[Scribus] greyscale, bleed, and PDF/X-3

[Philipp Wagner]

Nik schrieb:
> Hi Andreas!
> 
> Thank you for your time and suggestions.
> 
>  > In your case that would have to be a grayscale ICC profile I'd guess.
>  > Try to install a generic one
> 
> I had wondered whether I could produce greyscale PDF using a greyscale 
> profile...
> Thank you for your suggestion - I'll look into a greyscale profile.

For a grayscale document, you don't need color profiles at all most of
the time, so you probably don't have to care about any advanced color
problems.

>  > Did your printer ask specifically for X-3 compatibility?
> No. In fact, they seemed quite confused by the term - I don't think they 
> actually know what it is.
> I selected PDF/X-3 because from my research, it seemed the most reliable 
> way to ship a print-ready document.
> I thought this decision was confirmed when the printer asked for bleed, 
> and I saw the PDF/X-3 options apparently included control over this.

No, PDF/X-3 deals mostly (only?) with color problems. Bleed is only a
margin of a couple mm around the document (or on some sides only), which
are printed and then cut away by your printer. This is required if you
have e.g. a black box which is supposed to go close to the page margin.
If your printer would cut the paper not directly at the margin line, you
would see a small line of white from the paper at your margins. If you
don't have any elements going close to the margins, you can send the
document without bleed, too.

> However, someone has posted instructions to me on creating bleed in a 
> regular scribus document, so I will try to set this up correctly, and 
> send it to the printer. I must say that the 'trim box' in the PDF/X-3 
> options certainly seemed a simpler way of doing it - if indeed that does 
> create bleed for me.
> 
> Q: Is there any way of including some 'bleed' control in regular 
> (non-PDF/X-3) PDF creation, and is it worth a feature request?

It's already planned.