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

[John Culleton]

On Friday 11 April 2008 08:45:34 am D. R. Evans wrote:
> 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

Lulu often uses LSI for a printer,. Two things are noteworthy when 
using LSI:

Instead of placing the ISBN bar code it is better to leave it blank 
and let them set it. If you do that then they will rasterize the page 
and then place the bar code.  If you put it on then the bar code gets 
rasterized with the rest of the cover.  Whether you can work this 
through Lulu as an intermediary is a question.

LSI specifies a standard for pdf of PDF/X1:2001 which corresponds 
roughly to PDF 1.3. This does not allow for transparencies, layers, 
gradients etc.  To retain these features the Scribus output can be 
saved at a newer model and then the following ImageMagick command can 
be tried:
 convert -density 600 scribus.pdf -flatten prepress.pdf

I have not tested this myself. 

-- 
John Culleton
Resources for every author and publisher:
http://wexfordpress.com/tex/shortlist.pdf
http://wexfordpress.com/tex/packagers.pdf
http://www.creativemindspress.com/newbiefaq.htm
http://www.gropenassoc.com/TopLevelPages/reference%20desk.htm