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Scribus => Beginner Talk => Topic started by: bateman on October 16, 2014, 10:37:07 PM

Title: Simple test document with label and textfield produces inaccurate results
Post by: bateman on October 16, 2014, 10:37:07 PM
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:

(https://www.dropbox.com/s/eo2mmjr5gqhc3ps/2014-10-16_scribus_document.png?dl=1)

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:

(https://www.dropbox.com/s/40da9dpmv1xf1qy/2014-10-16_scribus_document_in_pdfviewer.png?dl=1)

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!
Title: Re: Simple test document with label and textfield produces inaccurate results
Post by: 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?

utnik
Title: Re: Simple test document with label and textfield produces inaccurate results
Post by: 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.
Title: Re: Simple test document with label and textfield produces inaccurate results
Post by: bateman on October 17, 2014, 05:18:02 PM
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:

(https://www.dropbox.com/s/7fs0veto6y8jspd/2014-10-17_scribus_document_in_adobereader.png?dl=1)

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!
Title: Re: Simple test document with label and textfield produces inaccurate results
Post by: utnik on October 17, 2014, 06:42:05 PM
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:
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
Title: Re: Simple test document with label and textfield produces inaccurate results
Post by: bateman on October 17, 2014, 08:03:50 PM
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!
Title: Re: Simple test document with label and textfield produces inaccurate results
Post by: utnik on October 17, 2014, 09:26:21 PM
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
Title: Re: Simple test document with label and textfield produces inaccurate results
Post by: bateman on October 17, 2014, 09:44:14 PM
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  ::)
Title: Re: Simple test document with label and textfield produces inaccurate results
Post by: utnik on October 17, 2014, 10:08:37 PM
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
Title: Re: Simple test document with label and textfield produces inaccurate results
Post by: Nermander on October 20, 2014, 09:54:11 AM
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".