Pitstop causing Acrobat to take ~5 minutes to start up

[exify]

When I have the Enfocus folder in the Acrobat\plug_ins directory, Acrobat takes obscenely long to start. Anywhere from 3-7 minutes. When I remove the folder, Acrobat starts INSTANTLY! I never had this problem before, but after I installed a new hard drive, this is what happens.

How can I fix it?

 

[leonardr]

Unfortunately, you can't .

We've been telling Enfocus since Acrobat 7 that they need to make changes to how PitStop performs at plugin initialization time - but for whatever reason they have been unwilling (unable?) to do so...

 

[exify]

I never really had this problem before though. Maybe a little 30sec-1min delay, but not this. I can literally open a PDF, go to the bathroom and get a coffee and it still won't be open when I get back.

Is there a way to at least speed it up back to ~1 min delay?

 

[jameslwilson]

What versions of Acrobat and Pitstop are you using?

I can honestly say that this hasn't been a problem for me, using Acrobat 7.0.7 and Pitstop Pro 08 update 2 on Windows XP SP2.

 

[republic]

Wow... I don't have this problem whatsoever. Acrobat 8.1.2 Mac + Pitstop starts in 5-7 seconds. I use a quad-core Intel Mac with 10.5.5.

You didn't mention what platform you were on, but I would recommend standard cache and preference-killing maintenance for your operating system and the Acrobat environment. Also take a look at your font environment... I've had corrupt font caches on OS X that do squirrly things like that.

I also notice on mine, Pitstop doesn't *seem* to initialize completely until I choose one of its tools for the first time after launching Acro. At least that's when I get its splash screen. Obviously it's loading something before that point or I wouldn't be able to see any tools to choose.

 

[exify]

I'm using Pitstop 7.22, and the problem happens in both Acrobat 8 and Acrobat 9.

Windows Vista 32bit, Dual Core PC with 4GB of RAM so that's not the problem. It always worked fine until a recent re-install. I've tried uninstalling and re-installing but it still does the same thing.

I have no clue how to fix it. I have to disable Pitstop completely to even get Acrobat to open in less than 10 seconds.

 

[republic]

Hmm, sorry... no clue what Vista even looks like, let alone how to troubleshoot such things as fonts, caches and preferences on it. But for my money it would be worth a call to Enfocus to deal with that. As many times as I use Acro in a day, that delay would add to real loss of revenue.

 

[exify]

Your font suggestion gave me an idea. I disabled EVERY font in Suitcase, and opened Acrobat with Pitstop activated. It opened in ~15 seconds.

This makes me think it's having a problem with the Hoefler Foundry fonts I recently got (Gotham, Mercury, Didot, Whitney). I'm going to activated Adobe FF11 and nothing else to see the response time.

 

[republic]

Sweet! Good to know some problems are reliably cross-platform.

 

[exify]

After activating some fonts from Adobe FF11, Acrobat opens in ~25 seconds. Does that seem normal?

 

[republic]

Well, does seem to be a correlation between the number of fonts you have open and the length of time it takes Acro+Pitstop to launch.

I was looking through Pitstop's preferences to see if there is any setting that has it pre-cache fonts or something, but don't see anything relevant. Doesn't mean it isn't doing something to pre-load fonts in some way, though.

In fact, I went poking in the /Library/Preferences/Enfocus folder (the Vista version of Pitstop is bound to have a similar thing) and there is a file called PitStopFontInfo.dat at 2.5 MB. How big is your version of that file? What happens if you move or rename that file? (Obviously back it up in some way in case things go bad).

In general I let Suitcase auto-activate fonts I need in CS3. That works 90% of the time, and that way I never have everything open. Of course that may not work for some workflows.

 

[exify]

My PitStopFontInfo.dat is about 1.5 MB. I had suitcase auto-activate fonts, but then I had a problem that when exporting to PDF, InDesign crashes. To fix that, I had to turn off auto-activating.

The funny thing is if I add the Hoefler fonts (~200 font files), it adds minutes to the startup time. When I add Adobe fonts (~500-1000 font files), it adds 20 seconds. Odd.

 

[republic]

Well, sounds like you have a very workable answer, if not ideal. At least you don't have to scrap Pitstop.

Can you turn those fonts on after launching Acro, and does it see them and behave?

 

[exify]

I don't use them enough to warrant them causing me a hassle so I don't mind not activating them at all.

 

[republic]

Also, is there any apparent difference between how the Hoeffler faces are made (ie., number of files, extension types, etc.) and the Adobe fonts? Are they all Type 1? TT? OT?

 

[exify]

The Hoefler comes in multiple types, I installed the OT ones. The way they show up in CS3 though is odd. Helvetica for example shows up once then has a sub-menu for Light, Roman, Bold, etc. ALL these fonts showed up in the main choice window. So Gotham and Gotham Black were separate fonts instead of sub.

 

[MC_JerryD]

When I have the Enfocus folder in the Acrobat\plug_ins directory, Acrobat takes obscenely long to start. Anywhere from 3-7 minutes. When I remove the folder, Acrobat starts INSTANTLY! I never had this problem before, but after I installed a new hard drive, this is what happens.

How can I fix it?

I use to have this problem. What I did to fix it was under Acrobat preferences, go to Enfocus Certified PDF and under the status icon change from checking the Certified PDF profile from automatic to manual. Worked for me.

 

[soullar]

Try this..

Try this..

Try setting the pitstop preferences to manually check for updates.
It seems to do so at every startup..

Shaved 3 min off my starup time.

 

[Purple Cat]

Unfortunately, you can't .

We've been telling Enfocus since Acrobat 7 that they need to make changes to how PitStop performs at plugin initialization time - but for whatever reason they have been unwilling (unable?) to do so...

And the reason Adobe didn't make changes until version 7 of Acrobat to the way their own plug-ins handled initialization was? Not nice Leonard. I didn't think this forum was about bashing vendors.

To answer the question - we know about the problem - I'd be interested to figure out why you are running into it to this extreme amount so if you could drop a note to [email protected] I'd appreciate it.

I know this doesn't help you right now, but fixing this behavior in a fundamental way is a priority for the next major PitStop Professional update. In the mean time, there might be something we can do for you more short term if we understand what the particular circumstances are causing the very high delay you are seeing.

Kind regards,
David.

 

[the_brain]

And the reason Adobe didn't make changes until version 7 of Acrobat to the way their own plug-ins handled initialization was? Not nice Leonard. I didn't think this forum was about bashing vendors.

To answer the question - we know about the problem - I'd be interested to figure out why you are running into it to this extreme amount so if you could drop a note to [email protected] I'd appreciate it.

I know this doesn't help you right now, but fixing this behavior in a fundamental way is a priority for the next major PitStop Professional update. In the mean time, there might be something we can do for you more short term if we understand what the particular circumstances are causing the very high delay you are seeing.

Kind regards,
David.

In addition, check out this Enfocus tip & trick:
Enfocus - Tips & Tricks

Might help you out in a couple of cases.

Cheers,
Brain