Hi Christoph, Vielen Dank f?r Ihre hilfreiche Nachricht.
Christoph Sch?fer wrote: > Hi Nik, > > Am Dienstag, 14. M?rz 2006 02:04 schrieb Nik: > > > A question I would ask first is: Why PDF/X-3 if you want to print greyscale > or > duotone? You know, I did ponder on whether PDF/X-3 was appropriate for non-colour output. However, from the very informative page here: http://www.pdfxreport.com/faq.html I understood that PDF/X-3 is a subset of PDF, specifically aimed at ensuring the most accurate transfer of printing information. So I figured it was the most likely format to work, regardless of whether the content was colour or monochrome. In fact, I recall that there is mention in the Scribus documentation of old PDF/X-1 supporting greyscale colour spaces. I have no particular attachment to PDF/X-3, so long as the printer can easily and correctly print what I send. >>1. All pictures need to be in greyscale > > > For converting colour pictures to real greyscale in GIMP, please read the > tutorial here: http://www.gimpguru.org/Tutorials/Color2BW/ Thanks - I didn't think converting to greyscale would be difficult, but I'm inferring from what you say here that there are better and worse ways of doing it? :o) >>3. If we are printing in black plus one colour (which we don't currently >>do, but are considering the option), then we need to provide the >>document in black plus one colour expressed as a Spot colour. > > > This seems to make sense, since your printer probably only needs to produce > two plates instead of four. ...interesting - thanks for the insight... :o) > You can do yourself a favour and wait a few days until Scribus 1.3.3 is > released. It has additional greyscale export, as long as you don't use > PDF/X-3. Ok, that sounds very helpful. May I ask why greyscale export to PDF/X-3 is not supported? (I'm curious, particularly if it's a case of "we don't believe it would be really useful to anyone.") >>Q2: Or do I need to create a separate greyscale document, either >>manually, or through a script or plugin? > > > I had no chance to test greyscale export of 1.3.3, but if you need high > quality greyscale files, I'd follow the instructions for creating greyscale > images in the tutorial mentioned above. This is the hint that there are better and worses ways of creating greyscale pics - yes? If I go the scribus script route, I believe I could call Gimp from within the script to do the greyscale conversion. If I go the non-script route, then I could convert to greyscale relatively easily if I can get the data into the RGB colour space. >>Q3: Is there some other way that I haven't thought of? > > > As above: Even if you don't trust 1.3.3 yet, install it in addition to your > 1.2.4.1 and try the greyscale option in PDF export. It's not actually a matter of trusting 1.3.3, it's a matter of practicality. I removed Scribus 1.3.x from my own machine some time ago, when I realised that the file formats and font handling were quite different, and I really had to choose which version I was going to use for production work. It was sad in a way, because I really liked a lot of the 1.3 look and feel. The newsletter in question is going to be produced in the future by someone other than myself, on a different machine (Fedora Core 4 on an old G4 PPC), so it is important that we standardise on software. However, I will certainly test the greyscale PDF export of 1.3.3 as it may well be the best answer for me, and I will happily provide feedback to the developers, if that is of any help. > HTH, > > Christoph Most helpful indeed. Again, many thanks. Cheers! Nik.
