This is a read-only archive of the inkscapeforum.com site. You can search for info here or post new questions and comments at I am using the latest version of Inkscape on Windows 7. I need to export the image I have as a PDF, but when I do so, the document is entirely blank. All the text in the document is still there; it is still selectable and the four fonts I am using show up in the document security properties.
The image is roughly 70 000 pixels wide and 400 pixels high - I have tried decreasing it in size significantly, with no effect. I have used almost every combination of settings on the PDF export menu. Can anyone offer some help?
PDF Export
Re: PDF Export
have you set the document properties page size to include your whole diagram/drawing? ..as the PDF export (afaik) only exports what's within document boundary.
-
Interchangeable
- Posts: 33
- Joined: Mon May 07, 2012 1:52 am
Re: PDF Export
Yes, the page size includes the entire drawing. Every time I resize the text, I resize the page to go with it.
Re: PDF Export
Welcome to the forum 
Could you show us the SVG file? Then we could try to export, and troubleshoot. Inkscape is pretty good at exporting PDFs these days. It used to be problematic, but has improved a lot lately. So I'm not sure what the problem could be....
chriswww, there are a couple of options in the PDF export dialog to export drawing or export page. But it sounds like either one of those should work
Could you show us the SVG file? Then we could try to export, and troubleshoot. Inkscape is pretty good at exporting PDFs these days. It used to be problematic, but has improved a lot lately. So I'm not sure what the problem could be....
chriswww, there are a couple of options in the PDF export dialog to export drawing or export page. But it sounds like either one of those should work
Basics - Help menu > Tutorials
Manual - Inkscape: Guide to a Vector Drawing Program
Inkscape Community - Inkscape FAQ - Gallery
Inkscape for Cutting Design
Manual - Inkscape: Guide to a Vector Drawing Program
Inkscape Community - Inkscape FAQ - Gallery
Inkscape for Cutting Design
Re: PDF Export
running 0.47 at work...which doesn't seem to have any options at all when saving as pdf.
if Interchangeable posts the file i could check at home on windows 7 64bit Inkscape 0.48.2
It's not stated whether the image was composed in Inkscape in the first place...which could cause a problem if that's the case. but this is all speculation, until some additional detail is given, and importantly the svg file.
if Interchangeable posts the file i could check at home on windows 7 64bit Inkscape 0.48.2
It's not stated whether the image was composed in Inkscape in the first place...which could cause a problem if that's the case. but this is all speculation, until some additional detail is given, and importantly the svg file.
Re: PDF Export
No PDF dialog?
You have to get through the Save As dialog first, so that after you click Save, then there's a tiny window titled Portable Document Format that pops up. There are approx 6 to 8 options available. This is on Windows.
You have to get through the Save As dialog first, so that after you click Save, then there's a tiny window titled Portable Document Format that pops up. There are approx 6 to 8 options available. This is on Windows.
Basics - Help menu > Tutorials
Manual - Inkscape: Guide to a Vector Drawing Program
Inkscape Community - Inkscape FAQ - Gallery
Inkscape for Cutting Design
Manual - Inkscape: Guide to a Vector Drawing Program
Inkscape Community - Inkscape FAQ - Gallery
Inkscape for Cutting Design
-
Interchangeable
- Posts: 33
- Joined: Mon May 07, 2012 1:52 am
Re: PDF Export
To answer chriswww the philosopher, yes, the image was created in Inkscape.
I don't want anyone but me to be able to use it until it's finished, so I can't upload it here. But I will describe it. As I mentioned, it is 70000 pixels wide by 400 high. It consists of a very long stream of text, in a single text box, that runs from the left side of the image to the other. (There is some Arabic and Hebrew right-to-left text in addition to the Latin text, if that's a factor.) The fonts in that text box are Arial Unicode MS, Euphemia, and Tahoma. That stream of text is coloured with a gradient that runs through red-orange-yellow-green-blue-purple. Above that stream of text there are thirteen small scattered text boxes, set in the font Georgia, with one word in each of them.
I hope this sheds some light on the situation.
I don't want anyone but me to be able to use it until it's finished, so I can't upload it here. But I will describe it. As I mentioned, it is 70000 pixels wide by 400 high. It consists of a very long stream of text, in a single text box, that runs from the left side of the image to the other. (There is some Arabic and Hebrew right-to-left text in addition to the Latin text, if that's a factor.) The fonts in that text box are Arial Unicode MS, Euphemia, and Tahoma. That stream of text is coloured with a gradient that runs through red-orange-yellow-green-blue-purple. Above that stream of text there are thirteen small scattered text boxes, set in the font Georgia, with one word in each of them.
I hope this sheds some light on the situation.
Re: PDF Export
Hhhmmm.....ok then, let's disect the problem. Here's how you described it:
When you see that the document is blank, where are you looking? Have you re-opened or imported the PDF back into Inkscape? Or are you using Adobe Reader? Or some other viewer or program? Are you sure about the capabilities of the viewer or other program?
I know you said you tried all the options available in the export dialog. So that would mean that you tried the option to export text as paths. Have you tried converting all the text to Paths, before starting the export?
What do you mean that the text is still there and still selectable? How can you see it if the document is blank? Also, I'm not sure what "document security properties" means. I know about right-click > Object Properties or Object menu > Object Properties, but there's no "Security" there. Or maybe that's something from the viewer or Adobe Reader that you're using??
Ok, I'll leave all those questions for you, and when you reply, we'll go from there. My eyelids are droopy
I need to export the image I have as a PDF, but when I do so, the document is entirely blank. All the text in the document is still there; it is still selectable and the four fonts I am using show up in the document security properties.
When you see that the document is blank, where are you looking? Have you re-opened or imported the PDF back into Inkscape? Or are you using Adobe Reader? Or some other viewer or program? Are you sure about the capabilities of the viewer or other program?
I know you said you tried all the options available in the export dialog. So that would mean that you tried the option to export text as paths. Have you tried converting all the text to Paths, before starting the export?
What do you mean that the text is still there and still selectable? How can you see it if the document is blank? Also, I'm not sure what "document security properties" means. I know about right-click > Object Properties or Object menu > Object Properties, but there's no "Security" there. Or maybe that's something from the viewer or Adobe Reader that you're using??
Ok, I'll leave all those questions for you, and when you reply, we'll go from there. My eyelids are droopy
Basics - Help menu > Tutorials
Manual - Inkscape: Guide to a Vector Drawing Program
Inkscape Community - Inkscape FAQ - Gallery
Inkscape for Cutting Design
Manual - Inkscape: Guide to a Vector Drawing Program
Inkscape Community - Inkscape FAQ - Gallery
Inkscape for Cutting Design
-
Interchangeable
- Posts: 33
- Joined: Mon May 07, 2012 1:52 am
Re: PDF Export
Just for some additional technical information, I am using version 0.48.2.
When I view the exported document in Adobe Reader 9.3.0, the document is blank. Yet when I drag my mouse across the PDF, there is an area, presumably the text, that can be highlighted. There is an area above the main stream of text that is also selectable, and an area at the bottom of the document (where I have placed a small annotation) that can also be highlighted. I can even copy the text and paste it into another program.
It looks like the "Security" option might have disappeared in newer versions of Adobe Reader. In 9.3.0, if you click Document → Security → Show Security Properties and then click the "Fonts" tab on the resulting menu, it lists all the fonts that are in use in the document - in this case Arial Unicode MS, Euphemia, Georgia, and Tahoma. I have a second computer with version 10 on it, and that option isn't there.
I'm just an amateur, so I don't know how to convert text to paths or what that means. I suspect it means the text is no longer selectable as text, but becomes an image, which I would like. Is that correct?
A further question: is it possible to give the document a background that looks like parchment?
When I view the exported document in Adobe Reader 9.3.0, the document is blank. Yet when I drag my mouse across the PDF, there is an area, presumably the text, that can be highlighted. There is an area above the main stream of text that is also selectable, and an area at the bottom of the document (where I have placed a small annotation) that can also be highlighted. I can even copy the text and paste it into another program.
It looks like the "Security" option might have disappeared in newer versions of Adobe Reader. In 9.3.0, if you click Document → Security → Show Security Properties and then click the "Fonts" tab on the resulting menu, it lists all the fonts that are in use in the document - in this case Arial Unicode MS, Euphemia, Georgia, and Tahoma. I have a second computer with version 10 on it, and that option isn't there.
I'm just an amateur, so I don't know how to convert text to paths or what that means. I suspect it means the text is no longer selectable as text, but becomes an image, which I would like. Is that correct?
A further question: is it possible to give the document a background that looks like parchment?
Re: PDF Export
Aah, ok
I'm not that familiar with Adobe Reader, so I've never seen the "Security" stuff. I use it very rarely. I never would have thought to mouseover the doc, if it was blank when I opened it.
So if you convert the text to path, you're correct, it will no longer be editable as text. For that reason, it's advisable to save a copy of the text somewhere, like outside the page border, or on a hidden layer, or even in another document. Just so you don't have to type it out again, if you needed to edit.
To do that, select all the text, then Path menu > Object to Path. The only problem is that I'm not sure if that will solve the problem. As I said before, Inkscape can convert text in an SVG to PDF with no problem. If the text is the problem, maybe it's the unusual fonts. And if it is, converting to path should fix it.
Just to be clear, when you looked at the new PDF in Adobe Reader, were you looking at it on the same computer where you created the SVG in Inkscape? If not, both computers would have to have the same fonts installed. Otherwise the computer would have substituted the closest font that is has installed. I don't know if something like that could cause the document to appear to be blank. But again though, converting text to path would solve that.
The reason we wanted to look at the file, is because there could be other things besides necessarily the image contents, that might make it blank in Adobe Reader. So that could still be the case. I guess if this doesn't solve it, maybe you would feel better about emailing the file to one of us? (Although I would be glad to, I'm probably not the best one to find the problem, in this case. But I'm sure someone else would be glad to try.)
You could absolutely give it a background that looks like parchment. But you'd have to either draw it yourself, or find an existing image to use. You can find free wallpapers all over the internet, so it should be fairly easy to find one. I guess I could give you some tips for drawing it, but I would need a sample image. "Parchment" could mean all kind of things, to different people.
Let us know how it goes
I'm not that familiar with Adobe Reader, so I've never seen the "Security" stuff. I use it very rarely. I never would have thought to mouseover the doc, if it was blank when I opened it.
So if you convert the text to path, you're correct, it will no longer be editable as text. For that reason, it's advisable to save a copy of the text somewhere, like outside the page border, or on a hidden layer, or even in another document. Just so you don't have to type it out again, if you needed to edit.
To do that, select all the text, then Path menu > Object to Path. The only problem is that I'm not sure if that will solve the problem. As I said before, Inkscape can convert text in an SVG to PDF with no problem. If the text is the problem, maybe it's the unusual fonts. And if it is, converting to path should fix it.
Just to be clear, when you looked at the new PDF in Adobe Reader, were you looking at it on the same computer where you created the SVG in Inkscape? If not, both computers would have to have the same fonts installed. Otherwise the computer would have substituted the closest font that is has installed. I don't know if something like that could cause the document to appear to be blank. But again though, converting text to path would solve that.
The reason we wanted to look at the file, is because there could be other things besides necessarily the image contents, that might make it blank in Adobe Reader. So that could still be the case. I guess if this doesn't solve it, maybe you would feel better about emailing the file to one of us? (Although I would be glad to, I'm probably not the best one to find the problem, in this case. But I'm sure someone else would be glad to try.)
You could absolutely give it a background that looks like parchment. But you'd have to either draw it yourself, or find an existing image to use. You can find free wallpapers all over the internet, so it should be fairly easy to find one. I guess I could give you some tips for drawing it, but I would need a sample image. "Parchment" could mean all kind of things, to different people.
Let us know how it goes
Basics - Help menu > Tutorials
Manual - Inkscape: Guide to a Vector Drawing Program
Inkscape Community - Inkscape FAQ - Gallery
Inkscape for Cutting Design
Manual - Inkscape: Guide to a Vector Drawing Program
Inkscape Community - Inkscape FAQ - Gallery
Inkscape for Cutting Design
-
Interchangeable
- Posts: 33
- Joined: Mon May 07, 2012 1:52 am
Re: PDF Export
Whether I convert the text to paths beforehand, or I use the PDF export option "Convert texts to paths", the document is still blank; the only difference is that in both cases I can't even select the text. Just to be safe, I tried making all the text black after converting the text to paths - still I was faced with a long strip of white.
And yes, this is all on the same computer where I am viewing it. But that doesn't really matter. The whole idea behind PDF files is that they look the same on nearly all computers - the fonts don't actually have to be installed to be viewed.
I'm not very comfortable with sharing my email address with strangers. Sorry about that.
And yes, this is all on the same computer where I am viewing it. But that doesn't really matter. The whole idea behind PDF files is that they look the same on nearly all computers - the fonts don't actually have to be installed to be viewed.
I'm not very comfortable with sharing my email address with strangers. Sorry about that.
Re: PDF Export
No need to apologize, it's understandable. I just don't know any other way to examine the file to try and find the problem.
The only other thing that catches my attention is the physical size of the image. 70,000 pixels must be....well I'm not sure if I've done the calculations right, but I'm coming up with....approx 60 to 70 feet! That can't be right!?? Well, even 60 to 70 inches would be huge! Now that I realize how large 70,000 pixels is, I'm actually surprised you could even do it at all in Inkscape, lol. But maybe you could try a small image size (smaller than a computer screen) to test that theory. Put all the same type of content in a, say, A4 document and try to Save As PDF.
Hhm....did you type out all the text originally in Inkscape? If you pasted it in, maybe something from the origin of the text got pasted in as well, and has effectively corrupted it? (That could be one of the non-image content type of things I was thinking of.) Or maybe parts of the image came from a file the was originally created in another program?? If that's the case, if you haven't already, try saving as SVG first, then PDF. (might strip out any potential corruption)
Or maybe someone else will have some ideas.
Good luck
The only other thing that catches my attention is the physical size of the image. 70,000 pixels must be....well I'm not sure if I've done the calculations right, but I'm coming up with....approx 60 to 70 feet! That can't be right!?? Well, even 60 to 70 inches would be huge! Now that I realize how large 70,000 pixels is, I'm actually surprised you could even do it at all in Inkscape, lol. But maybe you could try a small image size (smaller than a computer screen) to test that theory. Put all the same type of content in a, say, A4 document and try to Save As PDF.
Hhm....did you type out all the text originally in Inkscape? If you pasted it in, maybe something from the origin of the text got pasted in as well, and has effectively corrupted it? (That could be one of the non-image content type of things I was thinking of.) Or maybe parts of the image came from a file the was originally created in another program?? If that's the case, if you haven't already, try saving as SVG first, then PDF. (might strip out any potential corruption)
Or maybe someone else will have some ideas.
Good luck
Basics - Help menu > Tutorials
Manual - Inkscape: Guide to a Vector Drawing Program
Inkscape Community - Inkscape FAQ - Gallery
Inkscape for Cutting Design
Manual - Inkscape: Guide to a Vector Drawing Program
Inkscape Community - Inkscape FAQ - Gallery
Inkscape for Cutting Design
-
Interchangeable
- Posts: 33
- Joined: Mon May 07, 2012 1:52 am
Re: PDF Export
Yes, it is indeed 70 000 pixels wide. The text was originally created in Microsoft Word (and pasted from a website). It was then copied and pasted into NotePad (how come you can't paste from Word into Inkscape?) and pasted into Inkscape after that. So it is possible that it may be corrupted. But I'm not sure how I can type it manually, since Inkscape doesn't appear to offer a way to insert non-keyboard symbols.
Anyway, I'm going to recreate the whole thing from scratch and try to recreate it. I'll post again when I've finished.
Anyway, I'm going to recreate the whole thing from scratch and try to recreate it. I'll post again when I've finished.
-
Interchangeable
- Posts: 33
- Joined: Mon May 07, 2012 1:52 am
Re: PDF Export
I don't believe this. I recreated the entire document and exported it as a PDF. (To give you an idea of how frustrating this is getting, I named the file "Please work".) It was blank. I went back to the original file, resized it so that it was well within the maximum size of a JPEG image (65536 pixels, I don't know if this affects SVGs), and tried to export it again. It was still blank. Thanks for all your help, friends, but nothing's worked so far.
Re: PDF Export
thanks for the compliment. It might seem superfluous to ask a lot of questions...but in this case your additional detail helped me to reproduce the problem.
I created same sized document and used my creativity to write "aaaaaa...." across the whole page in arial font, left to right writing. Lo and behold after export had selectable invisible text.
I haven't figured out exactly what's going on but, the text box is somehow being stretched & shifted vertically by adobe reader, so the text is outside the visible region. If you leave the text as text when exporting, and then use Zoom->reflow in adobe reader, and maybe zoom in/out a couple of times, the text shows up. So it's just adobe reader having the problem. I viewed my pdf with ghostscript and xpdf on linux, and no problems seeing the text there.
I created same sized document and used my creativity to write "aaaaaa...." across the whole page in arial font, left to right writing. Lo and behold after export had selectable invisible text.
I haven't figured out exactly what's going on but, the text box is somehow being stretched & shifted vertically by adobe reader, so the text is outside the visible region. If you leave the text as text when exporting, and then use Zoom->reflow in adobe reader, and maybe zoom in/out a couple of times, the text shows up. So it's just adobe reader having the problem. I viewed my pdf with ghostscript and xpdf on linux, and no problems seeing the text there.
Re: PDF Export
Going through NotePad probably removed any of the stuff that Word would have added, and any of what I thought might have caused a problem. I don't know why you can't paste directly from Word. I didn't know that you couldn't....well, I don't know whether you should be able to or not.
You could still use Inkscape and the non-keyboard symbols, as long as you have the symbols in the proper kind of file. Actually I don't know what kind of file that would be, but I have used Windows' Character Map to add symbols to text. As long as you're planning to convert to paths anyway, it might not even matter what kind of file. If the symbols won't paste, you might be able to import them (as images).
Also, the 2nd time around, be sure to Save As SVG first, then try the PDF export.
If there would be any way to do it, without going to a lot of trouble, you might try to find a way to use Scribus (free, open source desktop publishing program). Especially since it sounds like the image is all, or almost all text. I'm sure Scribus can either Save As or export PDF, and maybe even SVG. I actually don't know if Scribus supports gradients. But pasting from Notepad into Scribus into Inkscape, might make the text more palatable to Inkscape.
Although that's still assuming that something about the text is the problem. It could be the sheer size of the image. I've never heard of any size limitation for either Inkscape, SVG or PDF. But 60 FEET?? I think of any image wider than my computer screen as huge, lol.
Anyway, good luck
PS -- Oops, you posted again while I was typing. I didn't know JPGs or any image had a maximum size. But my thought was to try something more typical, like the standard A4 size. But it sounds like chriswww might have solved the problem! I hope so. If not, Scribus might be worth a try
You could still use Inkscape and the non-keyboard symbols, as long as you have the symbols in the proper kind of file. Actually I don't know what kind of file that would be, but I have used Windows' Character Map to add symbols to text. As long as you're planning to convert to paths anyway, it might not even matter what kind of file. If the symbols won't paste, you might be able to import them (as images).
Also, the 2nd time around, be sure to Save As SVG first, then try the PDF export.
If there would be any way to do it, without going to a lot of trouble, you might try to find a way to use Scribus (free, open source desktop publishing program). Especially since it sounds like the image is all, or almost all text. I'm sure Scribus can either Save As or export PDF, and maybe even SVG. I actually don't know if Scribus supports gradients. But pasting from Notepad into Scribus into Inkscape, might make the text more palatable to Inkscape. Although that's still assuming that something about the text is the problem. It could be the sheer size of the image. I've never heard of any size limitation for either Inkscape, SVG or PDF. But 60 FEET?? I think of any image wider than my computer screen as huge, lol.
Anyway, good luck
PS -- Oops, you posted again while I was typing. I didn't know JPGs or any image had a maximum size. But my thought was to try something more typical, like the standard A4 size. But it sounds like chriswww might have solved the problem! I hope so. If not, Scribus might be worth a try
Basics - Help menu > Tutorials
Manual - Inkscape: Guide to a Vector Drawing Program
Inkscape Community - Inkscape FAQ - Gallery
Inkscape for Cutting Design
Manual - Inkscape: Guide to a Vector Drawing Program
Inkscape Community - Inkscape FAQ - Gallery
Inkscape for Cutting Design
-
Interchangeable
- Posts: 33
- Joined: Mon May 07, 2012 1:52 am
Re: PDF Export
Good news! It turns out that I don't need to export it as a PDF after all. The reason I wanted to do that was because I was originally planning to view the image using Google Chrome - but Chrome can't display Bengali text (of which there was some in the document). But with that handy "Object to Path" command, the need for text is eliminated altogether. Ironically, I decided to delete the Bengali text because it was too similar to some other stuff.
Thanks for your help, everyone - the underlying issue of extremely wide text boxes could still use a look, but my problem is solved. I'll be posting the image to the "Finished Inkscape Work" forum soon.
Thanks for your help, everyone - the underlying issue of extremely wide text boxes could still use a look, but my problem is solved. I'll be posting the image to the "Finished Inkscape Work" forum soon.
Re: PDF Export
it's only (current?) Adobe Reader that is offsetting the baseline of text during preview when you have an extremely wide text box. it's not a problem with the pdf file itself as generated by Inkscape. Viewing the same pdf in other pdf viewers shows correct rendering without baseline offset.
Re: PDF Export
Hi everyone!
I have just began having the same problem as the topic starter, however previously (for more than a year!) everything worked just fine with PDF export. I have Inkscape 0.48 on Win 8, and tried to use the following batch command to export my file to the PDF:
However, the PDF turned out to be blank, but with selectable text (exactly as described above, see attachment). Option "Save As.." now gives the same result
P.S. I cannot put here the whole file, it is around 2 Mb size and the forum rejects it. However it is not really big.
Thank you in advance for any clues to fix this!
I have just began having the same problem as the topic starter, however previously (for more than a year!) everything worked just fine with PDF export. I have Inkscape 0.48 on Win 8, and tried to use the following batch command to export my file to the PDF:
Code: Select all
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Inkscape\inkscape.exe" --file=%treefile%.svg --export-pdf=%treefile%.pdf --export-area-drawing --export-dpi=150dpiHowever, the PDF turned out to be blank, but with selectable text (exactly as described above, see attachment). Option "Save As.." now gives the same result
P.S. I cannot put here the whole file, it is around 2 Mb size and the forum rejects it. However it is not really big.
Thank you in advance for any clues to fix this!
- Attachments
-
- Beta_A.sorted.pdf
- Resulting PDF file
- (161.89 KiB) Downloaded 224 times
Re: PDF Export
Hello there,
opened your pdf with linux, it shows it was made with arial font -which I don't have-.
Maybe the problem is related to arial narrow?
http://www.inkscapeforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=16600
opened your pdf with linux, it shows it was made with arial font -which I don't have-.
Maybe the problem is related to arial narrow?
http://www.inkscapeforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=16600
Re: PDF Export
Lazur URH, thank you for the answer! Regrettably I don't think this is the problem: I have exported my file to png and... it turned out it is around 20K pixels long (with dpi 90), meaning I likely have the same problem as the topic started with file size exceeding some threshold. Converting smaller file was still okay. But the problem with large file remains: I would want to be able to convert these large things...
Re: PDF Export
Oh ok, so it's the dimensions.
This page gives a hint that there is a limit within windows printer driver/postscript?
I'm not sure, what causes this exactly, but they mention the limit is 200 inches -with 90 dpi, 18000 pixels.
Or maybe less, 14400 pixels, of adobe's 72 dpi model?
The given solution is to scale down the design and to set the printer to scale it back up.
This page gives a hint that there is a limit within windows printer driver/postscript?
I'm not sure, what causes this exactly, but they mention the limit is 200 inches -with 90 dpi, 18000 pixels.
Or maybe less, 14400 pixels, of adobe's 72 dpi model?
The given solution is to scale down the design and to set the printer to scale it back up.