Errors with PDF Import - what version of PDF is supported

[adrianstephens]

Hello all,
I've just set my first 68-page community magazine using scribus.
We have about 60 ads.  Artwork generally arrives in pdfs.
With about 20 of these,  I've had to rasterise them in Inkscape or GIMP because of import
errors with pdf.

The errors include:  mishandling of a gradient transparency over an image,  loss of
shape details,  missing line of text,  background appearing in supposedly transparent text.

I'm wondering if there is a specification for the PDF version that scribus can import, and the files I'm importing are not meeting this spec.    Otherwise a ~30% failure rate does seem surprising.

Regards,
Adrian Stephens, Cambridge UK
Former technical editor, now mostly retired

[AdmFubar]

Might be... but more likely it is a pdf that isnt created to spec. Have you opened the pdf in a text and or hex editor? You can view the pdf "innards" that way and get a better idea about how they were created.

[Flaxx]

I can support the OP's question and desire. In my present experience PDF can be usually imported just fine when Scribus is allowed transforming embedded text to vector graphic. I never managed importing a text document without having a total mess afterwords. It doesn't matter which font is used (even if it matches the standards set for text in Scribus.

[MrB]

What version of Scribus on what operating system?

[Flaxx]

What version of Scribus on what operating system?

Sorry, I'm not that often here and lost this posting. However, the problem still persists.
Scribus v1.5.8
Windows 10 Pro (and 11 Pro), haven't tested it under Linux Mint yet as it's still a fresh install to be my main system in a dual-boot environment.

BTW, it might be a similar or even the same reason that Scribus has problems with some svg-files containing text. Sometimes it helps importing them into picture frames, but often even this fails.