Problem with over-sized PDFs

[ralf]

Hello support team,

we have to handle over-sized PDF files which are created by some CAD application. The PDF drawings have length of 6m.

When opening attached demo-PDF in PDF-XChange Editor it simply cuts view at 5080mm without any notice to user that parts are not displayed.

Adobe Reader at least shows some warning message "The dimensions of this page are out-of-range. Page content might be truncated."

Finally Foxit PDF Reader dislpays whole PDF without any problems including car at the right and also shows correct dimension.

Can you check this issue? PDX XChange Editor should at least also show some warning that view is truncated. But best solution would be that it can display whole PDF without any problem.

BR,
Ralf

[TrackerSupp-Daniel]

Hello, ralf

Inside the PDF Specification there is a limit of 14400 units in both the X and Y directions of a page. The default for PDF files is to use 72 units per inch - so the above 14 400 value translates to a 'max' size of 200 inches, or 5080mm when 72 units per inch are used. The specification defines a separate tool to allow the software creating a PDF page to specify a different 'scaling' of the coordinate system - so that you can create pages with larger dimensions. The CAD software that creates your file seems to ignore the specification and just define a media box of 16851.97 units:

image.png (5.04 KiB) Viewed 104 times

The same specification states that only the first 14400 units should be displayed even though we, Adobe, and Foxit are all capable of using data beyond these sizes, this limitation still exists and should be observed as the vast majority of other software's which these files can be used with will also respect this.

We may offer a warning in the future, but for now, you should ideally never be making (or need to make) a file which is larger than 200inches to begin with. From a technical standpoint, there is no reason to do so, as PDF is a digital format, you can simply zoom in closer, even if the file was only 20 inches across it would have the same fidelity as a 200 inch document.
I would recommend that, when creating a PDF file from your CAD software, you choose a smaller paper size, instead of unnecessarily printing at a larger size that will cause problems in most PDF software's. (It defeats the purpose of making a "Portable Document Format (PDF)" file, if the software designed to use it cannot do so).

With the new release of PDF 2.0, and as other software's slowly transition to allow larger sizes, we may eventually remove this restrictions, but our Editor software has been capable of this for roughly a decade now, and has handled files this way for that whole time. It is unlikely to change until we can be sure that files we create will be compatible with the majority of other software's.

Kind regards,

[bqxmprij]

We may offer a warning in the future, but for now, you should ideally never be making (or need to make) a file which is larger than 200inches to begin with.

Hi,

We don't make all of files we view. Some are sent to us. In those cases, a warning would be helpful. Can that be implemented?

[TrackerSupp-Daniel]

Hello, bqxmprij

We certainly may offer a warning in the future, but I cannot make any promises.

Kind regards,

[ralf]

Hello Daniel,

thanks for the detailed explaination. I fully understand that you only follow the standard. Nevertheless, it's not our decision to create this large PDF drawings. It's demanded from some of our customers. And sometimes we also receive them from some OEMs.

My personal wish would be: PDF-XChange displays full media box content and then shows some warning that PDF file does not follow standard and might be truncated in other applications. Or something like this. Maybe you can discuss this with your development team?

And BTW, Firefox, Google Chrome and thus also Microsoft Edge can display my demo PDF without any problems. Looks that they all ignore the standard.

BR,
Ralf

[Paul - Tracker Supp]

Got it Ralf.

Ultimately this will be at the development team leader's discretion as to exactly what gets implemented and when. The contents of this thread will be considered as the work is done.

We will just have to wait and see what eventuates.