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Scribus => PDF Generation => Topic started by: Henriola_making_copies on May 15, 2012, 07:05:03 PM

Title: How to import a PDF and have it maintain high resolution
Post by: Henriola_making_copies on May 15, 2012, 07:05:03 PM
Hi,

I occasionally have to include complex Word documents in the magazine, produced using Scribus. Importing the text does not work since formatting is lost. The easiest work around would be to (i) convert the Word document to a PDF (300-600 dpi), and (ii) import the PDF to an image box. BUT: when doing this, the high resolution of the PDF is lost. Thus, text gets baaaad and reads poorly.

Does anyone know why this is so? Is there another way to do it? I have circumvented the problem by converting Word=>PDF=>PNG (600 dpi). Nice quality, but immense file size that cannot be e-mailed to the printers office.

All comments appreciated - thank you!

/Henry
Title: Re: How to import a PDF and have it maintain high resolution
Post by: a.l.e on May 15, 2012, 08:42:14 PM
importing from formatted office document is planned and may not be too far in the future.

but it won't automatically keep your formatting as is, of course!

if you want to go through a PDF file and want to keep it as is, you can try the "experimental" PDF embedding option, you can find the PDF export dialog (you will have to take care, among other things, tha the color space of the included and the produce PDF match.... that's the experimental part...)

good luck!
a.l.e
Title: Re: How to import a PDF and have it maintain high resolution
Post by: Nermander on May 16, 2012, 07:00:18 AM
Quote from: Henriola_making_copies on May 15, 2012, 07:05:03 PMBUT: when doing this, the high resolution of the PDF is lost. Thus, text gets baaaad and reads poorly.

Have you tried exporting the document to PDF? Because Scribus uses a low resolution preview when working with the document, so don't expect the final result to look as the low resolution preview.
Title: Re: How to import a PDF and have it maintain high resolution
Post by: Macam14 on May 27, 2013, 09:17:46 PM
I have a similar problem as the original poster. I export a document from another program (in my case, a music notation program) as a PDF, with vector graphics and embedded fonts. If I open the PDF in Foxit Reader, for example, it looks sharp, and if I print it at 600dpi, for example, it also looks sharp -- just as good as printing from the original program. When I import it into Scribus, Scribus for reasons I can't comprehend decides it's 72 dpi: when I right-click and point to Info, it gives "72 x 72" as the "Original PPI", and "66 x 66" as the "Actual PPI". (The preview reflects this low resolution) If I right click and select Preview Settings, Full Resolution is checked. In Properties>Image if I increase the dpi to 600, it shrinks the image to 12 % of its size. If I print from Scribus, the result looks better than 72 dpi, but still grainy compared to printing the PDF directly from Foxit.

I have only a little experience with desktop layout programs, but it would seem to me that embedding a PDF at its original quality would be a basic feature of such a program. Is Scribus really not yet capable of this? Or am I missing something?
Title: Re: How to import a PDF and have it maintain high resolution
Post by: Nermander on May 29, 2013, 07:53:35 AM
Scribus will, by default, rasterize an embedded PDF. There is a checkbox for the "experimental" feature to embed PDF in PDF.

Title: Re: How to import a PDF and have it maintain high resolution
Post by: Macam14 on May 29, 2013, 05:11:13 PM
Thank you. Where can I find such a checkbox?
Title: Re: How to import a PDF and have it maintain high resolution
Post by: Nermander on May 29, 2013, 06:21:25 PM
In the PDF export dialog if I remember right (to lazy to launch Scribus just to look for it).
Title: Re: How to import a PDF and have it maintain high resolution
Post by: Macam14 on May 29, 2013, 08:25:57 PM
Your memory is right -- if I go File > Export > Save as PDF..., ignore the errors ("Object placed is a PDF" -- I don't know what that should be a problem), there is a checkbox, "Embed PDF & EPS files (EXPERIMENTAL". When I check that, I can export a PDF which maintains the quality of the embedded PDFs. Thanks again for this tip.

Unfortunately I can't print directly from Scribus to my printer without the embedded PDFs being degraded, but by taking this extra step and exporting to PDF first, then printing the PDF, I can avoid the quality degradation. I suppose I can live with that small inconvenience, versus spending $700 for InDesign :-)