PDF output not searchable

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tryingtohelpout

Hi, I need to find out how to create searchable PDFs with Scribus. I am trying to help the editors of our community's monthly newsletter, who use Scribus software. The PDFs they create as their finished product are not searchable. This is a problem as the newsletter has been published for over 20 years and contains historical information of interest to many in our small community.

To troubleshoot, I downloaded Scribus 1.4.8 yesterday (6/26/23)  to my Windows 11 laptop and created a single page with a single line of text, using the default font. I then exported it to PDF; tried to search the PDF using Adobe Reader and got the "No searchable text" error message, which stated, "This is a scanned PDF and cannot be searched." I also tried printing the file as a PDF – same error.

I searched the help forums but only saw a couple of old messages, one of which stated that this problem was fixed long ago. Can you advise me?

AdmFubar

I've opened a pdf created with  scribus, in okular, and didnt have an issue with searching the file.
What version of scribus is being used to create the monthly newsletter? and what version of pdf is being created as the final output? Have you tried another pdf reader to check these?
Using Scribus 1.6.1, openSUSE 15.5
Advanced hobbyist

Nermander

I would guess that the issue may be related to fonts being outlined.

tryingtohelpout

Thanks AdmFubar and Nermander for both replies but I don't think either one addresses the problem. As I said, the problem was evident when I downloaded the latest version of Scribus two days ago, version 1.4.8, and I used only the default font.  I don't think checking with a different PDF reader will help, as Adobe Reader is the most dominant; if it doesn't work with Adobe Reader, that knocks out most of our users. I did try opening the file with various browsers; they can open it but only as an image file. HELP!

utnik

when i export .pdf files from scribus (without outlining the fonts) the text is searchable. i don't work with scribus 1.4.8 any more, but i just checked some old files from 1.4 and they are searchable as well...
could you share a test file? (.sla and .pdf)

utnik

tryingtohelpout

Here are the PDF and SLA versions of the simple file I created by opening a new file in Scribus 1.4.8, inserting a text frame, and using the Arial Regular (default) font. I also inserted images of the the Save to PDF dialog box - Fonts tab, and the Save to PDF dialog box - General tab. No settings were changed, these are all default settings. Thanks in advance for any help anyone can give. I have to say - surely others need to create searchable PDFs? I can't be the only one???


a.l.e

#7
if i recall correctly, scribus 1.4.x and arial do not play well together.
(this applies to all big font files)

in 1.5.x the way fonts are embedded by scribus in the pdf has been improved and all pdfs created by scribus should be searchable (except if you explicitly make them non searchable...)

... so you might want to try a newer version of scribus to create your pdfs...

AdmFubar

#8
Knowing what os you are using is helpful as  linux windows and macs all have different "standard" fonts. ;)
1.4.8 is stable, but 1.5.x while considered a development version is very usable, and far more stable then 1.4.x versions.
Hopefully you have upgraded to 1.5.x
Using Scribus 1.6.1, openSUSE 15.5
Advanced hobbyist

tryingtohelpout

Let me restate: I'm using Windows 11. I downloaded the latest version of Scribus described as stable, 1.4.8, Windows 64-bit. I created a one-line document with text using only the default font, Arial regular, no outlining (I don't know what that is, actually). I exported to PDF. The resulting PDF is not searchable; Adobe Reader sees it as an image file.
What am I doing wrong?

tryingtohelpout

Finally some good news, thanks @a.l.e - I just downloaded 1.5.8, typed a line of text, saved it as pdf - yay, it's searchable. So I guess it's a 1.4x bug. Now I will get the editors of our newspaper to upgrade. I hope that doesn't create new problems.
I appreciate the help, and if anyone has further intelligence, do please post!