[Scribus] Creating lulu single-piece covers -- results

[D. R. Evans]

Here are the results of my experiments over the past few weeks, using
Scribus to try to generate one-piece covers for lulu books.

Lulu requires that such covers be submitted as PDF files.

These experiments were performed using two different books: project number
311288 and project number 2122985.

Each of the following lists only the CHANGE from the prior step.

Project 311288
--------------

1. Initial cover, with no ISBN and poor colours. PDF 1.4.
  Prints fine

2. Added ISBN and fixed colours to be the ones I wanted. PDF 1.4.
  Printed with several parts incorrect:
    a. The title image on the front page was washed out
    b. The picture on the back page was washed out
    c. The colophon (logo) on the spine has a transparent background; in
this print the background was NOT transparent; it printed as a dark colour
(darker than the rest of the spine).

3. No change, except print as PDF 1.3.
  Prints fine.

This was used as the final version.

Project 2122985
---------------

1. Initial cover, with no ISBN. PDF 1.4.
  Prints fine.

2. Added ISBN. PDF 1.4.
  Prints with greens a kind of greenish-blue, the brownish parts of the
background as bluish, and a washed-out image on the back page.

3. PDF 1.3.
  Switch to PDF 1.3 causes the gradient bar in the PDF to render on the
screen as a more constant green, with a darkening toward the bottom (i.e.,
no longer as a nice gradient; presumably PDF 1.3 doesn't support
gradients). The printed version matches the screen version.

4. Print as PNG (which means that we get the gradient back), then build a
new cover with a single image frame that contains the PNG image. PDF 1.4.
  Prints exactly like step 2.

5. Exactly as step 4, except print the image (exactly the same image) as
PDF 1.3.
  Prints fine.

This is being used as the final version.

----

One could do more experiments if one had the patience, but the above seems
to indicate that the best algorithm is:

A. Create the image in Scribus
B. Print it to PNG
C. Create a new cover with a single image that contains the PNG printed in
step B.
D. Print this cover as PDF 1.3.

I hope that this saves someone else from the pain I experienced trying to
get a cover with a gradient to print.

I have no idea why adding the ISBN seems to cause lulu to have problems. I
also have no idea why printing a PNG as PDF 1.4 doesn't work correctly. At
this point, I don't really care any more; I'm just glad to have found
something that seems to work.

  Doc