Scribus 1.5 not exporting file as PDF/X-1a

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rascalsmom

Ubuntu Scribus versions 1.4 and 1.5.

I'm designing a book in 1.4 and wanting to use 1.5 to create a PDF/X-1a, but I'm having a couple of problems. The biggest one is that the document does not export as PDF/X-1a. I've searched the forum and found a good information on this thread

http://forums.scribus.net/index.php/topic,628.msg2905.html#msg2905

But I can't seem to apply it all. The quotes are from that post.

QuoteFile > 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

I have color management activated in document settings and PDF/X-1a file compatibility set in PDF export. But under Preflight Viewer, I do not have an option for PDF/X-1a.

I am able to select PDF/X-1a in Scribus to export the file, and I'm using Adobe Reader 9 to try and verify the PDF version of the file. Adobe's document properties tell me the PDF version is 1.3. In the thread I mentioned, it was suggested ...

Quoteif 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.

... but I don't have this tab and nowhere can I find this information. Does this mean my installation of Scribus 1.5 is incorrect?

Secondarily, when I open my Scribus 1.4 sla file in 1.5, I find some image and text boxes overlapping (which they weren't in 1.4). I don't know if the two problems are related, of if there is anything I can do when I save the 1.4 file to make it work better in 1.5 (I "save as" under another file name so as to preserve my 1.4 file).

Nermander

I don't think there is anything wrong with your PDF, PDF/X-1a is a PDF 1.3 with some specific limitations (thus not all PDF 1.3 comply with PDF/X-1a but a PDF/X-1a must always be a PDF 1.3).

I don't have access to Adobe Reader 9 so I can't check where to find the information.


I'm not sure about the overlapping images though, but others might know if there are any known such problems.

rascalsmom

Thank you for replying Nermander. This will be a submission to Lightning Source, who apparently is a stickler for the PDF/X-1a format. Perhaps someone else will be able to tell me their experience with this. Ditto for the overlapping images.

rascalsmom

Ok. I've done a little more research and came upon another way to verify the pdf version, by opening the file in a text editor. That reveals all the metadata. The first line indicated 1.3, but a few lines down I found this

Quote/GTS_PDFXVersion (PDF/X-1:2001)
/GTS_PDFXConformance (PDF/X-1a:2001)

Hopefully, that must mean I'm good to go.

The moving of text and image boxes by Scribus 1.5 still a concern. It's discouraging to have to hand check 262 pages every time I try to correct something. I'm guessing perhaps it's happening with boxes I didn't lock in 1.4 when I prepared the document(?)

Nermander

Can you check it the coordinates (X and Y position) change or if the frames appear to move even though the coordinates are the same?

Note the coordinates of some of the affected frames in Scribus 1.4, open the filen in Scribus 1.5 and see if they changed.

rascalsmom

Quote from: Nermander on September 23, 2013, 07:25:10 PM
Can you check it the coordinates (X and Y position) change or if the frames appear to move even though the coordinates are the same?

Note the coordinates of some of the affected frames in Scribus 1.4, open the file in Scribus 1.5 and see if they changed.

Good question. I've only found three of these errors so far and compared the X and Y coordinates in both 1.4 and 1.5. The coordinates remain the same although in 1.5, overlapping appears. Even though an image is involved in one instance, it actually seems to be a problem with the text frames. It appears to be the text that's shifting.

Preflight Verifier catches one of these errors, the one that causes a text overflow. The other two just overlap other text areas.

Nermander

I might be very off here but I do recall that Scribus for a long time had a bug with vertical adjustment of text within frames. The first line offset was wrong. This was corrected in a newer version of Scribus which meant a lot of people got problems with text shifting within the frames. There was a lot of "I want it back the old way!" and "But the old way was wrong, we can't keep a bug to save you some work".

I'm not sure if that was between 1.4 and 1.5 though, I think it was in the 1.3 series so it might not be the case here.

I unfortunately don't remember the workaround, but there was one. This would however mean you will have to adjust the text in the 1.4 version of the document, to make it not change when opened in 1.5. Have a look at how the line spacing and/or first line offset settings are set. I think the bug is when you have it set to rely on the font height.

rascalsmom

Thanks Nermander. You've given me a lead to research. It was easy to make the corrections in 1.5, and there were only three of them on 262 pages. 1.5 being developmental, I'm not surprised by a few glitches.