Unable to generate a PDF in Adobe RoboHelp

Issue

When trying to publish a PDF output of a project, the process fails, and the PDF is not produced.

Cause

The environment variable JAVA_HOME is NOT set as expected.

Resolution

Pre-requisite

You must Java 64-bit Runtime installed in your machine.

Windows

Note: If you are in a corporate or government environment, or behind a firewall, you must install Java only after consulting your IT department. 

Java 8 Update 251, which is the latest update, installs the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 1.8. Ensure that you install Java 8 Update 251 or a later version. Oracle contains different downloads according to the specification of your machine.

When you install Java, a registry entry gets created that allows Adobe RoboHelp to generate a PDF output. If the Java installation fails to create the registry entry, you must create a system variable.

Note: If you are in a corporate or government environment, or behind a firewall, create the system variable only after consulting your IT department. 

Here's how you'll create the system variable:

1. Open the Start Search, type in “env”, and click Edit the system environment variables.
2. In the System Properties pop-up, click Environment Variables.
3. In the System variables section, click New.
4. Enter the Variable name as JAVA_HOME.
5. In the Variable value field, browse to the location where you've installed Java. For example, C:\Program Files\Java\jre followed by your version number (eg, C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0.251).

macOS

Big Sur

To set JAVA_HOME, follow the steps below:

1. From the menu bar in Finder, select Go > Utilities to display a Finder window showing Mac system utilities.
2. Double-click on the Terminal application.
3. Create/edit the .profile file in the home folder using the command, vim ~/.profile.
4. Add this line to the file:
   launchctl setenv JAVA_HOME $(/usr/libexec/java_home)
5. Restart the machine.
6. Launch Adobe RoboHelp.

Previous Mac versions

1. In the terminal, run the command:
   echo export "JAVA_HOME=\$(/usr/libexec/java_home)" >> ~/.bash_profile
2. Restart the machine.
3. Launch Adobe RoboHelp.