[Scribus] Character-by-character placement in PDF

[Gregory Pittman]

Craig Ringer wrote:

> Gregory Pittman wrote:
>
>> Let me offer this observation. If there is a more or less absolute 
>> need for efficiency of this type, consider that all of the pertinent 
>> text information is really contained in the Scribus .sla file. This 
>> file can be transmitted with a lot less overhead, especially if 
>> you're just talking about text. There are only two requirements on 
>> the receiving end -- a working copy of Scribus compatible with the 
>> Scribus file type (1.2.x vs 1.3.x), and the correct fonts (though 
>> subs can be done in a pinch).
>
>
> Honestly, I don't think that's realistic. PDF is a widely used and 
> supported standard, and increasingly it's all that printers want to 
> accept. The printers I deal with don't accept QuarkXPress or InDesign 
> documents anymore (good on 'em); the chances of a printer taking 
> Scribus docs are near zero.
>
I was trying to get a sense of where the question was coming from, and 
not suggesting an alternative to PDF. I don't think Phil was suggesting 
modifying the PDF format, or suggesting that printers would accept 
anything else, and it's pretty clear why Scribus makes PDFs.
But, a small example of what I was referring to: I just converted a 23K 
all-text single page .sla file into a 780K PDF. For transmission and 
information purposes, the two files would be identical for someone who 
has Scribus.  I do quite a bit with LaTeX, but for archiving purposes I 
just keep the .tex file; it has everything I need for that purpose.

Greg