[Scribus] Huge PDF file export :(

[Claus Paludan]

man, 2003-05-19 kl. 16:51 skrev Peter Linnell:
> On Mon, 2003-05-19 at 04:20, Claus Paludan wrote:
> > I am running Scribus 0.9.9 and the latest version of GhostSript. Last
> > night I tried to create a pdf file - it contained 3 pics at 50kb in
> > average and only one page of document. But the PDF file ended up
> > between 3.5Mb and 9.5Mb depending on the settings in the pdf export
> > pages.
> 
> What type of images ? TIFF PNG ? JPEG ? Resolution of images ? Which
> distro ?
> 
> Ghostscript 7.06? or 8.0 ?
> 

Ghostscript 7.07. Jpegs 650x450 approx.

> How many and what fonts ?  A single Unicode TTF font can be up to 5 Mb
> and Scribus embeds fonts completely - for reliability. Did you target a
> printer or screen ?

2 fonts - verdana + verdana bold (don't know if it's only one). 
I tried targeting both printer and screen - still gave way to large
files..

> 
> There are many variables to creating PDF which effect the size. There
> are about 110 distilling parameters which are part of the PDF spec.  
> 
> IMO, Franz has done a masterful job of enabling advanced features
> available only on the Full Acrobat Suite running on Win or Mac. At the
> same time masking the complexities without "dumbing down" or limiting
> quality, unlike other applications. 

I am sorry if my first posting sounded too harsh - it was in no
circumstances thought that way. Having a dtp program like this for linux
is wonderfull :-)

> 
> I create dozens of PDF's a week with Scribus and have never had an issue
> with "excessive" size. If the PDF is large, it is because I want a
> "press-ready" PDF and then I am not concerned about size but quality.
> 

I am targeting the web - therefore the wish for small pdf's ;)

> Stuff that bloats a PDF:
> 
> Nested EPS within EPS files. (This also slows down display in Acro
> Reader)
> Many fonts in a doc.
> Excessive resolution in images.
> Scaling images down. 
Scaling down might be an issue here... will check..

> Unneeded ICC profiles embedded in images.
> 
> Stuff that keeps PDF sizes slim:
> 
> Minimize usage of EPS for "screen" oriented (72-96 dpi) PDF's.
> *Sometimes*, but not in all cases...
> 
> Convert TIFF's to PNG or JPEG at 72-96 dpi.
> 
> Use fonts which are already available with Acro Reader: Times,
> Arial,Helvetica Courier etc and can be substituted by the reader.
> 
> Export directly from Scribus. ps2pdf from Ghostscript can do some weird
> things to fonts, which display poorly. Depending on the options, can 
> rasterize the type into bitmaps and print poorly. The pdfwrite device in
> Ghostscript has some limitations. The Ghostscript team are devoting a
> lot of effort to improving this in 8.x Ghostscript.
> 
> You can post a sample PDF, as well as the Scribus files, so that we can
> inspect the files.  
> 
>  The collect to output makes this easy to then tar.gz up the directory.
> 
> Hope that helps,
> 
> Peter

Well posting a sample pdf in such a huge size isn't good ethics on
mailing lists. I will try out your suggestions and get back to the
list...


-- 
Mvh
Claus Paludan