pdf export distorts text

[Richard Wonka]

on a pdf export of a design, the font is distorted, see attached files of .svg, exported to .pdf (wrong) and a good looking .png

export parameters for pdf were left to default, (text to be converted to paths).

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: inkscape 0.48.2-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-15.24-generic 3.0.13
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-15-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu4
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sat Dec 31 08:46:39 2011
SourcePackage: inkscape
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to oneiric on 2011-12-16 (14 days ago)

[Richard Wonka (richard-wonka)]

I have not checked whether this might be a bug in evince - if someone could take a look at the pdf with a different pdf viewer, that would be interesting to know...

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Reproduced with Inkscape 0.48.2 and 0.48+devel r10811 on OS X 10.7.2 Lion when converting text to path,
Not reproduced with eithr version when keeping text as text (default setting).

Possibly an issue with that specific font ('Ubuntu-title').

Any special reason to convert the text to path when saving a copy as PFD? Since version 0.47, Inkscape does _always_ embed and subset the fonts when saving a copy as PDF/PS/EPS (rather, the cairo library used for this does it) - the resulting PDF files can be viewed on any system without requiring the fonts used in the PDF file to be installed on that system.

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Setting importance to 'Low' because there are workarounds:
a) rely on cairo's font embedding, or
b) convert the text to path using 'Path > Object to Path' prior to saving a copy as PDF.

Removing the manual kerns of the distorted text (menu 'Text > Remove Manual Kerns') does not affect the issue: the text is still distorted when converted to path during PDF export.

[su_v (suv-lp)]

The issue seems to be triggered by the 'Bold' text style applied to the text object 'freediving' - there is no bold typeface for 'Ubuntu-Title'. Setting the text back to normal (deactivate the 'bold' style on the controls bar of the text tool) allows to convert the text to path during export without additional distortion.

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Linking as duplicate to Bug #501772 in Inkscape: “Text is deformed in PDF files saved with 'convert text to paths' option” - please add a comment here and revert the duplicate status if you don't agree and think these are different issues.