re-sizing a page INCLUDING the text size

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Karela

It has happened to me a few times the last few weeks that I have, for example, made a poster and then had the client ask to have another copy at half size. Obviously, when I shrink the page size and the images, the text still stays the original size.

Most recently, a client asked for a multi-page document at 11 by 17, as we had done in the past, only to change their mind to 8.5x11.

Is there any way to grab the entire contents of a page and shrink, making sure that the size of the font shrinks proportionally?

utnik

hi karela

Quote from: Karela on September 07, 2017, 08:46:19 PMIs there any way to grab the entire contents of a page and shrink, making sure that the size of the font shrinks proportionally?

afaik not inside scribus – but you could shrink the final .pdf file with an external tool like jpdftweak.
...or you could change the text size by using the style manager (and adjusting the baseline grid, if it is in use...)

Quote...Most recently, a client asked for a multi-page document at 11 by 17, as we had done in the past, only to change their mind to 8.5x11.

it's not a good idea to shrink a document disproportionally (the aspect ratio changes by almost 20% between 11/17 and 8.5/11...) – and my eyesight doesn't increase automatically when i grab a smaller book. here you shauld adjust your layout anyway.

utnik

a.l.e

well, if you press the ctrl-key while resizing frames, you will be able to keep the ratio...

and, starting with the development version 1.5,  if you press the alt-key the text will be resized, too.

so if you press both the ctrl and alt key, theoretically, you will get the effect you're looking for

but, in my experience, the alt-resizing only works good for small snippets like titles. (and it's for those cases that it has been programmed).
if you want to scale a full page, you'd probably follow utnik's hints and scale the pdf... or manually change the font size (if possible by using styles).

GarryP

For a proportional resize you could try outputting the original as a PDF and then importing that PDF into an image frame in a new document with a different size. It works on-screen, but I have no idea what the printed output will be like. (Also, you can't make changes to the document once it's been imported.)

For a non-proportional resize you are better off changing the document manually, otherwise everything will look stretched and weird.

One thing to note is that just shrinking something down doesn't usually give you the best result. For one simple example, text that is legible at the original size may not be legible at a smaller size. To get the best result you will probably have to change the layout and design instead of just shrinking the whole page.

Page size is something that needs to be agreed upon right at the start of a commission. Doing one document at two different - proportional or non-proportional - page sizes is pretty much the same work as doing two different documents. Only you can say whether you're okay with giving the client a "two for the price of one" deal.

Are you sure the client is not using both copies? Unscrupulous people sometimes try to get something for nothing.

Think about this scenario:
* Client wants both a poster and a flyer, but doesn't want to pay for both;
* Client asks you to produce a poster;
* You create a poster;
* Client says, "Ah, sorry about this, but what we really need is a flyer";
* You convert the poster to a flyer.

The outcome is:
* The client has both the things they wanted but have only paid for one;
* You have created two things but only been paid for one.

I'm not saying that this has happened in your situations but it's something to be wary of. Get the details locked-down at the start and charge for changes accordingly.