[scribus] Fonts in PDF for Blurb

[Gregory Pittman]

On 12/6/19 10:36 AM, Šarūnas wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> My first post here. Sincere thanks for Scribus developers for creating it!
> 
> I have used Scribus on Linux for several years to create and
> successfully print magazines (photos and text) with Blurb's
> print-on-demand service. (I have also used their other tool Booksmart
> for many years before.) Despite warning on Blurb's upload webpage
> regarding possible issues with Scribus embedding fonts, there were never
> any preflight errors or incorrect printout.
> 
> However, I have just received my first Blurb book I made with Scribus NG
> (1.5.5). This time all font characters printed as rectangles… The fonts
> (LinuxLibertine, TrueType) were embedded, not subsetted, as usual.
> Scribus own preflight for PDF/X-3 was happy.
> 
> After contacting Blurb support, they converted my uploaded PDFs,
> “outlining” fonts. I downloaded the files and while inspecting them, I
> can see that fonts are still listed as embedded, but now subsetted and
> Type-1C instead of Truetype. Here is an explanation from Blurb
> specialist, when I asked, what actually was done:
> 
> (lawyer => layer):
>> What I did with your file is outline the fonts using the tool called
>> Pitstop, and then I distilled it in Adobe Distiller. In this way your
>> file is converted into one single lawyer instead of several lawyers
>> with non embedded fonts.
> 
> I haven't yet received reprinted book, but I wonder if anyone here might
> have any insight on what might be going on with fonts and/or layers in PDF?
> 
> P.S. I'm aware of Scribus's option to outline fonts when exporting PDF.
> I tried that and the resulting PDF doesn't use any fonts as a result,
> which is expected. Haven't received the printout yet either.
> 
> Thanks for any advice,
> 
Hi Šarūnas,

I'm not a font expert, so we'll see what might come from those more knowledgeable than me.
The fault may not necessarily be with Scribus, but rather the software being used by the printer. I would suggest in the future to outline the fonts with Scribus rather than this other pathway. It shows the importance of looking at your PDFs with your own PDF viewer, maybe even more than one. If you can create it and view it on your own computer, you can see that the problem lies with the printer's software, not Scribus. Sometimes there are some imperfections with certain fonts, so you might also try an alternative font (this is where using Styles can be very convenient).

Greg