[scribus] Scribus 1.5.5 (Debian/Testing) doesn't export link text to PDFs

[Gary Dale]

On 2020-06-14 18:55, Gregory Pittman wrote:
> On 6/14/20 4:46 PM, Gary Dale wrote:
>> I'm having some problems with Scribus Generator but this one looks like it is with Scribus itself. I have Generator populate a text box with a website name and fill in the PDF annotation as the same text prefixed with http://. When I look at the text box and the PDF annotations, they seem to be OK - they contain what I expect.
>>
>> When I export the Scribus document to PDF, the lnks work but the text isn't there. I can click on where the text box is and it launches a new tab in my browser open at the correct address but there is no text to suggest that the expanse of white space is actually a link
>>
>> I'm pretty sure this isn't a Generator-produced error because I actually had to fix the first link (of two) on each page because Generator somehow filled both links with the second link's data. Or is there some setting I need to turn on in a PDF annotation to get it to display text?
> Hi Gary,
>
> When you create a text frame, make it a PDF Annotation as a web-link, then nothing shows up in it in the PDF. The way I have worked with this is to size the Annotation frame properly, then place the frame directly over the text in another text frame you want to serve as a visual for the link.
>
> I think that converting some text beginning with http://... to a link is a function of the PDF reader/viewer, not something that has to do with Scribus.
>
> Greg

Thanks Greg. Using two text boxes sounds very clunky however. It sounds 
more like a bug if Scribus doesn't display text in a text box that 
contains a PDF annotation web link.

I disagree with you that this should be a PDF reader function however. 
Firstly, no one puts http:// in front of urls. This means the reader has 
to guess which text is a web link. Secondly, it also means that you 
can't use graphics or indirect references to a web page - you can't 
click on a logo or say "visit my site", for example.

It gets even worse when you throw mailto: or tel: links into the mix.

The Scribus method of using PDF annotations is already clumsy - first 
you have to make it a type of annotation then you have to right-click it 
again to add the destination. Then there's the fact that the text has to 
be in a separate text box... Why can't I just select a piece of text 
inside a box then right-click on it and make it a link (or a note or 
whatever)?

It's not a deal breaker for me, but I'm working on a directory where 
literally half the text should be clickable links - web sites, e-mail 
addresses and telephone numbers.

We don't make it a function of web browsers to figure out which text 
should be links. We instead ask that web browsers properly display the 
link text or graphic while also making them clickable. I think it is the 
function of Scribus to export the web links I created in a way that works.