Gary Schnabl wrote:
Although the topic of PDF import/export is more of a migration issue
with Acrobat, is there anybody around with a commanding knowledge of
what OOo's PDF creation, import, and editing can and cannot do?
Perhaps, having some detailed pro forma descriptions of how some Writer
PDF setups should be done in order to comply with the various POD
printer requirements would suffice.
Self-publishing is becoming somewhat popular, and having some definitive
writing about this area already set up and described adequately would
enable writers/editors to print their documents and lessen their chances
of being bamboozled by phony literary agents and the likes out there
from charging ridiculous fees for doing practically nothing for printing
their works.
I don't claim to have a "commanding knowledge" on this topic, but I
have been researching it.
Here is the first draft of what I've written for the Getting Started
book on the PDF import extension:
---------------
PDF Import
From Sun Microsystems. Enables you to make minor modifications to the
text of existing PDF files when the original source files do not exist
or you are unable to open the source files. (Whenever possible, modify
the source and regenerate the PDF to obtain the best results.)
When the extension is installed, PDF is listed as a choice in the File
Type drop-down list in the File > Open dialog. PDF documents open in
Draw. Depending on the complexity of the layout, changes may be easy
or difficult to make, and the saved result may or may not preserve the
original layout.
Each line of text appears in a separate text box. If part of the text
is in a different font or font variation (for example, bold or
italic), that part of the line is in a separate text box. Thus a
single line of text may contain several separate text boxes. If you
edit the text in one box, the result may overlap the text in the
following box or leave a conspicuous gap between the two portions of
text. If this occurs, you need to manually adjust the spacing between
the boxes.
Graphics with transparent backgrounds are imported with black
backgrounds, and these black backgrounds remain when the edited PDF is
saved again. Graphics and frames anchored "to paragraph" may move away
from their positions during import; any incorrect positioning remains
when the PDF is saved again.
---------------
An aside on that last paragraph: the OOoAuthors logo from our
copyright page has a transparent background. I have made a replacement
logo with a white background to replace it as we reformat the chapters
for OOo3. And the graphics/frames movement is another argument for
anchoring as character or placing graphics within a table.
Also, it appears to me that even if a PDF has fonts embedded, font
substitution occurs when the PDF is imported (if the fonts are not
available on the importing machine). I haven't tested this thoroughly,
and would like to know what others' experiences have been.
Regarding exporting to PDF, here are some gotchas I've found:
Lulu just refused to print three of our books, saying that they can't
print PDFs containing graphics with transparent backgrounds or
graphics of greater than 600 dpi. This restriction is new, because
these books have been printed by them before. I've not had time to
investigate whether there are other PDF issues that might affect us.
(I'm fixing the book files.)
BTW, Lulu say that if one wishes to use their distribution service
(which goes through Lightning Source), one *must* distill one's PDF
using *Acrobat* or the PDF won't be accepted by Lightning Source. This
doesn't affect our books directly (we don't use the distribution
service) but -- if true -- it may be a show-stopper for other users of
OOo. I'm still investigating.
--Jean
