On Tue, 2004-05-25 at 23:41, Carol Kankelborg wrote: > At 21:09 +0200 5/25/04, Craig Bradney wrote: > >On Tue, 2004-05-25 at 20:51, Carol Kankelborg wrote: > >> I am converting my audio tape collection to CD. iTunes allows you to print > >> out > >> a CD case insert for the front, but not for the part that fits under the > >> plastic on the back > >> and side of a standard jewel case. I am working on a template in Scribus > >> for the part. > >> I am using iTunes to generate a PDF of the "CD jewel case insert: Text > >> only (black and white)". > >> This PDF prints out just fine and is a sharp black and white image. In > >> the template, I > >> make an image box and put the iTunes-generated PDF into it. I don't scale > >> it since the song listing > >> is the right size in the original, I just shift the position so the song > >> listing is centered in the back panel > >> of the CD case insert. But, when I print or generate a PDF from scribus, > >> the song listing is fuzzy. > >> It looks like it has been turned into gray-scale. I've compared the > >> iTunes PDF and the Scribus PDF > >> at 800% and the difference is quite clear. > >> > >> Am I doing something wrong in this process? What is causing the PDF to > >> lose quality? > >> (I am on Mac OS 10.2.8, Apple X11b3, and Scribus 1.1.6.) > > > >What resolution is the PDF you are including, what resolution are you > >exporting at and what version of ghostscript is installed? > > > > Craig, > > I don't know the resolution of the PDF that iTunes creates. Is there any way > to find out? > For scribus, I was creating the PDF with 300 dpi resolution. ghostscript is > 8.00 (via fink). > > Your questions triggered a thought, and I tried generating the PDF from > scribus with 600 dpi. > The results were much better, but not quite as crisp as printing the iTunes > PDF. I showed the > Scribus PDF printout to my husband who said, "It looks like an image." By > pulling a PDF file > into an image box in Scribus, does it turn the contents into an image? Does > it matter if you > have the whole PDF visible or if you effectively crop it (like I am doing) by > having the image > box size smaller than the PDF? Is there any way around this? Or am I just > stuck with this > problem because Scribus is doing what it is supposed to do -- treat the > imported PDF as an image?
Yes, this is correct behavior.Thus, newer Ghostscript usually means better import quality. Current > > Now for the oddities I discovered in this process. > I printed out the file directly from Scribus. Under "Options..." the > resolution was 600 dpi. > The iTunes PDF part of the printout was grayscaled and fuzzy, about the same > as the PDF > generated by Scribus at 300 dpi. I also generated a PDF from Scribus with a > resolution of 600 dpi. > This took quite a while to generate. I then printed out that PDF. This > printout differed from printing > directly from Scribus in two ways. First, the iTunes PDF part was much > crisper -- not quite as crisp as > printing the iTunes PDF directly but close. Shouldn't the two outputs be the > same? > > Second, the portion of some lines which extend into the > margins in the Scribus file were printed. I specified not to print stuff > that was outside the margins, but > the generated PDF ignored that directive. Printing directly from Scribus > obeyed it. Is this a known bug > or something I should report? > > Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. > > Carol Carol, Could you send me both the iTunes PDF and your Scribus file? I would like to see what is going on. I do know the PDF creation in OSX is not exactly the same quality as more traditional distilling via Acrobat.Perhaps I can see if there is an alternative to generate higher quality PDF from Scribus. Peter
