Creating print artwork with Inkscape and Scribus

Ready to Go

Unlike Inkscape, Scribus is ideally suited for creating print templates. I created compliant PDFs according to the X-3 standard used in printing. You'll find the settings to do this in File | Export | Save as PDF . On the General tab, the Lossless – ZIP selection for the Compression Method prevents ugly compression artifacts (Figure 8). Compatibility sets the PDF subformat for the export. Only PDF/X-3 allows embedding color profiles and, thus, the correct color management at the print shop. Unfortunately, not all printers support this relatively new format. Check with your printer in advance about which PDF format they expect. The print shop used for the demo CD, for example, could support only the older PDF 1.4 format, which Scribus also supports.

Figure 8: Scribus can handle the PDF/X-3 format developed specially for printing. The Lossless – ZIP choice as Compression Method avoids degrading the quality of embedded images.

On the Fonts tab, you either embed all possible fonts (Embed all ) or convert them to curves, which avoids deviations more reliably. Under Colors , choose Output Intent: Printer for PDF 1.3 through PDF 1.5. Only X-3 PDFs allow embedding printer color profiles on the Pre-Press tab under Output Profile . Here, you activate at least the options Crop Marks and Bleed Marks (Figure 9), which the shop needs for printsetting. The Crop Marks define the inside dimensions of the artwork for the printer. The other marks outside this area are the Registration Marks , Color Bars , and Page Information that might make the printer's work easier, so activating them doesn't hurt.

Figure 9: On the Pre-Press tab, you'll find the physical print settings.

Conclusion

The bitmap export at 300 dpi and the color conversion with ImageMagick's convert makes a CMYK workflow possible with the Inkscape drawing program and the Scribus desktop publishing program. The former provides the graphically appealing design, and the latter generates industry-standard PDF files that printshops can process further.

The steps might not flow as seamlessly as with Adobe's Illustrator or InDesign programs. You may find, for example, that converting the vector shapes into high-resolution bitmaps can swell the size of the print template PDFs, and that unrasterized full-color images often get jagged effects in resolutions of 300 dpi, especially in texts. Many of these pitfalls, however, can be avoided with some extra legwork.