon

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QUOTE (calypso @ Oct 2 2005, 04:23 PM)

Yeah, and my machine is no pig either. 2.2GHz, 1GB of RAM.

That's well ahead of my workstation CPU. I do have a newer HD, and OK video card (actually run dual monitors, or did till the flatscreen had to go in for waranty work). But the core of it is a 4 (or 5?) year old 800MHz w/768Mb. Daddy needs a new [gaming] machine. :(

EDIT: I'd hate to see what it would be like if i was so foolish to upgrade it to Windows XP. ;)

Feshy

Oct 2 2005, 10:53 PM

Post #8

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QUOTE

At first it runs okay, but after running it for 5 minutes it begins to drag and you have to restart Adobe for it to speed up again.

If you think it's slow after 5 minutes, try it for a bit longer. When I first got the PDF, I enthusiastically skimmed and read through the whole thing, and watched in horror as it got slower.... and slooooower... and slooooooooooooower...

A quick glance at the task manager before I killed it (shutting it down takes forever, as the memory is destroyed it has to ALL be paged back in, in random order, often causing paging out again...) I discovered it was taking between 1.5 and 2 GIGABYTES of virtual memory.

Turning off large images helps. Some. But I still kill and reload the PDF every 20 minutes or so to avoid the 10-second page load times that start to crop up. This is on my 2.2 Ghz, 512 meg RDRAM machine.

Oddly, my laptop does MUCh better with the PDF -- at 1.6 Ghz (pentium M) and 512 DDRRAM. It opens faster, goes to pages faster, and takes longer to reach the "OMG SLOW" point (though it does get there eventually.) Go figure.

Google turned up FoxIt as an alternative acrobat reader. For most PDFs, I found it WAY faster -- but it crashed without error on the shadowrun PDF. I have yet to get the latest version (of the PDF that is) so I can't say if that is still the case.

Adam View Member Profile	Oct 2 2005, 10:58 PM Post #9
Prime Runner Group: Retired Admins Posts: 3,929 Joined: 26-February 02 From: .ca Member No.: 51	If you're still using the old version of the PDF, any non Acrobat 7 readers will almost certainly give you horrible performance. Update to the new PDF -- it should improve performance and compatability.

blakkie

Oct 2 2005, 11:02 PM

Post #10

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QUOTE (Feshy @ Oct 2 2005, 04:53 PM)

I have yet to get the latest version (of the PDF that is) so I can't say if that is still the case.

It is VERY important that you get the new PDF named FPR26000_SR4acr5.pdf. The original one, forget the file name, is right hosed. Adam did a lot of things to optimize, including stomping multiple graphic layers together and lower the resolution on all pages except the 16 sample characters. In the new document those 16 pages together create a postscript print file twice as large as all the other 330ish pages put together.

EDIT: He also used a different set of tools that create an older PDF file version, but apparently the file they create is a lot less problematic.

calypso View Member Profile	Oct 2 2005, 11:03 PM Post #11
Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 238 Joined: 18-August 05 Member No.: 7,569	Maybe I should lop them out of my PDF then.

Veggiesama View Member Profile	Oct 3 2005, 12:14 AM Post #12
Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 286 Joined: 5-September 05 Member No.: 7,688	Yes, I had the first one, which was just terrible. The second one isn't nearly as bad, and as Feshy mentioned, it gets slower over time. I'm trying FoxIt too, but the colors are coming out very bizarre. It seems to run pretty lousy on it too, anyway. Anyway, I'm on an Athlon XP 3200+ and a gig of DDR400 ram, so I dunno.

SL James View Member Profile	Oct 3 2005, 02:08 AM Post #13
Shadowrun Setting Nerd Group: Banned Posts: 3,632 Joined: 28-June 05 From: Pissing on pedestrians from my electronic ivory tower. Member No.: 7,473	I redid the entire PDF, Veggiesama, and did it as individual chapters and one book-length PDF. It's still better than the "revised" PDF, too, even if I have to gasp use the Index (Reader 7's Search function sucks a fat one, anyway).

Fortune View Member Profile	Oct 3 2005, 03:00 AM Post #14
Immoral Elf Group: Members Posts: 15,247 Joined: 29-March 02 From: Grimy Pete's Bar & Laundromat Member No.: 2,486	Strange. I am using the second version, and have no real problems with it at all ... and my laptop doesn't have the specs of some of the systems listed in this thread.

blakkie View Member Profile	Oct 3 2005, 04:36 AM Post #15
Dragon Group: Members Posts: 4,718 Joined: 14-September 02 Member No.: 3,263	Yes, i like Adobe 6 Pro's search a lot better. Also whether using it with Adobe Reader 7 or Adobe 6 Pro i don't see any slow down with the new file. It isn't instantaneous going page to page, but it isn't slow in any meaningful way. That may not help you directly in any way, but i'm lettting you know that a defaul Adobe in some situations isn't an issue with the latest file. Hopefully you'll be able to figure out why exactly is wrong that causes this issue on your system.

Adam View Member Profile	Oct 3 2005, 03:53 PM Post #16
Prime Runner Group: Retired Admins Posts: 3,929 Joined: 26-February 02 From: .ca Member No.: 51	If you guys like the "sidebar search" in Acrobat 6, and are "missing" it in Acrobat 7, it's in there as Edit -> Seach as opposed to Edit -> Find.

JongWK View Member Profile	Oct 3 2005, 07:22 PM Post #17
Shooting Target Group: Validating Posts: 1,618 Joined: 29-January 03 From: Montevideo, Uruguay. Member No.: 3,992	No problem at all with my pdf, and I'm using a P3 w/550 Mhz and 128 Mb RAM (guess I take the prize for oldest fossil). ;)

Veggiesama

Oct 3 2005, 08:17 PM

Post #18

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Strange that everyone at first had encountered endless slow-downs, not by their meat-body reading speeds but by the hardware's sluggishness.

Then we have this new generation of folks halfway down the post who are able to, how should I say, "listen to the whispers of the Adobe" with virtually no [worthy] hardware whatsoever.

QUOTE

No problem at all with my pdf, and I'm using a P3 w/550 Mhz and 128 Mb RAM (guess I take the prize for oldest fossil).

We shall call this new breed of readers the "children of the PDF".

Drop Bear Prime View Member Profile	Oct 3 2005, 09:18 PM Post #19
Target Group: Members Posts: 7 Joined: 9-September 05 From: Outback...of your house Member No.: 7,722	So that is why the toaster is telling me to kill?

Fortune

Oct 4 2005, 08:35 AM

Post #20

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QUOTE (Veggiesama @ Oct 4 2005, 06:17 AM)

Strange that everyone at first had encountered endless slow-downs, not by their meat-body reading speeds but by the hardware's sluggishness.

Then we have this new generation of folks halfway down the post who are able to, how should I say, "listen to the whispers of the Adobe" with virtually no [worthy] hardware whatsoever.

The first pdf (1.0) was a horror! Each page and graphic was a nightmare to load. The second (and updated 1.1) release has nowhere near the same problems. I don't think I've seen anyone who updated from the first edition complain about load time problems (except maybe the sample characters).

Veggiesama

Oct 4 2005, 07:27 PM

Post #21

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QUOTE (Fortune)

I don't think I've seen anyone who updated from the first edition complain about load time problems (except maybe the sample characters).

I've tried both. The first version was terrible, yes. The second is better, yes. But it's still terrible.

[insert some horribly out-of-taste metaphor about painting human waste a different color, fragrancing it, etc.]

blakkie View Member Profile	Oct 4 2005, 07:37 PM Post #22
Dragon Group: Members Posts: 4,718 Joined: 14-September 02 Member No.: 3,263	Veggiesama, have you tried using a slower computer? At least that is what my refridgerator is suggesting to me that you do, but maybe the neighbor kid hacked it and is forcing it to say that.

Veggiesama

Oct 4 2005, 08:10 PM

Post #23

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QUOTE (blakkie)

Veggiesama, have you tried using a slower computer? At least that is what my refridgerator is suggesting to me that you do, but maybe the neighbor kid hacked it and is forcing it to say that.

Haha, actually, yeah. My brother's computer runs it even worse than mine. That's not atypical, 'cuz his comp is slower in a couple departments.

Zarathrusta View Member Profile	Oct 5 2005, 06:11 AM Post #24
Target Group: Members Posts: 1 Joined: 5-October 05 From: Scotsprawl Member No.: 7,814	If your using a laptop turn the page on its side and read it one page at a time. Saves you having to keep scrolling up and down.

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