Hello everybody,

I am an Inkscape newbie and don't know much about computerized graphics in general, so be gentle .

My problem is as follows. I am using Inkscape for scientific illustrations. The journal that I am writing to requires that the fonts will be 9-10 pts, and that the resolution will be 600 dpi. I sent them my illustrations as pdf's, and they told me that my fonts don't fit their demands. I know that Inkscape uses px and not pt for font size, so I used the following conversation:
7 pt = 9 px (this one is for superscripts)
9 pt = 12 px
10 pt = 13 px
than, when I save the file as a pdf I am defining the "resolution for rasterization" to be 600 dpi.

A friend checked my file and told me that my font sizes deviate by 3 to 8 percent from the sized I intended to get. I suspect that it has something to do with the raserization resolution.
I'd be more than happy to hear ideas.

Best,
Eyal

Well, I am NOT a font expert by any means, so until one comes along, thought I'd ask a few questions just to get you started.
Have you tried different fonts? If so, are you using the trufonts, or what? I haven't noticed any changes in the font size on my works, but, what I usually do is to save the original font in a hidden layer, then I convert the copied text an object (choose Path, then Object to Path). If you didn't do that step, that can cause the printers lots of issues. Also, once you convert it, you can open and compare the svg and png, side by side, zoom both the png and svg file to the same page size (like 25% zoom), place the files next to each other and see if the size changes....
Some fonts, simply put, weren't designed for printing, some are designed for websites, etc. Some do not expand well. BTW, I've never heard of using 600 dpi, 300 is the norm, is that for printing? And, if you are speaking of printing dpi, that's different than size dpi, so, for example, when you export your file to a png, setting it to 600 dpi is changing the overall size, not the printing size (at least that's my understanding, and again, I'm not the expert on any of this).
I just thought maybe you could try some different fonts, convert your text to an object before exporting, and see if the printers can use that - until an real expert answers you on here. good luck.

Hey flamingolady, thanks for the very (!) quick reply.
To answer your questions: I can't use different fonts. I must follow the journal's protocol - Times New Roman it is. I haven't reached the stage of printing - I am not getting my desired font size in PDF I am making.
As to the 600 DPI - again, journal rules...

Thanks,
Eyal

eyalwu wrote:A friend checked my file and told me that my font sizes deviate by 3 to 8 percent from the sized I intended to get.

how did he check ?
visual inspection ?
or did he look at pdf source and see 9.7654321pt instead of 9pt ?

He used Illustrator.

It seems like I found a cumbersome yet working solution:

I made a file with 4 sentences, each in a different font size. I asked my friend to tell me what font sizes he reads with Illustrator, in pt.

Than I fitted a linear curve for the 4 points. This is a "calibration curve" which can be used to get the size in px required for a desired size in pt.
The equation for Times New Roman, 600 dpi is: px = 1.25 pt

If anyone has more elegant solution, I'd be glad to hear it.

Eyal.

eyalwu wrote:The journal that I am writing to requires that the fonts will be 9-10 pts, and that the resolution will be 600 dpi. I sent them my illustrations as pdf's, and they told me that my fonts don't fit their demands. I know that Inkscape uses px and not pt for font size, so I used the following conversation:
7 pt = 9 px (this one is for superscripts)
9 pt = 12 px
10 pt = 13 px
than, when I save the file as a pdf I am defining the "resolution for rasterization" to be 600 dpi.

A friend checked my file and told me that my font sizes deviate by 3 to 8 percent from the sized I intended to get. I suspect that it has something to do with the raserization resolution.
I'd be more than happy to hear ideas.

eyalwu wrote:Than I fitted a linear curve for the 4 points. This is a "calibration curve" which can be used to get the size in px required for a desired size in pt.
The equation for Times New Roman, 600 dpi is: px = 1.25 pt

1pt. = 1/72 inch. This is the absolute standard for desktop publishing. Inkscape's internal scale is 1inch =90 px. Therefore 72pt =90 px, and 1pt =1.25 px. No curve needed, but other than that no shortcut either! Note that the export resolution of the PDF is not a factor!
If your monitor is a different resolution than 90ppi than things will look larger or smaller at 100% because Inkscpe assumes 90ppi, but the exported pdf will have the right scale embedded in it.

Hey Druban,

Thanks for the explanation. Could have saved me a lot of time (:)) but it's also nice to see that my calculations were correct.

As to the journal's request - they asked for the figures in PDF. They didn't specify if they wanted it rasterize or not, but they didn't complain when they got it this way, so I guess that it's OK. I suppose that by "checkbox" you refer to the "Resolution for rasterization" checkbox - I can't uncheck this box, it only has room for a numerical value.

Thanks again.
Eyal