Combined jpg and vector pdf output?

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xjortsu

Hi, I need to combine a multiple page catalogue I made in Scribus. It has large jpg background images on the pages and multiple (8..20) transparent png images on top of the background. Text areas are mostly on the bottom of the pages but there's also some other text boxes around the pages.

When I export these pages as pdf, Scribus does not combine the background and foreground graphics like it does when I export it in jpg format. This results in large pdf files.

Is there a way to combine all raster graphics to one jpg image and preserve text parts as vectors? Thanks in advance if someone can help.

Nermander

As far as I know: No, not in Scribus.

What you are asking for is called flattening and Scribus does not currently support flattening.

What you can do is use ghostscript to flatten your PDF.

xjortsu

Yeah, I was talking about flattening of course. :) I consider this is a serious limitation in Scribus. "Flatten raster graphics" would be a wonderful option upon pdf export, especially when the program code to make that happen is already in the jpg export!

QuoteWhat you can do is use ghostscript to flatten your PDF
Can you give a link to manual, on how to do that? I'm afraid I'm new to ghostscript but this might be a good time to dig into it. :)

a.l.e

hey,

you're welcome to provide a solution by either by programming it, by looking for (paying?) a programmer, by starting a kickstarter for doing it.
scribus needs new people getting active! (even if it's not easy to get active in the scribus community...)

many people will be very grateful! really!

now, why scribus can do it for jpg and not for pdf? because it's much easier!

jpg images contain only one image. in the pdf, scribus has to keep most of the items separated (text, lines, images, ...) and mix all that with the pre-calculated rasterization related to the flattening.

it for sure doable, but time consuming... and the programmers who are currently active in scribus are already very busy...

Nermander

The major problem is: What resolution, colorspace, compression etc should the flattened image have? There needs to be a lot of settings to give full control of the flattening.

I think that in most cases flattening is done by the RIP, and Scribus is pre-RIP software.

mnawij

xjortsu,

Have you considered combining the image elements in GIMP, Krita or such before placing in Scribus?  Maybe create the image placement first within Scribus if you need it for the layout and then export the .jpg files for replacement within another Scribus files for completion???  I know these are muckity-muck work around, but sometimes they are necessary evils :-)

mnawij

xjortsu

Hi mnawij, I got the job done already, and I didn't need other programs. :)

1) Saved a vector-only version of my catalogue (deleted any raster graphics from them).
2) Removed all vector elements from the original pages and exported them as jpg.
3) Combined the jpg's to the vector-only versions.

My catalogue has 62 pages so all the above was at least 4 hours of extra work. :(