The OpenEdge Hive

I'm not sure this is what you're looking for but I load my images once and reuse them instead of loading during every pdf build since I sometimes build up to 1000 at a time. I used a handle and a function. Here is an example. I might be missing something but this is the basic gist of it. I got most of the idea from other postings, so there is some good information out there. It's been quite awhile since I wrote it so I hope I got it right and it makes sense.

/*mainProg.p*/
DEFINE new shared VARIABLE h_PDFinc AS HANDLE NO-UNDO.
RUN initProg.p
RUN genPDF.p

/*initProg.p loads images and other repeatable pieces of the pdf form to be used later*/
DEFINE shared VARIABLE h_PDFinc AS HANDLE NO-UNDO.
ASSIGN cPdfPathFile = "/tmp/inv.pdf".
RUN pdf_new IN h_PDFinc("Spdf",cPdfPathFile).
pdf_PageHeader("Spdf",THIS-PROCEDURE:HANDLE,"PageHeader").
RUN pdf_load_image IN h_PDFinc("Spdf","IMAGE","/usr/apps/images/image.jpg").

/*genPDF.p*/
DEFINE shared VARIABLE h_PDFinc AS HANDLE NO-UNDO.
FUNCTION pdf_PageHeader RETURN LOGICAL (INPUT pdfStream AS CHARACTER,
INPUT pdfProcHandle AS HANDLE,
INPUT pdfHeaderProc AS CHARACTER):
**** code *****
END FUNCTION.
ASSIGN cPdfPathFile = "/print/inv/" + UPPER(TRIM(cINum)) + ".pdf".
RUN pdf_new IN h_PDFinc("Spdf",cPdfPathFile).
pdf_PageHeader ("Spdf",THIS-PROCEDURE:HANDLE,"PageHeader"). <-- this puts the images and anything else I loaded before in the pdf

** This is in a procedure from an include file delcared in genPDF.p which is called by the PageHeader function**
RUN pdf_place_image IN h_PDFinc_CSP("Spdf", /*pdfStream*/
"image", /*pdfImageName*/
410, /*pdfColumn */
570, /*pdfRow */
35, /*pdfWidth*/
25). /*pdfHeight*/
***
RUN pdf_close IN h_PDFinc("Spdf").

Good luck,
Pete