How to PDF/X-1a Scribus 1.5?

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Toomas

Hello the Scribus community, this is my first post.

I am trying to export from 1.5 to PDF/X-1a, but it does not work. The resulting file is always PDF 1.3
What I do:
No document opened
File > Preferences > Color Mgmt --> Tick Activate color management
File > Preferences > PDF Export > File options > Compatibility --> set PDF/X-1a
File > Preferences > Preflight Verification --> Output profile to PDF/X-1a
OK

If I now open preferences again, then in the PDF export pane the Compatibility is switched back to PDF 1.3.

The same happens, if I first open the document and set the document preferences to PDF/X-1a.

Am I missing an important step? How to export to PDF/X-1a?

Thanks. Toomas.

Nermander

I am not sure about how it looks in 1.5, but in Scribus you have two sets of settings:

1. Preferences (only affects new documents)
2. Document settings (only affects the current document)

On the other hand, you do not need to chose the PDF version in the settings, you can chose it in the PDF Export dialog instead.

Toomas

Thank you Nermander. I have tried various options, including the one you suggest. Even when it seems that the export goes in PDF/X-1a (everything ticked and marked), the resulting document is still PDF 1.3. Scribus just not exporting in X-1a.


utnik

hi toomas

if you check your pdf file with the adobe reader, the first tab of the document properties window will always tell you the compatible pdf version. this is in your case: '1.3 (acrobat 4.x)'.
another tab (something like: 'user defined' – i don't have an english version handy...) should give you for: 'GTS_PDFXConformance 'the value: 'PDF/X-1a:2001'
if you find this entry, the pdf is ok – if not, there is something wrong with your installation.

btw. on which operating systen do you work? (with my self compiled 1.5 on mac os 10.6.8 it works without any problem...)

utnik

Toomas

Great, thank you very much! Exactly as you say, 'GTS_PDFXConformance 'the value: 'PDF/X-1a:2001'.
Problem solved! Thanks!
I am on Ubuntu Scribus.

Philogos

I also had this problem and the solution is on this page but not absolutely clear. The issue is with using File>Preferences to activate colour management. As explained higher up, this sets colour management up for new documents but NOT for the one you are working on.
SO: File>Document Setup>Color Management> Activate Color Management

The PDF export will now offer additional options for PDF/X-1a and PDF/X-3 in the compatibility drop-down. Check one of these and you will find the GTS_PDFXVersion and GTS_PDFXConformance in the Custom tab of the document properties in Adobe Acrobat Reader.

JohnJR

After realizing the Color Management click and thus having PDF-x-1a appear as an option to export, I selected File > Export for my book cover, sailed through Preflight Verifier without a peep, selected PDF-x-1a, hit the Save button and off it went to my desktop.  Doing a random check, the results of the PDF-x-1a export were pretty shocking.  My images were fine.  The spot colors were distorted somewhat, but not bad, smoother even; however my text font had been changed from my embedded Baskerville to a sort of Arial.  Trying PDF-x-3 produced the same result.

Prior to viewing this I was reminded that the export should be opened with a PDF viewer, in other words Adobe Reader (red logo).  I discovered my Adobe Reader had disappeared and been replaced with Acrobat Reader DC (black logo).

This may be important because I wonder if this is a Scribus issue at all.

As an experiment I went back into File > Export selecting instead PDF-1.3 first, then the latest PDF-1.5 (Adobe 6), and then from EPS converted to PDF.  All three of these PDF's saved the book cover fine in every respect when viewed using the, now, Acrobat Reader DC.

All five of these exported PDF's also had in common a pop-up message: "Cannot extract the embedded font 'Baskerville'.  Some characters may not display or print correctly." with an OK button (see screen shot)  Clicking-off the OK button produced no change in any of them.

Has anyone who is still fortunate to have the old Adobe Reader(red logo) experienced problems with Scribus PDF-x-1a exports?

( I answered my own question; Transferring my Scribus book cover to an different Mac that still hadn't lost its Adobe Reader 10 (red logo) and exporting it as a PDF-x-1a, voila, a perfect book cover, Baskerville and all.  I gather I now have finally a perfect book cover saved in the holy grail PDF-x-1a.)

From this experience the modest advise might be, if you have Adobe Reader (red logo) hold onto it for dear life and steer clear of solicitations to "upgrade" to anything now named Acrobat Reader DC (black logo).  Downloading the black logo appears to wipe out your red logo and as a modest suggestion you should be very wary of the latter.  Maybe the two can exist together but to chance it you won't be upgrading your old read logo; there is none.

Even though my journey may have ended with this discovery (cross your fingers), it might be helpful to others to still continue.

Since the PDF-x-1a is a requirement set by the behemoth Ingram Spark and its subsidiary, I have taken this issue up with them concerning only the black logo PDFx's mashing up and what if anything they intend to do about it.  It seems to me they should vet these themselves before subjecting their clients to a merry-go-round of submissions as has experienced by some of their DIY publishing clients.  Ingram Spark responded that it would be passed on to the "Premedia Team for their "insight".

In case it might be helpful, I noted that all five of the PDF Exports mentioned herein opened in Acrobat Reader DC, but with differences in their windows.  The three that show the book cover just fine opened in windows with the tool bar extending across the top row.  The two that were either of the two PDFx's opened with tool bars that also extended down the left hand side as well with one icon being called Standards with the immutable information that went with it (see screen shot).

I queried these PDFx windows further using their own File > Properties and found they first recognized that my book cover had been generated using Scribus 1.4.6 and the PDF producer was Scribus PDF Library 1.4.6, but black logo had shown it as PDF-1.3.  The garbled font was recognized as Baskerville, TrueType, but "encoded" it as "Custom" and "Actually" installed instead something called "Adobe sans MM Type 1" (must be a sort of Arial).  I proceeded to Custom and found nothing that made any sense to me, but based on reviewing other posts may mean something to those with more expertise: Name: GTS_PDFXConformance  Value PDF/X-1a:2001  Name GTS_PDFXVersion  Value PDF/s-1:2001.  The only thing I took away from this is that the black logo knew damn well these messes were PDF-x-1a or PDF-x-3.

I hope this helps.

Thanks,













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utnik

#7
hi john

i don't understand all the experiences you describe. but it looks like anything with your 'baskerville' font is wrong. (at least on one of your computers...)
there's no problem with 'adobe acrobat reader dc' on my system (osx 10.11.6)

Quote from: JohnJR on February 14, 2017, 07:09:07 PM...however my text font had been changed from my embedded Baskerville to a sort of Arial

looks a corrupt (or not embedded) font, replaced to a standard font by the reader.

QuoteHas anyone who is still fortunate to have the old Adobe Reader(red logo) experienced problems with Scribus PDF-x-1a exports?

the export works within scribus – the reader isn't involved...

Quote...but black logo had shown it as PDF-1.3. ...

...found nothing that made any sense to me, but based on reviewing other posts may mean something to those with more expertise: Name: GTS_PDFXConformance  Value PDF/X-1a:2001...

no big story here: every .pdf/x-1a and .pdf/x-3 file is a .pdf 1.3. (that's why newer things like transparencies don't work with .pdf/x-1a...)

you can show me your project ('file' → 'collect for output' and compress the folder) if you like...

utnik

JohnJR

Hi Utnik,

Sorry about the delay in responding, but:

Something is happening to my post, again.  I had a response ready to go and I believe at least the message itself was current.  I had used the refresh link and returned to typing.  I was trying to attach the contents of the requested Collect for Output folder and on the Preview button which is the only one that responded I received a series of Back buttons over my attachments: first, was that Arial.ttf could not be sent with that extension; second, that the file size was too large; third, after I had gone back into the Collect for Output option and compressed the file itself (which I hadn't done) I received a Back button that .sla.gz was not an acceptable extension.  This really puzzled me and going back saw that .sla.gz was listed as one accepted, so I hit the Preview button again to see if the extension was a misread.  Zingo, I got this again (see screen shot).  This time I didn't send any emails to the link.

What am I doing to be revisited by this again and how can I prevent it?

Also the folder Collect for Output would not select for attachment, but all the content items would, like Arial.ttf for example.  Following this routine I was limited to five attachments out of seven items.  I have a feeling you only really need the original file.sla.gz.  Am I right in that assumption and if not how can I send the folder as one attachment instead of as pieces.

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Nermander

You will probably need to ZIP the content of the folder so be able to attach it to a forum post. But including fonts will most likely make it larger than the allowed attachment size.

utnik

hi john

you can't upload a folder. you have to compress it (and upload the resulting .zip file).
if the forum doesn't accept this because it is too large, you may upload somewhere else and insert a download link in the forum post.

utnik

JohnJR

Hi Utnik,

I guess things can be for the better as far as error 403.  I guess it's a anti-spam that can affect the experts too.

Many side issues in that lost post concerning the my computer's monitor producing many different appearances according to the PDF version has sent me on a different path that I need to explore first.

Since I now understand that the text issue is with my Scribus file, not Adobe Readers, I have tried to solve the text font substitution myself.  I started with the Properties Palette by selecting the text frames and all have the Baskerville selected and refer to it as "TrueType"(?).  My font selection came from the font list presented for that box..  (I will say that the reader only in the PDF/X's shows the font as Custom and "encodes" the Arial that shows up.  This did not happen with the other PDF versions.)

I had read that to select the font using this pathway embedded the font in the file.  Looking back into the issue, I ran across, "tries to embedded the font" with some reference to, in the Pre-Press tab to supply something in the Info String: box.  I have no idea of what Info String is and re-examining this it seems related to color profiles and management.  That is a world I'm still bouncing around in, but it doesn't seem have much to do with fonts.

The only other reference found referred to, I guess, fonts with many different letters (glyphs); doesn't seem to involve the selected font, but maybe?  There was reference to Preferences > Fonts and that if there were font problems I should de-select Subsets.  There were none presented for my selected font.

Is there any other route I can follow to solve this issue on my (amateur) own?

Meanwhile, I'll work on learning that compress-zip thing.

Thanks,

John

JohnJR

Hi Utnik,

Compress-zip process was straight forward, even for the easily confused.  but the zipped file was still too large to post.  Here is a screen shot of what's in the Collect for Output Folder.  Perhaps some items are not needed to look into the font substitution problem and I could leave them out.

I notice the teeny little photo is a whopping 5.7 MB, but the cover needs it too have a reference.  This is a side issue, but is that a result of not importing it into Scribus as a .jpeg?  I thought using .tiff was best practices, however for a 3"x5" photo .tiff seems inordinately excessive.

Thanks,

John


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utnik

hi john

Quote from: JohnJR on February 22, 2017, 12:53:01 AM...Perhaps some items are not needed to look into the font substitution problem and I could leave them out.

i just need the .sla and the font file, but no image and no color profile.

utnik

JohnJR

Hi Utnik,

Here is only the .sla file and the font file.  The font family came from inside Scribus.

Thanks,

John

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