[scribus] Embedded PDF pages

[Michael Eager]

On 01/19/2019 05:36 AM, Gregory Pittman wrote:
> On 1/18/19 7:30 PM, Michael Eager wrote:
>> On 01/18/2019 03:42 PM, Gregory Pittman wrote:
>>> On 1/18/19 5:05 PM, Michael Eager wrote:
>>>> Hi --
>>>>
>>>> I'm working on a Windows 10 system; my colleague is working on a Mac running macOS Mojave.  We are both using Scribus 1.5.4.
>>>>
>>>> We are trying to place a PDF page in a Scribus file.  I insert an image frame and then click on "get image" and select the PDF page to be inserted.  The low-res graphic is displayed.
>>>>
>>>> On Windows, I can select Export->Save as PDF, then check "Embed PDF and EPS files" and create a PDF, which embeds the PDF I placed.  On the Mac, this option is grayed out and not available.  (In an earlier version of both macOS and Scribus, this worked.)  PDFs exported from the Mac only have the low-res graphic, not the embedded PDF.
>>>>
>>>> Can any one suggest a fix for the problem with the Mac not being able to embed PDF files?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> Hi Michael,
>>>
>>> What you should try is File > Import > Get Vector file...
>>> This is much better than the old way, which rasterizes the PDF. You have much greater capabilities of editing your imported PDF as a vector.
>>
>> I tried Import>Get Vector (on Windows).  When I export the PDF, it does not look like the PDF has been embedded.  When I open the PDF with Adobe Acrobat, I'm not able select text in the imported page, although I can select words in other text or in a PDF embedded the old way.
>>
> 
> When you import PDF as vector, the text consists of shapes for the individual glyphs, therefore you lose any connection with them as text (like exporting the text from Adobe Acrobat).
> At the same time, you lose this also with rasterized text in an image frame.

Thanks Greg.

Importing a PDF using Get Image displays a rasterized graphic.  If I 
export a PDF with that imported PDF, the default result is an embedded 
low-res graphic of the embedded PDF.  When the "Embed EPS & PDF" option 
is used when exporting a PDF, this embedded image is replaced by the 
imported PDF.

Importing a PDF as a vector may give more flexibility in manipulating 
blocks of text, but it discards many of the benefits of a PDF.  As you 
say, the vectors are no longer treated as text, which means you cannot 
search the embedded text in the final PDF.  It's simply a different kind 
of graphic.

As I mentioned, embedding a PDF and exporting it intact (as a PDF, not 
low-res graphic) does work on Windows, but not on Mac.

The problem that this doesn't work on Mac is what I'm looking to address.


-- 
Michael Eager    eager at eagercon.com
1960 Park Blvd., Palo Alto, CA 94306