Simple test document with label and textfield produces inaccurate results

Previous topic - Next topic

bateman

Hello,

I just started using Scribus and so far it is great. I just encountered a problem which may not be an error but perhaps my misunderstanding.

Using Scribus 1.4.4, I create a blank new document with the default settings and insert just a label and a text field like this:



I changed no properties, leaving all at the default settings. Now I export it as a PDF, again with default settings and the result, viewed with PDF-XChange-Viewer, looks this way:



So, my obvious question is, why is the result so different from the document in Scribus (see the textfield in the PDF file)?

And as a side question: The file size of the PDF is 496 kb, this just can't be correct?


Thanks a lot for your help!

utnik

hi bateman

i can't detect in the screenshots what causes this problem – could you upload the project ('file' → 'collect for output' with the option 'include fonts' checked) somewhere ,and link it here in the forum?

utnik

Nermander

What do you use to view the PDF? How PDF forms work depends A LOT on the PDF Viewer used. Always use Adobe Reader to check your PDFs.

bateman

Hello,

thanks a lot for your answers so far.

Quote from: utnik on October 17, 2014, 08:40:27 AM
hi bateman

i can't detect in the screenshots what causes this problem – could you upload the project ('file' → 'collect for output' with the option 'include fonts' checked) somewhere ,and link it here in the forum?

I zipped the SLA file together with the used font. You can download it here: http://goo.gl/o1U5ni

Quote from: Nermander on October 17, 2014, 08:47:06 AM
What do you use to view the PDF? How PDF forms work depends A LOT on the PDF Viewer used. Always use Adobe Reader to check your PDFs.

As I said in the original post, I used PDF-XChange-Viewer. I then checked the resulting PDF via the latest version of Adobe Reader, which looks like this:



As you can see, the textfield gets displayed correctly content-wise, but is still not aligned with the label.


I'm a bit confused because, I can understand that different PDf viewers will display it differently. But such a simple test-document with just a label and textfield and PDF-XChange-Viewer can't even display the content correctly, and in both viewers the textfield is not at the same height... I don't know, I really would like to use Scribus, but such basic problems so early in my learning curve is not really trustworthy (Adobe LiveCycle Designer does not have such problems).


Thanks a lot for your further support!

utnik

hi bateman

i have no experience with this third party .pdf viewer, so i don't know why it doesn't display the field correct...

the rest may be a bad behavior of scribus and is for sure an incorrect preview and a wrong standard preset in the text aligning adjustmemnts:

       
  • you should almost never use the predefined 'maximum ascent' for the 'first line offset' in combination with 'automatic' or 'fixed linespacing' – if you do so, the vertical position of the text depends on the actual characters – usually an absolute no go!
  • by default textfields are displayed with a frame (and a distance between frame and text), while text frames don't have this distance by default!
the best formatting methode will be to align the text to the baseline grid and to set the 'first line offset' to 'line spacing'...

utnik

bateman

Hello utnik,

thanks for the explanation - I will try these steps this weekend and give feedback here.

Any idea why this simple (almost empty) document produces a ~ 500kb PDF file? This is a "no go" for my current use case.

Thanks!

utnik

hi bateman

the embedded fonts blow up your file.
embedding a subset doesn't make much sense for form fields.
you may shrink the filesize if you use a font like 'open sans'...

utnik

bateman

Ok thanks, didn't noticed that the font got embedded.

But again, I did not choose a font manually, all were Scribus default settings. I really wonder why Scribus has such a useless set of default settings, it's not really beginner-friendly  ::)

utnik

hi bateman

Quote from: bateman on October 17, 2014, 09:44:14 PM...all were Scribus default settings. I really wonder why Scribus has such a useless set of default settings...

i agree in parts – but when you work with scribus, you should care about the basic settings!
there's no 'useful preset for every task'.

utnik

Nermander

Quote from: bateman on October 17, 2014, 09:44:14 PM
I really wonder why Scribus has such a useless set of default settings, it's not really beginner-friendly  ::)

Scribus main target is to create a PDF for print. When printing, embedding the font is a lot more important and keeping the file size down. Scribus is known to create large files, so if file size is a concern I'd look at other alternatives.

It is unfortunate that today Scribus seems to considered "a PDF creation tool".