Web optimised PDF

Scribus' PDF is optimized for print shops and Scribus takes pains to ensure that the printed output will look identical on different printing presses. The price for this consistency is a file size several times larger than straight-forward PDF would have. This page shows various ways to reduce the file size so you can put the PDF file on the web or even distribute it by e-mail.

compress-newsletter.pl
=Alternative solutions=

Using Ghostcript or Python, pdftops and ps2pdf14
In the script collection you can find a python script to Reduce_the_size_of_Scribus_generated_PDFs

A simple 1 line script
ps2pdf -dEmbedAllFonts=true -dUseFlateCompression=true -sPAPERSIZE=letter $1
 * create a postscript file (directly from Scribus, or by printing the pdf to a file, or by using the "pdftops -level3" command on your PDF file).
 * this one is for letter size PDF only so you ought to edit the option to fit your needs.
 * run the following script:
 * 1) make USLetter-sized PDF files using ps2pdf
 * 2) USAGE: mkpdf " .ps"

Or without any script, if your file is myscribuspdf.pdf, just open a terminal and call : ps2pdf -dEmbedAllFonts=true -dUseFlateCompression=true myscribuspdf.pdf

= Trials and results =

First tested file : 128 A5 pages, black and white text and drawings, 36.9 Mo

 * Original file "pppOrg.pdf" was produced by the concatenation of 10 Scribus produced files (using the pdftk cat command).


 * Directly through ghostscript command : 20,6 Mo (and many warnings)


 * Converted to PS using pdftops -level3 (size : 327.2 Mo; Name : ppp.ps) and then fed to ghostcript : 18Mo (and no warnings)


 * Using perl script : 7.9 Mo : WIN !
 * pdftk detects lots of mysterious repeated errors :
 * "Error: Could not parse ligature component "cyrillic" of "cyrillic_otmark" in parseCharName" and
 * "Error: Could not parse ligature component "otmark" of "cyrillic_otmark" in parseCharName"


 * gs runs ok
 * pdfopt detects errors such as : "Considering object with an invalid number 1006 as null."
 * produced pdf seems to look ok

2nd tested file : 30 A5 color pages, some photos, 15.7 Mo

 * Original file produced with scribus 1.5svn : PA.pdf
 * Directly through ghostscript command : 21 Mo : bigger !
 * Using perl script : 2.77 Mo (and some errors displayed : "Syntax Error: No current point in closepath")

3rd tested file : one page color cover, some photos, 34Mo
pdfopt is not available so i replace it with "cp" as explaned above.


 * Original file produced with scribus 1.4.3 : PPP.pdf, 34Mo


 * using perl script (without pdfopt) : 1,1 Mo - WIN !