[Scribus] Scribus 1.2.1 Problems with PDF export

[Craig Ringer]

PLinnell wrote:

>On Monday 04 July 2005 14:42, Richard Hammerl wrote:
>
>  
>
>>I am reading the mailing list since some weeks and I'm impressed
>>of it. Working with Scribus is fun. There is only old CorelDraw
>>that brings me back sometimes from Linux to Windows, but now I hope
>>I can sort out my old Windows machine soon. :-)
>>But, I' m experiencing a problem with a PDF file exported by
>>scribus. The file contains a color gradient from red to white and
>>this seems to be a problem for my printing shop. They work with
>>Quark Express for Mac. Are there any known issues?
>>    
>>
>
>Yep, to be completely blunt. Quark Express PDF import support is not 
>so good and using Quark exclusively in a print shop is kinda old 
>fashioned. There are others on the list who provoked, might rant 
>longer and louder ;)
>
>As a professional DTP consultant, I do not recommend this workflow - 
>*ever*. Importing Scribus PDF into Quark, should only be used as a 
>last resort. Quark PDF import cannot handle embedded or sub-set  
>fonts correctly, nor does it handle transparency well in my 
>experience.
>  
>
Seconded.

If they really must use Quark, they'll have to get it into a format 
Quark won't choke on first. EPS may be an option depending on what the 
file contains - but they'd need to use a decent version of Acrobat Pro 
to save as EPS. You could also try exporting as EPS from Scribus (be 
sure to check the page in GSView - not gv / ghostview) before sending it.

Using TIFF is another option - Photoshop does a good job of rasterising 
PDF. Again, depending on what you're printing this could cause issues, 
and is rather less than ideal. There were issues with the Scribus bitmap 
export, but I think Franz may have just sorted those out, so you could 
try that too.

Be aware that all these are basically workarounds for their rather 
PDF-incompatible workflow. I've had endless issues with using PDF 
directly in Quark at work, to the point where I don't even try anymore. 
This is Quark 4, but I hear that's one of the things they didn't improve 
as much as they should've in newer versions. That said, I find that 
exporting as EPS (or occasionally TIFF) gets us reliable results, though 
it does mean all documents have to be checked against the original ad 
(just in case).

Frankly, I'd consider using Quark something you expect from designers, 
agencies, etc. Printers these days shouldn't even need a copy - just 
some good (and *really* expensive) Acrobat plug-ins or standalone 
imposition and preflight software.

--
Craig Ringer