Wrong characters when PDF is ripped by Printing House

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asgereir

I have produced a PDF for a flyer. The PDF looks fine in browsers and viewers but the Printing House made a print that had very strange characters two of the pages. See attached.
It looks like some of the characters of the font are not existing but it is the same font (Verdana Regular) that is used on two other pages that look fine.
The Printing House said that the file was created with Scribus being an invalid free software program and that we should use Word or InDesign instead. They corrected the "error" by importing into InDesign.
Is that really true - that Scribus is not capable of producing PDF that Printing Houses can rip for production. I have used it several times without any problems. Could there by an error in the version I have?

I tried an online PDF validator, and it mentioned some missing glyphs for Verdana Regular. But how can it then be that only two of the four pages are wrong - using the same font.

Version: 1.5.8 (Mac)


Aleks100


mnawij

If the pdf file imported into InDesign solved the 'problem' then there was nothing wrong with the pdf file itself.  I have used Scribus pdf files for many years at my printshop with only a couple of problems, but I also have had way more problems with Microsoft software than I ever did with Scribus.  I agree, outlining the fonts could be helpful.  Only way to tell for sure would be to open the pdf file in Acrobat Professional and check the pdf file...

Cheers!

mnawij

asgereir

Thanks for the replies mmawij and Aleks100. As I understand, the Printing House resolved the "problem" by importing into InDesign and exporting from InDesign. Apparently, the ripping software that is used when actually performing the printing could not interpret the PDF coming from Scribus, but it could with the one from InDesign. Strange.

AdmFubar

Would be nice to know which rip software they use, for reference here. Something to check with when selecting print shops.
Using Scribus 1.6.1, openSUSE 15.5
Advanced hobbyist

Nermander

Wouldn't fully embedding the font rather be the solution? Sure, it will create a larger PDF, but it should print properly unless the RIP cannot handle the font (and that is then an issue with the RIP).

asgereir

The rip software is Kodak Prinergy. The technician says that it is not the ripping that is the problem. There is something wrong with the fonts or encoding of the fonts. See attached for the preflight report from the ripping.