Color management problem in PDF export with Scribus 1.5.3

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Servatius

I found a difference in color management of Scribus 1.5.3 compared to version 1.4.6 when exporting a document to PDF. I am not sure whether this is a bug or whether Scribus 1.5.3 just works different. I have prepared two small test documents to show the differences.

The document CMTest-1.4.6.sla was created with Scribus 1.4.6. It combines 4 images with embedded ICC profiles from the ICC v4 test page of the International Color Consortium. The document setup has color management enabled, uses Adobe RGB for RGB (both images and solid colors) and uses Coated FOGRA27 for CMYK (both images and solid colors). The PDF Export settings use PDF/X-3, they use the color profile Adobe RGB for solid colors and embedded color profiles for images (as all four test images have embedded profiles). The pre-press output profile is Coated FOGRA27.

The document CMTest-1.5.3.sla was created by opening CMTest-1.4.6.sla in Scribus 1.5.3 and immediately storing it under the new name. So it has the same document setup as described for CMTest-1.4.6.sla.

When I export CMTest-1.4.6.sla to CMTest-1.4.6.pdf from Scribus 1.4.6, PDF Reader shows all four sub-images correctly.

When I export CMTest-1.5.3.sla to CMTest-1.5.3.pdf from Scribus 1.5.3, PDF reader is not able to show the correct colors. The lower left and upper right sub-images are wrong.

Interestingly, both PDF files show correctly in Firefox (with gfx.color_management.enablev4 set to true on about:config). So the embedded profiles of the four sub-images seem to be present, but in a way that Adobe Reader does not recognise them in CMTest-1.5.3.pdf.

I am about to finish my first real document in Scribus, and as I chose version 1.5.3, I am concerned whether the document colors will be shown correctly when I give it to the print service.

I would be grateful if somebody could please check and explain what is going on here.

PS: I attached the sample documents here. For the four test images, please open http://www.color.org/version4html.xalter in your browser and store them from there (store each quadrant of the big picture separately).

- Servatius

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GarryP

Welcome to the forum Servatius.

I don't use CM myself so I'll let one of the CM experts handle your question but I have a bit of advice about sharing Scribus documents that might be useful.

If you want to share a Scribus document with someone - or on the forum - you should use the "File -> Collect For Output" function.
By using this function you can gather all of the resources needed by the document together in one folder. This includes the SLA file, images, fonts, and colour profiles - remember to check the relevant check-boxes in the dialog. (Basically the function makes a copy of all of the resources in a new folder.)
By sharing the collected output you are giving whoever you are sharing it with a complete copy of the document along with everything that's needed without any further downloading or substitution.

Sharing the document in this way makes it much easier for people to figure out what a problem is without having to gather resources from other places and/or make guesses about various settings.

I hope this helps and that someone can help with the issue you've raised.

Servatius

Thanks for the nice welcome, Garry.

I followed your advice and uploaded the complete folders here.

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jghali

Servatius, thanks for your report. There was indeed a regression causing a failure to load ICC profiles embedded in JPEG files. I just fixed it in 1.5.4.svn.

Servatius

jghali, thanks very much for the quick solution.

I'll look out for the next snapshot of 1.5.4.svn, and as they seem to be provided fairly frequently, I am confident it will be available when I get my project finished in a few weeks. I will continue working with 1.5.3 but intend to use 1.5.4.svn for the final export to PDF to get the color profiles right.