Re: [Swftools-common] PDF Gradient

[JL]

Hello Robert,

PDF2SWF does not always handle gradients/transparency elements with the desired output.

The Print and PDF world have their own issues with them let alone the conversion process to an alternate format.

That said, usually you will see recommended to use the "-s poly2bitmap" or "-s bitmap" flags in conjunction with your PDF2SWF arguments.

poly2bitmap usually corrects these issues 50% of the time or so.  the bitmap option maybe another 20% on top of that.

However, and is the case with your particular PDF, neither of those seemed to help with your gradient issue.  It is either just too complex, or for some reason PDF2SWF is just not able to render it gradient as expected.

In times likes these, optimizing the PDF during generation may prove successful prior to running through PDF2SWF.  In most PDF generation programs (various PDF printers, Acrobat, Word, etc) you should have the option to generate the PDF to PDF version 1.3 (Acrobat 4.0) This will automatically flatten the live transparency and give PDF2SWF a better chance for a proper rendition.  Certainly throws a extra step in the over all conversion process, but there is not much at this point to fallback on.  Several people have offered to pay for a customized iteration of PDF2SWF to tackle transparency, but I am not sure whatever came of that request.

 And finally....last but not least, I ran your PDF through Acrobat's Optimizer to set the version to 1.3 and still yet....PDF2SWF did not provide an acceptable result.  In the end, I saved your PDF back out to a postscript file and ran it through distiller as PDF version 1.3 and ran it back through PDF2SWF and the result was acceptable to my eyes.  Gradient was retained without any other visual loss of quality.  So was a two step prep process needed to be put through before pushing to PDF2SWF.  Most of the time, this extra step is not necessary...but when it is...not much else I can recommended.

Happy rendering

JL

On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 2:52 PM, Robert Damiano <address@hidden> wrote:

Hi,

I've attached a PDF file that has a gradient, but when I use the pdf2swf tool the gradient is not maintained in the SWF.  Here is the way that I'm calling pdf2swf:

pdf2swf --fonts --flashversion 9 --jpegquality 75 -s disablelinks -s zoom=125 -p 1-1  download-pages-1319124407.pdf -o test.swf

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

--
Robert Damiano
Java Developer | Mygazines
address@hidden

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-- 
Jeff