They differ because you didn’t select PDF at the bottom.
No, actually Scrivener is not a “screenwriting app.” It’s a writing application that provides a number of screenwriting tools. It is not – and does not attempt to be – a replacement for something like Final Draft.
Usually when a “relatively simple” tool is not available in a particular piece of software, that’s a sign that the feature isn’t as simple as you thought.
In this case, putting a watermark behind the text essentially requires creating each page as an image with the watermark as a background layer, and then rendering the image. That’s a complex page layout task, not a writing/editing task or even a text formatting task, and outside of Scrivener’s intended scope.
@drmajorbob I did, has nothing to do with the options given.
@kewms It’s ok, the workaround with WriterSolo is good.
In L&L’s marketing, it even mentions using Scrivener with Final Draft:
Scrivener’s familiar scriptwriting features deal with the formatting, leaving you free to focus on the action. And when you’re done, you can print directly from Scrivener or export to industry-standard software such as Final Draft.
I find that things get much easier when you embrace this, and just use a pro app like WriterSolo to do the things that Scrivener doesn’t do well or at all.
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Same in other genres, too. Let Scrivener do what Scrivener does well, turn to other applications for things that Scrivener does poorly.
Your screenshots show options for two different printers … not the options for saving a PDF. They’re two separate interfaces. When I click on PDF at the bottom and select to save a PDF, this is all that comes up:
Options for printers do not affect the PDF.
What I’ve been doing is use a Python script to add watermarks to the pages of my PDFs. I can have the watermarks layered behind or in front of the text, and adjust their transparency amount.
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Interesting. Can you post the Python code here? Zip and upload best, I think.
Edit: Google “python add watermark to pdf” finds a lot of options, all looking relatively easy. Thanks for the pointer, @ShawnDriscoll. It’s another way to make watermarks in my past that I completely forgot about. Probably have my own code somewhere, but still i’m curious about how you accomplish.
@drmajorbob
The options for ‘save as PDF’ don’t offer watermarks. It’s seems to be certain printers that offer them and from their options you’d have to save as PDF.
It doesn’t matter anyway since they don’t seem to be able to print behind the text.
Depending on how easy the Python route is that’d be 3 good ways to add watermarks.
The automation route linked above is very simple to follow and I can add the same custom watermark to any future PDF with just one click now.
Exporting as .fdx and adding watermarks inside the free WriterSolo, as suggested by popcornflix, is another simple solution.
I can make a YouTube video showing how I do it using Python.
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Also, if you’re on a Mac and can afford $20, you can get Bronson Watermarker, a professional PDF watermarker created by the screenwriter of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Aladdin.
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Just having the code posted here is probably of more use to most (we can copy/paste instead of re-typing), but the YouTube would be interesting I guess.
I’m curious which PDF module you import to do this, and the exact parameters you use. There are a number of PDF modules available to Python.
Just looked at Bronson Watermarker, I very much like the random noise feature to make the watermarks more difficult to remove. Also the inclusion of an optional conversion of the pages into images, so that text can’t be copied. Thanks for the tip once again popcornflix!
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