Does this method work? It looks like seems to (visually) but I am not sure it is corrupting the pdfs I try to upload to the publisher:
In Excel, I am exporting BIG tables as pdfs (active sheet only, so that each table I need is in it's own pdf);
With Inkscape, open table pdfs, select table & reduce page to fit object & save;
In Scribus, import these reduced page size pdfs into the layer required for text to flow around.
Pdfs thus created pass all the preflight verification.
Should this work? Would I need to flatten the layers?