FastReport 5 vs 6: PDF export

[Der schöne Günther 316]

I have completely migrated a project that was built with Delphi 10.0 Seattle with Fast Report VCL 5.1.5 (and a few others, like TeeChart Pro) to Delphi 10.4 Sydney with Fast Report VCL 6.7.

 

I am having a problem with FastReport, especially the PDF export. I am generating "reports" that are just one A4 page in size, with a few images (TMetaFile). In FastReport 5/Delphi Seattle, it was more or less instant. Now, a PDF export for one page takes up to ten seconds. When I use the debugger to pause the application, the stacktrace often looks something like this:

 

:009c086c ; C:\Users\localUser\Desktop\myProject\Win32\Release\myApp.exe
:009bcde9 jpeg_write_scanlines + $9D
:009b03d6 TJPEGImage.JPEGNeeded + $E
frxExportPDF.TfrxPDFExport.AddObject(???)
frxExportPDF.TfrxPDFExport.ExportObject($4086150)
frxPreviewPages.ExportObject($4086150)
frxPreviewPages.ExportPage(0)
frxPreviewPages.DoExport
frxPreviewPages.TfrxPreviewPages.Export($38DD5D0)
frxClass.TfrxReport.Export(???)

:009c18ba @jpeg_fdct_float + $246
:009bee45 ; C:\Users\localUser\Desktop\myProject\Win32\Release\myApp.exe
:009bcde9 jpeg_write_scanlines + $9D
:009b03d6 TJPEGImage.JPEGNeeded + $E
frxExportPDF.TfrxPDFExport.AddObject(???)
frxExportPDF.TfrxPDFExport.ExportObject($4086150)
frxPreviewPages.ExportObject($4086150)
frxPreviewPages.ExportPage(0)
frxPreviewPages.DoExport
frxPreviewPages.TfrxPreviewPages.Export($38DD5D0)
frxClass.TfrxReport.Export(???)

Since I don't have the FastReport source code, I can only guess what is now suddenly taking so long. Directly printing to a printer is a bit faster, but still considerably worse than with Fast Report 5.

 

Does anyone have a clue? I am not aware of any new features that Fast Report 6 added, maybe it's possible to use an older Fast Report 5 version with 10.4? Probably not 😐

[Vandrovnik 215]

They have changed bitmap exports, in my opinion it scales bitmap up when not necessary, which takes time and memory (and sometimes results in Out of memory). I had a discussion and tested export ot bitmap (height = 3508) with following results:

- PrintOptimized=true, PictureDPI=300 --- Out of memory, TempBitmap.Height=10528 px
- PrintOptimized=false, PictureDPI=300 --- works, TempBitmap.Height=3509 px
- OLD_STYLE --- works, TempBitmap.Height=3508 px

[Der schöne Günther 316]

I don't even use bitmaps but vector images but yes, that seems to be the cause. I set PrintOptimized to false, and the speed is now tolerable. At least on one of the reports I tested. Many thanks!

 

I have been unable to find documentation, the RAD Studio installation ships with a PDF file that dates back to 2008, but I also found this blog entry where PrintOptimized is also mentioned:

 

http://web.archive.org/web/20200525054725/https://www.fast-report.com/en/blog/324/show/

 

Thanks.

[Guest]

Considering your callstack @Vandrovnik is probably right.

Another thing to check out is the (IMHO much better RichText export).

In version 5 RTF objects produced bitmaps. In version 6 it produces properly formatted text in the PDF (searchable, extractable).

That *could* also make things slower.

[Cristian Peța 107]

If you are using TMetaFile in your report you can try to set AllowVectorExport to False for that component (in report editor). This way PDF export will work like version 5 generation an image.

Edited June 30, 2020 by Cristian Peța

[Der schöne Günther 316]

Interesting. I was under the impression that the image was still exported as a JPEG image, even though AllowVectorExport was already true. Thanks, I will give it a try 😊

Edited July 1, 2020 by Der schöne Günther