PDF output

[kcjimmyk]

I understand that one can't set a background color in the printed output of a document. My question regards a difference between Mellel and Nisus. When I print a file to pdf in Mellel (without a background color) and send it to the stanza pdf reader on my iPad I can select a background color there. When I print a Nisus document to pdf and send it to stanza, the background color stays white.

Does anyone know why this is? I would switch to Nisus if I could get this to work. I use my iPad for lecture notes and having a background color is very helpful.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

TIA

Jim

[Groucho]

Hello, JIm

I think the problem lies with Apple’s graphic engine, Quartz, which is used when converting a document to pdf from NWP, not with NWP specifically. Does the shortcoming show on files converted from TextEdit? Time ago I noticed that Skim failed to show a pdf with a colored background when the pdf was produced through Quartz, but it did work on pdf’s made by, say, InDesign, which has its own engine. Background color only showed properly outside of the text area, specifically along the margins. Feels like Quartz forces a white background below the text box. If I were you, I would try to open the file with Adobe Reader and save it into another pdf from there. Maybe Adobe Reader has the ability to rewrite the pdf.

By the way, I don’t know about Stanza for iTab, but when I open a pdf with Stanza desktop (Mac) I can set whatever font and background color, even though temporarily.

I hope this helps.

Greetings, Henry.

[Elbrecht]

Well -

OS X oldy Stone Create does well Printing Background Color - "Save as PDF" as well as "Printing to PDF". So there must be a way to actually "Print Background Color" in Nisus Writer as well.

HE

[kcjimmyk]

Thanks for the reply Groucho.

I'll experiment a little bit. Didn't think of those things (senior moment)

Jim

PS. Say hi to Chico, Harpo, Zeppo, and Gummo for me!

[kcjimmyk]

Well -

OS X oldy Stone Create does well Printing Background Color - "Save as PDF" as well as "Printing to PDF". So there must be a way to actually "Print Background Color" in Nisus Writer as well.

HE

One would think so, but if there is, I haven't found it yet.

Thanks for the reply, That Stone Create program looks pretty cool. I hadn't heard of it before.

Jim

[martin]

It's technically feasible for NWP to set the PDF background color, but it isn't something that the current version allows for, sorry. I'll file it as a feature request, thanks.

[greenmorpher]

It's technically feasible for NWP to set the PDF background color, but it isn't something that the current version allows for, sorry. I'll file it as a feature request, thanks.

Hi Martin

I think there are two issues here -- initially Jim was talking about being able to set the background color of a PDF file in his reader on the iPad rather than setting the background color in NWP.

That slid to the notion of setting a printable color in the background of the NWP page.

Or does the latter second provide a solution to the first question?

That Stone Create program looks pretty cool. I hadn't heard of it before.

Hiya Jim

Yes, Stone Create does look good in many ways -- IS good in many ways but it seems to me it is not moving forward as it should. Notice that v.14, the version currently on show, is dated 2007. And it has odd deficiencies. Stone is Stone himself, basically, and he's been concentrating on iPhone and iPod (and no doubt he is working in iPad stuff now) -- and who am I to argue against that, he has to make a buck, but this is at the expense of Create.

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard
Publisher, Editor, Business Writer
The Worsley Press

FREE Bonus book offer. Get "How to make great ads for (sm)all business" FREE when you buy "Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes?" or "How to Start and Produce a Magazine or Newsletter". Amazon or www.worsleypress.com

[Groucho]

Come to that, you can add a watermark to a pdf via Automator. You just need to create a colored rectangle the same size of the pdf and add it under the text. You only need to experiment a bit.

Henry.

[kcjimmyk]

Hi Martin

I think there are two issues here -- initially Jim was talking about being able to set the background color of a PDF file in his reader on the iPad rather than setting the background color in NWP.

That slid to the notion of setting a printable color in the background of the NWP page.

Or does the latter second provide a solution to the first question?

That is exactly correct, Geoffrey, I just want a background of alpha = 0

Yes, Stone Create does look good in many ways -- IS good in many ways but it seems to me it is not moving forward as it should. Notice that v.14, the version currently on show, is dated 2007. And it has odd deficiencies. Stone is Stone himself, basically, and he's been concentrating on iPhone and iPod (and no doubt he is working in iPad stuff now) -- and who am I to argue against that, he has to make a buck, but this is at the expense of Create.

Thanks for that insight. It was very helpful. I will not pursue Stone Create.

Jim

[kcjimmyk]

Come to that, you can add a watermark to a pdf via Automator. You just need to create a colored rectangle the same size of the pdf and add it under the text. You only need to experiment a bit.

Henry.

Good Idea! I will pursue this.

Thank you.

Jim

[martin]

I think there are two issues here -- initially Jim was talking about being able to set the background color of a PDF file in his reader on the iPad rather than setting the background color in NWP.

Ah you're right, I missed that distinction- thanks for pointing it out. I'm not sure what we're doing differently than other PDF producers, but I'll have a look. Probably NWP/Cocoa is explicitly filling a white backdrop, where other applications draw no background color and instead set a white document/page color, which can be easily manipulated by PDF readers.

Or does the latter second provide a solution to the first question?

Being able to choose a PDF background color in NWP would be a nice feature, but it doesn't completely eliminates Jim's original desire. He might prefer a particular background color now, but may change his mind later. It would be nice if he didn't have to resave his PDFs in order to use a new background color in his PDF reader.

[Groucho]

Jim, is there a particular reason why you want to export to pdf? I mean, if you don’t mind losing the layout, if all you need is just an ebook with a plain layout, like a paper novel, that you can read with Stanza, then you may convert the rtf into epub or any other format that Stanza can read. If so, Calibre is a pretty good choice – and it’s free also.

Greetings, Henry.

[kcjimmyk]

Jim, is there a particular reason why you want to export to pdf? I mean, if you don’t mind losing the layout, if all you need is just an ebook with a plain layout, like a paper novel, that you can read with Stanza, then you may convert the rtf into epub or any other format that Stanza can read. If so, Calibre is a pretty good choice – and it’s free also.

Henry ~

Thanks again for another tip. To tell the truth I have tried Calibre several times and can never make it work. (Argh! and to think, I was a programmer for 30 years ~ How embarrassing!!!! Oh well, AS/400 was my forte, not really much similarity)

I do also use a lot of list levels in my notes, they resemble an outline (My original plan was to create a working document in OmniOutliner then create Nisus document from that, adding footnotes, citations, etc…) but it is not going very well. I love Mellel but they seem to be rather sluggish in development lately, and I got burned badly one time by a word processor called MindWrite. They went out of business and when Mac OS changed to System 7 (that dates me!), I was left with two years worth of worthless documents. I think similar situations occurred with Snow Leopard. I am somewhat paranoid. Yes I export to PDF and RTF but they lose the outline levels and would be very difficult to modify later.

I will try Calibre again.

Thanks again for your time reading this novella of a post!!

Jim

[feat]

back to the subject of bookmarks in the generated pdf: shouldn't this be given the highest priority?

[martin]

back to the subject of bookmarks in the generated pdf: shouldn't this be given the highest priority?

I believe you're referring to keeping hyperlinks/cross-references clickable in saved PDF files. If so, yes, that feature is more important than changing the PDF background color; we're very aware of this need.