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I am exporting an Inkscape vector graphic (.SVG) to the PDF format required by the digital printers but one of the fonts used (namely Futura BdCn BT) is not formatting correctly in the exported PDF whilst everything else works fine. I have done pre-press (for too many years) albeit on Macs/MS-Coreldraw using the same techniques, but a few years ago moved over completely to Ubuntu for all my computing needs; now needing some new business cards, stumbled on this error and cannot work out why it's occurring. The design is simply text with a single QR graphic on it and that works fine, except for the Futura BdCn BT not formatting correctly and coming out more 'fat' and bold as opposed to the slim Futura BdCn BT style.

I'm using Ubuntu 14.10 with the 0.48 Inkscape install, but prior to next trying an Inkscape upgrade, has anyone experienced this issue and how do you overcome it? Failing that, anyone have a solution for the pre-press PDF requirement.

Thanks in advance.

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3 Answers 3

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I've noted the same behavior when bolding an already bold font. Appearance in Inkscape and the SVG is unchanged whether or not bold is on, but the PDF has the appearance of being bolded twice when bold is on. So, the fix is to make sure that bold is turned off for such fonts, even though it doesn't appear to make any difference within Inkscape.

I get the same behavior in 0.48.4 on Linux, as well as 0.48.5 on OS X.

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  • Yes, thanks for that. Again, I ended up using Scribus for the job which worked superb, so I will use Scribus for basic DTP now. Previously I had used M$ Coreldraw for previous jobs, but Inkscape gave above errors. I suggest you also checkout Scribus for simple DTP. (but it can't really beat Quark on a Mac!).
    – Paul B
    Jun 13, 2015 at 14:18
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    I had the same issue and changing the bold attribute for the fonts solved it. Thank you!
    – Robert
    Mar 5, 2016 at 10:54
  • I also had this issue in Inkscape 0.92 on Fedora and this was the correct solution. I found a bug report for this issue in Inkscape's bug tracker for anyone who wants to monitor progress on remedying it.
    – David Millar
    Sep 27, 2017 at 2:25
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Get the GIMP. I had to make a poster for the fraternity in a pdf format of all things, and I know that you can just transfer image formats through GIMP.

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  • I have GIMP but never thought of that really, I'll give it a shot. Would still like to fix the Inkscape issue though. Cheers.
    – Paul B
    Jun 3, 2015 at 17:21
  • No I just tried that, that's not a suitable option.
    – Paul B
    Jun 3, 2015 at 17:23
  • What is wrong with the conversion? did you choose export as...?
    – Trey Gordon
    Jun 3, 2015 at 17:28
  • I tried all: "export as", "Save as" and "print" (as PDF file). The said font does not convert well in the document. I'll try another copy with an standard alt font, the Futura BdCn BT is my favourite font (-:
    – Paul B
    Jun 3, 2015 at 18:05
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    I read this post (askubuntu.com/questions/211633/…) and loaded Scribus v1.4.4; then imported the Inkscape.SVG, when I exported out of Scribus as .PDF, it exported correctly as I wanted it to look like.
    – Paul B
    Jun 3, 2015 at 22:19
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Sounds like an issue embedding the fonts. As this is just for printing the text doesn't need to be recognised as text in the pdf.

When you select save and choose pdf a window should appear with some options. Select the convert texts to paths option. This should hopefully just render the text exactly as you see it in inkscape into an image in the pdf.

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  • Thanks for the advice @julian-sterling I shall try that option. (-:
    – Paul B
    Jun 4, 2015 at 9:05
  • No, those settings were already set and made no difference in the end result I'm afraid, but thanks for your advice. I'll try some other fonts/settings. Failing that, I'll use Scribus for now as that appears to output the PDF correctly. I'd still like some relevant advice from readers mind.
    – Paul B
    Jun 4, 2015 at 9:34

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