[Scribus] CMYK question

[Christoph Schäfer]

Hi Peter,

> My childrens' school wants to put a colour advertisement in a local 
> newspaper and has created it in a <shudder> Word document. 

Hehe, sounds like everyday business to me ("No, I'm sorry, no matter how 
much work you spent on your Word file: IT WON'T PRINT CORRECTLY AND THE 
PRINTER WILL KILL YOU/ME IF YOU COME UP WITH DOC).

> Can 
> anybody think of a way, preferably with open source tools, to convert a 
> colour RGB Word document into a CMYK pdf ( or ps, or eps, or anything else)?

Well, the easiest way would be the use of Acrobat Professional. You 
should ask if the school is running a copy.

> Failing this, if I were to re-create the advertisement in Scribus 1.3.0 
> (14th July build), can I export it in a format with CMYK? Or could 
> Inkscape do it?

That's what I would reommend: First, get a printout of the ad, to make 
sure you know how it is intended to look. Then open the file in OO.o and 
save as *.sxw. Since the *.sxw is ZIP-File, you can open it with your 
Ark or Fileroller and extract the image files. Then re-create the ad in 
scribus. You can import the text directly from the *.sxw file.

Then, export as PDF, all fonts embedded, resolution 300 dpi, and 
destination "Printer". "Printer" will produce a CMYK-PDF. As for the 
desired PDF version, you have to ask the printer what he needs.

I wouldn't recommend Inkscape, since it has no colour management 
implemented yet, and its PDF support seems quite experimental at the moment.

That was the short version, but I hope you get the idea.

Cheers,

Christoph