Hi !

I was asked to create a poster to advertize a rock event. I choosed to do it with Inkscape. It will be printed in a printing shop, so I plan to save the final version as a pdf file and I'd like to get advices about the rules I must follow to create a proper pdf file :

How to manage the bleed ? (the final size will be A3 but as I added a bleed the document size is 307 x 430 mm and I set margins at 5 mm from the sheet borders. Am I right ?)
How to be sure that my colours are CMYK ?
How to manage the fonts ?
What am I forgetting ?

Here's a link to a draft : http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/6888/hpzv.png Every useful critic will be gladly welcome

Thank you !

I would talk to the print-shop. They are your collaborators and good communication will benefit both parties.

They can tell you if you need anything more than a PDF, crop marks, etc. If it is a digital print, they can pull you a proof for color check.


Fun poster, btw... you might consider using hard-edged white shapes behind the text, rather than the white soft glows - that would be more consistent with the block color theme you use for the rest of the poster.

The trouble is I've no direct contact with the print-shop : I'm working for a friend who has a friend who is able to print the stuff but perhaps won't do it so my friend will have to turn to an online print-shop. I guess this is what is called a "graphic chain" but this one is pretty entangled

Edit : here's an alternate version :

I like the second version way better!

A few more things to consider:

Pdf sounds like a good idea, but don't forget to convert the fonts into paths (is an option when saving as a pdf)
The colormanagement for print in Inkscape is sadly not very good, you will probably have a really hard time, creating a CMYK color index for your file. I would go with RGB and hope that it looks good.
The bleeding size sounds good, but be sure to tell the printer.

Hi !

The first version was intended to be a draft : something to be used as a start for collective thinking work. In my opinion it's an easier way than trying to get ideas from nowhere. The dark side of the method is that I'm drowned in emails saying : "Change this. Change that. A little further to the left. Smaller. Bigger. Harder..." and I've to do and redo things often : "Cent fois sur le métier tu remettras ton ouvrage."

The bleeding and margins sizes are choosen according to advices found on the page of the online print-shop my friendstomer intends to use.

About the fonts, I noticed that it's better to convert them to path before creating the pdf. Else, using the option when exporting, creates a pdf document with ugly fonts : way too much weight. Is it the same on other systems ?

I made differents tests. One way is to export in png, use Gimp to create a jpeg (no png accepted by the shop), then convert it with CMYKTool (I thonk you can find it on Ubuntu's repos). The other is to create en eps file (strangely, my Scribus can't deal with Inkscapes pdf), import it in scribus then save as a quadrichromic pdf. The last way is to delever an RVB pdf and ask the shop to convert it, but once again, it won't do with online-shop.

Thanks folks !

It's looking good

Red on black or black on red can sometimes be a little hard to read. The text with the white borders stands out a lot better - perhaps it would be worth adding a think white keyline to some of the other text as well. For the block at the top you could also try doing it as white text against a red background.

lejimi wrote:About the fonts, I noticed that it's better to convert them to path before creating the pdf. Else, using the option when exporting, creates a pdf document with ugly fonts : way too much weight. Is it the same on other systems ?

That's been my experience as well. I always convert to paths myself rather than relying on the option in the PDF export dialogue.

lejimi wrote:I made differents tests. One way is to export in png, use Gimp to create a jpeg (no png accepted by the shop), then convert it with CMYKTool (I thonk you can find it on Ubuntu's repos). The other is to create en eps file (strangely, my Scribus can't deal with Inkscapes pdf), import it in scribus then save as a quadrichromic pdf. The last way is to delever an RVB pdf and ask the shop to convert it, but once again, it won't do with online-shop.

I tried various approaches with my print shop, and finally settled on a couple of options:

1) If there are no gradients, filters or other such things in the image, Inkscape's EPS or PDF export seems to work pretty well for them (though sometimes one works when the other doesn't, so I often export both and let them choose)
2) For anything more complex I export a high-res PNG, convert to another format if necessary, and accept that the best they can do is place it as a graphic in InDesign.

In my experience the RGB files I produce tend to come out very dark when printed. Simple lightening doesn't work for me, as some of the paler colours get lost. So I tend to lighten things a little in Inkscape, then adjust the colour curves a little more in The GIMP if I have to, and finally just accept that some of the colours will be "wrong" compared with what I see on screen. None of my equipment is calibrated and I don't use a CMS, so all I can do is iterate a bit, and hope for the best.

Bear in mind that Scribus can load SVG files directly. There are limits on what it will render, but simple flat colours and paths should be okay - perhaps you could just load your Inkscape file directly into Scribus and export a PDF from there.

Related: Inkscape CMYK, Scribus & PDF
http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entr ... to-scribus

Thanks Xav and Tylerdurden for your answers. I'll give a try to your advices Xav, as I'm not fully satisfied with the way the title stands out. It's not enough. Another problem is that the document will be printed both as a A3 poster and a A6 flyer. So I had to size things up, and now the whole lacks some space to breath (actually it is choking and I fear there are still things to add...) I'll have to find a compromize.

I tried to import my svg in Scribus, but I get a message saying that some features are not supported (blurs I guess). And it doesn't open. I even experienced Scribus crashes (I'm not at home presently, but I think my Scribus is a 1.4 ?) Fortunately it works just fine with Inkscape made eps/ps files (even preserving blurs and transparencies). So it will be easy ton convert it to a CMYK pdf using Scribus.

I'm discovering Libre Graphics World I think I'll add it to my bookmarks as it seems very interesting.