Drop shadows in PDF different from preview

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Seringit

(I am using Scribus 1.5.8 on Windows)

Hi,
I have a problem that is driving me nuts. I have a document with various shapes (rectangles) with fill, but no stroke, that have drop shadows. I left the default options for all the drop shadows and sure enough, they look the same for each shape (i.e. same thickness and same opacity for each shadow).

When I export to PDF 1.4, however, some of the drop shadows appear to be smaller and less intense. The only pattern I can make out is that this seems to happen for shapes that are very large (at least in one direction). Up to a certain size they look good and for the larger shapes the shadows become less and less visible the larger the shape.

In the preview all the shadows look exactly the same and if I export to .png they look exactly the same. It is just the PDF export that is messed up and I can't figure out why.
Please help me as I have invested a lot of work in my document, but without consistent shadows I cannot print it.

utnik

hi seringit

without the document it will be hard to see what's going on...

utnik

Seringit

Of course, I quickly reproduced the error in this mockup document.
As you can see in the pdf the drop shadows differ in intensity depending on the size of the box. In the png it looks normal.

[attachment deleted by admin]

utnik

hi seringit

this looks really strange. i tried .pdf1.4, 1.5, 1.6 and x-4 with scribus 1.5.8 and 1.7.0 with the same faulty result.
you should file a bug report and see what jean ghali thinks about it...

utnik

AdmFubar

#4
There is something odd about your document. Strange error message regarding TeX.I tried making a similar document from scratch without this issue.
Is there a script running in this document?

Quote from: Seringit on July 07, 2022, 02:23:01 PM(I am using Scribus 1.5.8 on Windows)

Hi,
I have a problem that is driving me nuts. I have a document with various shapes (rectangles) with fill, but no stroke, that have drop shadows. I left the default options for all the drop shadows and sure enough, they look the same for each shape (i.e. same thickness and same opacity for each shadow).

When I export to PDF 1.4, however, some of the drop shadows appear to be smaller and less intense. The only pattern I can make out is that this seems to happen for shapes that are very large (at least in one direction). Up to a certain size they look good and for the larger shapes the shadows become less and less visible the larger the shape.

In the preview all the shadows look exactly the same and if I export to .png they look exactly the same. It is just the PDF export that is messed up and I can't figure out why.
Please help me as I have invested a lot of work in my document, but without consistent shadows I cannot print it.
Using Scribus 1.6.1, openSUSE 15.5
Advanced hobbyist

Seringit

If by script you mean a python script I used one or two in the process of creating the document (the previous document I sent in my other post was created by deleting and changing stuff from the actual document), but I just created a completely new one from scratch and I have the same issues.

The old document contained a bunch of render frames with LaTex stuff, so maybe that is where that error was coming from, in this one I did not add any LaTex stuff.

Quote from: AdmFubar on July 08, 2022, 04:36:56 AM
There is something odd about your document. Strange error message regarding TeX.I tried making a similar document from scratch without this issue.           

Was your document also A0 in size with boxes covering most of the document? I am fairly certain that this is about the absolute size of the box whose shadow is drawn as I can fill up an A4 document with differently sized boxes and the shadows look exactly the same.

Also, I might be able to finish my project by exporting to an image file (and I might have to if this is indeed a bug without a workaround), but I still appreciate your help and would love to know if there is anything I can do to resolve the issue in the PDF export.


[attachment deleted by admin]

AdmFubar

Played with this for a few hours testing various sizes of the objects. There seems to be a limit of the size that an object can be for the shadowing to work. it also seems to be an issue with page size as well.As for a work around you will have to make a shadow the old fashioned way. put a darker colored shape underneath that is offset.  :)
Using Scribus 1.6.1, openSUSE 15.5
Advanced hobbyist

Seringit

Ok thanks for trying. I just filed a bug report as I couldn't find that a similar issue was already reported.