[Scribus] Setting linescreen when printing pdf file

[Wayne Maeda]

On Sunday 18 July 2004 06:49 pm, Craig Ringer wrote:

> On Mon, 2004-07-19 at 05:57, Wayne Maeda wrote:
> > Is it possible to print out a pdf document (with text and graphics) in
> > Windows so that the graphics print out at 75 lpi while the text remains
> > crisp and dark black? I was under the assumption that it could be done.
> > Most of the newspapers that I deal with request their ads to be in pdf
> > format. They must be printing them out at a certain linescreen somehow
> > someway.
>
> At my workplace (a newspaper) we prefer PDFs from clients. Our printer's
> RIP is what makes the decisions on linescreen, etc, and it clearly
> treats text and graphics differently. It's obvious when we've had to use
> a TIFF instead, or when a client has supplied a PDF of an image of the
> ad, because the text comes out with awful grainy edges due to the
> linescreen.
>
> Essentially, I'm pretty sure it's the RIP's job in a PDF workflow.
>
> > Unfortunately, the printer that I'm dealing with currently, does not take
> > pdf files. They want it camera ready.
>
> Heh. There aren't even any (newspaper) printers in my STATE (Western
> Australia) that accept camera ready jobs anymore. We were forced to go
> all digital, kicking and screaming, because of this - and frankly I
> would've liked to stay with our hybrid process until we could've moved
> to InDesign. Now we're stuck with Quark 4 on MacOS 9 for the forseeable
> future. (It should be pretty obvious why I'm interested in Scribus).

The print company that I'm using now does not believe in letting his long time 
employees go so he can convert to newer technologies. He intentionally keeps 
his workers employed (many are still setting type by hand; the whole room has 
"clickety-click" sounds). He'll continue doing this until they retire or he 
can no longer afford it. 

> > Which means I have to take it to another
> > place to have it printed out at the specified linescreen. Except that
> > this other place does not have the software that sets the linescreen. End
> > result: I have this pdf document with no way to print it out properly.
> > Hmm.
>
> GhostScript appears to have some screen controls. '-dCOLORSCREEN=' and
> '-dDITHERDPI' may have some potential. I'm unable to test if they do
> what you need right now, I'm sorry, but you might want to look into
> them. They're documented briefly in 'Use.html' in the gs docs.

I've used the Ghostscript commands successfully. Unfortunately, the printer 
that I take my jobs to runs only Windows and does not have Ghostscript.

Wayne