[scribus] PDF Export and Embedding Fonts

[John Jason Jordan]

I have a document that uses eight fonts, four of which are the Junicode
face. The document was created with 1.3.5svn (currently Rc2) on Jaunty.

First Issue:

When I export to PDF the Options dialog box automatically comes up
showing all fonts to be embedded except Junicode Regular and FreeSerif
Medium. I am unable to get the dialog box to embed those two fonts.
Selecting them in the bottom box and clicking on the up arrow removes
them from the bottom box, but does not insert them into the embed box.
Ditto if I click on Embed All Fonts. Note that the document prints fine
if I print directly from Scribus. Note also that final output will be
to local laser, not a service bureau for press. I just prefer to print
from PDF because the laser printers can usually image it faster than a
native file.

If there is something wrong with Junicode, why does Scribus happily
embed three of the fonts? Has anyone experienced problems with
FreeSerif Medium? If Scribus can find the fonts to print them on a
local laser printer, why can't it embed them in a PDF?

Second issue:

If I go ahead and export to PDF letting Scribus convert Junicode
Regular and FreeSerif Medium to outlines, the resulting PDF file is 118
MB, where the original Scribus document is 32 MB. I am not concerned
about the size of the documents, but when I try to open the PDF file in
Adobe Reader 8.1 the screen display is painfully slow, and so is
printing - like 60 seconds to click from page to page on screen and
even longer to print each page. In fact, it takes several minutes for
Adobe Reader even to open the file.

If I print to CUPS-PDF the resulting file is 18 MB and all the fonts
are apparently converted to outlines. I say that because Adobe Reader
shows no fonts in the document. But printing is reasonably quick. I
realize Scribus has no control over CUPS-PDF.

I am curious as to which is the better route - embed or convert to
outlines? I always thought that embedding the fonts would make screen
display and printing faster. Is that correct? 

There are other options I have not yet tried - e.g., print to PS and
then use ps2pdf to convert to PDF. I also haven't tried Okular or other
alternatives to Adobe Reader because my past experience is that print
options are pathetic.

Suggestions welcome.