[Scribus] PDF/PS import?

[Craig Bradney]

On Friday 26 November 2004 08:30, Craig Ringer wrote:
> On Fri, 2004-11-26 at 10:16, Nik wrote:
> > I would like to be able to use PDF as an exchange format, so I could
> > receive a document in PDF, import it and modify it, and produce a new PDF
> > as a result.
>
> Unfortunately, what it comes down to is that Scribus just doesn't
> support that. PDF, as a format, really isn't designed for it - the only
> program I can think of that can really modify PDF is Adobe Acrobat, and
> even it can't do that much without the PitStop plugin.

I think that is a little incorrect, given Adobe hasnt updated PS in ages. 
Theres nothing wrong with PDF editing. Now, can someone give us 48 hours per 
day?

> Of course, "It's hard" has provably never stopped the Scribus guys, but
> I haven't heard anybody talking about anything like this planned anytime
> soon. I wouldn't be surprised if such a feature, if implemented, worked
> like PS/EPS import rather than like opening a document.

We have had it in testing.. and we will have it again. Nothing is impossible, 
just takes time.

> > My attempts at importing PDF or Postscript have resulted in either
> > Scribus hanging, or completing immediately with no apparent change. The
> > menu shows only EPS/PS, but I wondered if PDF might also be supported by
> > this option?
>
> When importing PS/EPS, a recent GhostScript is absolutely critical. I
> very strongly recommend getting gs 8.16 or 8.3x from
> http://www.ghostscript.com/ .

Yes.. exactly. Scribus relies on the goodness that is Ghostscript. Make sure 
you get the latest, and while you are at it, make sure theres a bug in your 
distros' bug system for getting something newer than 7.07.


> See
> http://docs.scribus.net/index.php?lang=en&sm=dtptoolbox&page=toolbox7
> for a bit more information on this.
>
> You'll also find that PS or EPS documents that are imported are imported
> without bitmap images, and with text rendered as vector graphics. It's
> not really overly  conducive to exporting a document, editing it
> somewhere else, and importing it again.

Importing the graphics is just another thing on the todo list.

> > I have tried postscript created by OpenOffice, kGhostView, and Scribus.
>
> I've had good results from OO.o PS, Scribus PS, QuarkXPress EPS files
> (and trust me, that's saying something), Acrobat EPS made from PDF
> files, and PS created by an app called Pongrass. I still run into the
> odd one that gives me trouble, and am collecting a set to send to Franz
> as tests, but mostly they 'just work' within the limitations of the
> importer.

There should be some more updates to the PS importer as I found a couple of 
commands last night that we didnt support yet.

> Depending on what you need to do, you may have better results using EPS
> or PDF in graphics frames using 'get picture'. The downside is that
> they're rasterised when exported to PDF. You can work around this by
> converting any PDFs to EPSs, and making a PostScript file from Scribus
> that you then distill with Acrobat Distiller or ps2pdf.

Or just use a high enough res PDF. I have exported many a complex table at 
300+dpi into PDF from OO.org and embedded with perfect results in Scribus.

You ain't seen nothin yet... :D 

Craig

PS: (now, about those 48hrs/day..)
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