[scribus] Flattening layers?

[avox]

Willem (Pim) Borman wrote:
> 
> I use Scribus 1.3.3.11 in Ubuntu Linux (Gutsy Gibbon) on a computer with a 
> AMD Athlon 64 processor.
> I composed my first newsletter in Scribus following the examples in the
> tutorial, using two layers for the constant and variable contents.
> 
> When I exported the final product (8 pages) to PDF I received error
> warnings. They referred to missing images and such, none of which seemed
> to be the case. 
> 

You might have created empty image frames by accident and later covered it
with other items. When you click on the warning, Scribus should select the
offending imageframe.



I chose to ignore the warning and the document exported correctly to pdf
format. I made sure the images were being reduced to 72 dpi and the output
intended for Web/Screen purposes.
> The file size of the pdf document was about 2.8 MB which seemed to be
> excessive. 
> 
Scribus produces quite verbose PDF which isnt optimal for Web/Screen
purposes. Another post gave a link to a script which reduces the PDF files
size. Embedded fonts can be another problem. Current TTF fonts easily reach
1 MB or more. Scribus already checks the number of contained glyphs and
switches to Outlining automatically if there are too many. That applies for
far-eastern fonts (or fonts with far-eastern support) which easily reach 10
MB or more.



> I thought it might help to flatten the original document to a single layer
> before exporting to pdf. That might also resolve the error warnings.
> 

I doubt that. Scribus only recreates the layers in the PDF if you check that
option in PDF export. Otherwise it's just a form of book-keeping for Scribus
in what order the items are placed on the page.

A totally other beast is transparency flattening. Some print shops ask for
layer flattening when they mean in fact transparency flattening. This is
needed if you have translucency (aka alpha transparency or soft masks). It
is not needed for on/off transparency (hard masks). 

Scribus can not do transparency flattening yet. If you need that, I
recommend creating a PDF 1.4 file from Scribus and use Adobe Reader to print
it to PS file. Adobe Reader contains a good transparency flattener which
will do the job for you. Then you can use pstopdf to create a PDF again.



> QUESTION: How do you flatten multiple layers to a single one? I can't find
> any ways to do that. If it can't be done I'll lay out the next newsletter
> issue in a single layer and see if that helps.
> 

When you delete a layer, Scribus asks if you also want to delete all items
in that layer. Say 'No' there and Scribus will merge the items with the
neighbouring layer. But I would be very surprised if that helps in your
case.

/Andreas
-- 
View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Flattening-layers--tp19582027p19583961.html
Sent from the Scribus New mailing list archive at Nabble.com.