[scribus] Scribus PDF Error

[Mike Sleger]

Scribus PDF export just doesn't seem to like large images.  My TIF image is 5100 x 6599 at 600 dpi (96.2 MB) and looks fine, prints fine from Scribus.  Export bombs.  Resaving the .tif doesn't fix the problem.  BMP isn't supported, so that format is out.  GIF requires indexed color and this is a true-color image, so that format is out.  Changing to PNG format (12.0 MB) also bombs on export.  Just for kicks, tried JPG (14.9 MB) and export again bombed.  Tried XPM format (105 MB and resolution changed to 72 dpi so PreFlight warns for image resolution less than 144 dpi) and export still bombed.  Conclusion:  1.3.3.14 doesn't handle images greater than some particular maximum size (unless there's some trick that I'm not aware of for getting this to work).

 

Has anybody used a massively large image in Scribus and was able to export it to PDF?  I'm open to suggestion on a file type to use, without sacrificing image quality.  Scribus import recognizes GIF, JPG, PNG, XPM, and TIFF, none of which have worked.  I want to keep the 600 dpi resolution for print quality.  I could always just have page 1 (the cover) contained in a separate file, like PageMaker or Word and send two files to the printer.  (Acrobat Distiller doesn't have any problems with the large image.)
 


From: chappa-ai at msn.com
To: scribus at lists.scribus.net
Subject: RE: [scribus] Scribus PDF Error
Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2010 18:16:00 -0600



I have identified the problem.
 
> Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2010 21:44:01 +0200
> From: ale.comp_06 at xox.ch
> To: scribus at lists.scribus.net
> Subject: Re: [scribus] Scribus PDF Error
> 
> hi mike
> 
> i start to wonder why i should help you....
 
Because you're a nice guy who helps new users who are unfamiliar with the program's history and experiencing unexpected results? :)

> 3 GB should be indeed be enough. but scribus is really not optimized on the side of memory consumption.
 
Optimization doesn't matter much to me as long as a job can get done. Sure, efficient and fast are important, but the bottom line is whether or not an end objective can be met.

> please consider that we don't see your monitor nor have any access to your files.
 
I realize this and I didn't mean to start offending anybody. It can be very frustrating when a program consistently crashes for an "unknown" reason when performing a supported function. Please consider that I'm not new to computers, DTP, or programming, as I've been doing this with various software and platforms for over 20 years.  Therefore, understand that I have already done the preliminary debugging steps (fonts are indeed embedded, fonts are not corrupted, images are intact, etc) before asking for outside assistance from people more familiar with the program than somebody who's been using it for only a couple days.

> the next steps would be to check your images (is the resolution of your images correct? are there broken images? can scribus read images correctly your images?).
 
All images display correctly in the Scribus document.  The PreFlight verifier reports "No problems found".  Image resolutions are correct.  In fact, when I print the .sla from Scribus directly to my printer it prints correctly.
 
 
> if you're not using the color management system, you may try to convert all images to jpg and see if then it works.
 
I don't like to use jpg for "important" images because the pixels "change" often from the compression algorithms.  I've even noticed discrepancies sometimes with no compression.  Therefore, I always use gif, bmp, or tif when image quality is of concern.  The .bmp format isn't supported by Scribus (according to the Get Image dialog) so I've been using .tif images created from either PhotoShop or Gimp.

> > Also, lowercase "L" and uppercase "I" are all
> > generated bold, despite having normal style and display in the .sla
> > file.
> 
> this is probably only a display problem and the printed copy will be correct.
> (the problem does not happen any more in the unstable versions of scribus)
 
This is interesting since the display is fine within Scribus.  Acrobat is displaying l's and I's in bold, and only when a style is applied.

The problem has been identified as the 8 1/2 x 11 cover image on page 1. Deleting it has the export working fine (except for the bold l's and I's, which may be just a screen issue that won't be on paper as you suggest).  I'll need to reconfigure the .tif to get it working.  I appreciate your time in pointing me to the problem.
 		 	   		  
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