[scribus] DPI and PDF question (Nigel Ridley) - subsetting details

[avox]

Nik-4 wrote:
> 
> Hi Nigel,
> 
> My apologies if I am butting in here, but I thought I'd just add my 
> experiences.
> 
>> On Sat, Jul 19, 2008 at 08:36:04PM +0300, Nigel Ridley wrote:
>>   
>>> >> I need to produce two versions of the same newsletter.
>>> >> The first will be to send to our local printing house as a PDF with
>>> the 
>>> >> graphics at 300 dpi.
>>> >> The second version is for sending via email.
>>> >>
>>> >> Am I right in thinking that prior to saving the second version as a
>>> pdf, I 
>>> >> can reduce the overall resolution to, say 72 dpi? Will my graphics
>>> stay the 
>>> >> same physical size in the layout?
>>>     
> I do exactly this regularly.
> 
> Yes you are correct that the graphics will stay the same size in the
> layout.
> 
> To get a reasonably-sized PDF for email, I do the following:
> 
> 1. embed and outline all fonts (was "outline" called "subset" in earlier 
> versions of Scribus?)
> 

Yes, but the functionality was much the same. In 1.3.3 Scribus does
outline/subset
by converting all needed glyphs into PDF xobjects and using those
repeatedly. That
has the disadvantage that the text information is lost (no text selection
possible in Adobe Reader).

The current development version creates a PDF Type 3 font with just the
needed glyphs
and uses that, so effectively it does a PS/Type1/OTF -> PDF Type 3
conversion plus
subsetting. The advantage is that now the text is selectable in AR and there
might be other 
advantages as well. 
PDF Type 3 fonts are quite simple (simpler than PS Type3 and much simpler
than PS Type1, 
TTF or OTF fonts!). The Type 3 fonts generated by Scribus just contain the
path construction 
and fill operations, so it's basically the same information that was coded
in PDF xobjects before. 
Hinting is not available for Type3 fonts.

GS and other programs do not change the font format when subsetting fonts,
so a subset of a Type1
would still be a Type1 font. That way hinting information can be preserved.
Scribus doesn't do
it taht way since a) it's much more complicated than constructing a Type3
font and b) Scribus doesn't
care about hinting anyway (hinting is only relevant for resolutions < 300
dpi).

/Andreas
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