[scribus] To Outline Or Not To Outline? -- a performance test

[Meho R.]

On 28.07.2011 22:01, Meho R. wrote:
> On 28.07.2011 20:16, John Culleton wrote:
>> I filled 99 pages with dummy text. Unfortunately the
>> conversion to outlines stalled. I restarted Scribus and
>> managed convert a few more pages. At this point the size
>> of the original pdf with a single font embedded is
>> 1,786,612 bytes. The PDF of the same sla file with some of
>> the text outlined is 1,974,990 bytes.
>>
>> The sla file proper is showing more dramatic increases.
>> The original sla with a single embedded font is 541,130
>> bytes. The sla with some of the text outlined jumps to
>> 9,037,694 bytes, a 20 fold increase.
>>
>> As I proceed to outline more of the text the numbers will
>> climb higher. This is a tedious process because of
>> frequent crashes while outlining the fonts. But already
>> you get the idea. Whether the outlining of all of the text
>> blows the file up to a point where either the sla or the
>> pdf is unmanageable is yet to be determined.
>>
>> Bootom line, the outining of all the fonts in a 100 page
>> document is a questionable procedure, how questionable is
>> yet to be determined.
> Here's my results on an old AMD Athlon 3800+ (single core) with 3 GB RAM:
>
> – Number of pages (with dummy text, single page layout): 102
> – Font: Minion Pro (OpenType)
> – PDF file size (outline): 2.4 MB
> – PDF file size (embed): 2.6 MB
> – Exporting to PDF time: ~25–30 sec.
>
> Interesting thing is that working with such a large file is quite 
> pleasant, no slowdowns, crashes, nothing. However, I tested with 
> text-only doc, so introducing graphic elements might change this 
> drastically. But still, I'd always use doc-per-chapter approach, if 
> for nothing else, then because of much easier navigation.
>
> M.

Oh, I forgot to mention, I used 1.4.0.rc5.