What is your professional qualifications to make such a judgement ?
I will just point some relevant links:
The "hobbyists" - NOT: The Scribus Team bios. There are a handful of people who are involved with Scribus who have extensive experience in publishing, pre-press and image engineering among others.
Despite the naysayers, there is a growing interest from publishers both large and small in open source software - not just the back-end server stuff, but yes even the desktop tools... Things like the overwhelming success of events like www.libregraphicsmeeting.org and the open sourcing of Xara are concrete signals the arrival of open source what was once strictly proprietary domain.
We on the Scribus Team have begun over the past few months working closely with the Inkscape devels on improving SVG import export with with both apps. You can take your Inkscape created SVG, import it into Scribus and create a highly compliant "press-ready" CMYK or PDF/X-3 PDF. Thanks to steady efforts and collaboration, support is improving daily.
A few notes and comments:
SVG is a large and somewhat complex spec. However, it has many excellent features. Props to the Inkscape Team for making a goal of real compliance to the W3C spec. Not even Adobe can match all the spec.
We on the Scribus team really consider Inkscape to be the future of SVG drawing in the open source world. The Inkscape project is very well managed and has approached their development roadmap with enviable discipline and professionalism. We have a lot of respect for the know how of their devels.
EPS/PS import/export is not trivial by any means. Not every app on the planet exports good EPS and some introduce their own quirks. After 3 years of development, we are finally getting EPS import to where we want it to be.
Likewise, exporting PDF is not particularly easy. The kinds of effects and transparency Inkscape is capable of creating requires high level PDF 1.4 features, which not all apps can support properly. A simple bitmap dump is not likely to obtain satisfactory results all the time. This is one area where Scribus really shines and the collaboration has allowed end users the ability to reliably export high quality PDF 1.4 with commercial grade reliabilty.
Most importantly, they are a great bunch of folks who are very attentive to end users and lots of fun to work with.
I find these kinds of "reviews" really not so interesting. As a professional DTP IT consultant, I use most all of these tools daily: Photoshop et al..
Where I find these reviews lacking is:
Running apps in less than ideal conditions. Fink is a nice and very useful bridge to enable lots of excellent FLOSS to run, but it is not really fair to compare GIMP, Scribus, Inkscape or any other comparable Linux app when it is not run on its native platform. It would be the same having an experienced Unix/Linux tester, familiar with apps like development tools and then switching to a Mac. There are things I find incredibly frustrating when switching to a Mac too.
The reviewers overlook or miss things which show a lack of knowledge about other OS's. To me this review shows someone who has used nothing but a Mac and is clueless about other paradigms in computers.
The reviewer, in his or her ignorance completely overlooked some of the less obviously superior features of GIMP: Scripting in Python, Perl or Scheme come instantly to mind. The GIMP also has PNG support which is far better than Photoshop.
*Sigh* - It gets tiring hearing from both FLOSS bigots and Adobe fanboys who are so blind to their own zealotry.
That said, I use both and both have their strengths. Which one is better ? Neither. Both have their place and I confidently install GIMP right besides thousands of dollars of high end DTP apps including Photoshop.
GIMP 2.0 is a dramatic improvement which shows, IMO just the start of GIMP reaching a new level in image editing. The release of 2.0 will be followed by 2.2 sometime we hope, this summer. The hard under the hood work has been done, from which the GIMP team can build more functionality and refinements like substantial color management support.
The UI has been dramtically improved. There is a "small" theme for those who work on smaller monitors. Yes, there is a help system and other add-ins which extend GIMP like the freetype tool and GAP (GIMP Animation Package).
The GIMP authors and programmers are part time volunteers who do this for the joy of programming and probably a hundred other reasons... They should simply ignore this nonsense and keep on coding. Photoshop is one of the prize jewels of Adobe and is a wonderful program - but it is far from perfect.
If you really know both programs, you will learn NEITHER is better - they are different.
Best way is to do the chapters in separate files and then combine at the end.
Can it do it ? Yes - the 1.2 Docs, which are certainly going to be over 100 pages will be done in Scribus.
I think it is fair to say also enjoys excellent support from long-time end users and the devel-team. irc is lively, friendly and avaialble almost 7/24. Same for the mailing list. Just good friendly help to pro and newbie alike.
GIMP integration - It is simple - but effective. Right click an image and you can edit the image in GIMP: save, close and return to your doc.
Scribus has excellent support for Unicode and right to left scripts.
As 1.2 will be released in the next few months, CVS is very usable and very stable. Many regular users use CVS in production work. The final 1.2 docs are being written using current CVS.
Replying to myself to correct a few omissions and corrections:
Littlecms is required ICC color management. Scribus is the GPL application to have such sophiticated ICC Color Managment
The Print Previewer - is in the Extra menu as it is a separate plug-in. There is an optional font-preview which works the same way. This plug also can generate separations previews of each ink plate in CMYK.
The documentation link in the original article points at linuxdoc.org. Scribus has extensive documentation, including many sample PDF's on advanced subjects like its pre-press capabilities.The docs also include 70 + links for Linux and DTP.The docs are out of date, but mostly because of the rapid pace of development - a nice problem to have.
Missed in the review is the Scribus python plug-in support, which is very powerful. This allows you to create python scripts to automate document production. There are several sample python scripts included in the scribus package.
One of the regular users has contributed a number of Avery templates already.See the downloads section of www.scribus.net
My personal view of the reviews of Scribus:
Unfortunately, we have yet to see a review of Scribus by someone who has used professional DTP applications. As a IT/DTP consultant, even though I am a member of the team, my testing with professional DTP pre-flight tools has consistently shown Scribus creates PDF and PS output which most certainly equals and sometimes exceeds those of commercial apps.
Lastly, DTP is itself a complex subject and takes time to master. The "Wizard" approach of other apps really dumbs down the true capabilities of an app like Scribus, just like it would Blender, GIMP or any other similar type of application.
Scribus is a desktop publishing program for Unix and Linux which has been gathering momentum recently. SuSe now proudly proclaim that with SuSe 9.1, Professional layouts can be prepared with the desktop publishing application Scribus. Scribus is also recieving critical acclaim from other big open source quarters such as Newsforge who recently proclaimed Scribus to be one of Free Software's Killer Applications.
ut what is Scribus really like? Can anyone just pick it up and use it? Is it really as powerful as they say it is? And does it live up to the hype surrounding it?
About ScribusScribus is a desktop publishing program for Unix and Linux. It is built with the Qt libraries and is run natively in the KDE desktop environment. Scribus is published under the Gpl and is similar to similar to Adobe PageMaker, QuarkXPress or Adobe InDesign. Scribus has an unusually small development team and is mostly the work of a German programmer called Franz Schmid. The Scribus team are positioning the program as an easy to use DTP publishing program for the Linux and Unix operating systems with support available for professional publishing features. These professional publishing features include:
CMYK Colour
Press Ready PDF Creation
Further advanced PDF features for making interactive PDFs exist together with a large amount of support for the PDF 1.4 specification including:
Transparency
Encryption
Form Field
Annotations
Bookmarks
EPS and PDF import/export
Complete ICC colour management
Font embedding and sub-setting in both postscript and PDF exportIn addition to this Scribus also provides:
A WYSIWYG viewpoint for document creation
An XML based file format allowing for easier file recovery if corruption occurs
Drawing tools for custom shapes including: lines, curves, ellipses, bezier curves, polygons, etc.
Drag'n'drop with KDE 3, including a Drag'n'drop scrapbook for frequently used items such as text blocks, logo images, backgrounds etc
As can be seen Scribus certainly isn't devoid of features, and there are many others in the program which I haven't described above. All in all, Scribus is a fairly feature rich program and more features such as importing from Microsoft Office and OO.org are expected in future releases.
Installation of Scribus
I installed Scribus by going to the download section of the Scribus homepage in order to obtain the latest version which at this moment in time is 1.1.6. There are several different methods of installation available, including source and prepackaged files. Prepackaged files are available in the form of RPMs for Red Hat 9, Fedora Core 1 and SuSe 9, Deb files are also available for Debian users.
Since I'm using Fedora Core 1 I downloaded the RPM from the site and installed it. I used the Scribus website instead of a Fedora Yum repository as I have only been able to find out of date versions of Scribus on them. When installing the RPM I did encounter a dependency issue in which I needed to install a program called
Good news for open source applications like Sodipodi, Sketch and Scribus, which all have SVG support.
This means open source drawing and publishing applications will have a file format which is open, scriptable, XML based and can display on the web and print well.
Scribus was the first application to directly support PDF/X-3, an ISO standard. Scribus did so 6-8 months before Acrobat 6. Every test I made of Scribus PDF-X-3 files passed, even with devel releases.
Especially Quark 4, where it's PDF import is apallingly unreliable and quirky.
Amen You will find Indesign light years ahead with this.
We're considering buing some win2k boxes with InDesign for ad design and layout.
I am migrating one client to this now. It just works
You mention that the Scribus format is XML - would that happen to be loaded with verification + good error checking? A DTP app that didn't just crash on damaged documents would be a godsend. "EPS Element 'bobsyouruncle.eps' is damaged and cannot be loaded" not "*blurk*The application QuarkXPress unexpectedly quit with an Error Type 2".
If the file is mangled you can open it up in a text editor and see what is amiss.The XMl doc format is completely open and documented. There are notes in the 1.0 package on handling Scribus files.. Look for "pre-press.pdf" in the docs folder when Scribus is installed.
I hate to rain on anyone's parade, but while it might be exceptionally attractive to have a nice DTP app for Linux (from the user perspective), there is NO CHANCE that this product will EVER be able to "even marginally compete" with Quark without one thing happening... it has to be supported by output and print houses, and they tend to be extremely conservative about supporting/adopting new software.
Scribus is not about "competing with Quark"Scribus is all about giving Linux/*nix users the same kind of high quality tools to publish files in the same way that Quark is used on a Mac.
I'm not talking about Kinko's-type places who will happily dump a PDF on their DocuTech, I'm talking about professional offset printers (which most people outside of the print industry don't even know exist). when InDesign came along, the places I dealt with lagged for a good year and a half before they'd even consider accepting jobs laid out with it (and they were right to do so, since the software was hugely bloated and appallingly slow). considering that these are the people who control the output of everything you see in print publications -- all the ads get submitted from all the dozens of different ad agencies, to say nothing of the actual content -- these are the people you have to sell on the idea of a new "platform," considering that they tend only to accept jobs in Quark, Illustrator, and Photoshop. maybe InDesign. definitely NOT Freehand, Ventura Publisher, M$ Publisher, Corel Draw, Word, PowerPoint, or whatever ersatz program the wouldbe designer happened to get their hands on. as a requisite aside, GIMP is worthless as a publishing tool unless your platform is the internet. not only does it lack CMYK support, but it only supports one resolution, so let's not confuse the purpose of the program. it is a design and paint app for the internet, and only the internet.
Today, if you are smart about preping files for commercial printing, you are almost always outputting to PDF, so platform is irrelevant.
you can move users (and only a select few), but you will never move an industry unless you take their needs and requirements into account. on the other hand, if you're talking about a good solid open source replacement for Publisher, Pagemaker, Word, or any of the other lightweight apps that stand in for professional layout programs, then these guys have a chance and I wish them all the best.
Exactly. Scribus is all about giving users an alternative on a platform (*nix), which has never had a real WYSIWYG page layout app.
Any Type 1 or high quality True Type font is 100% usable with Scribus.
Part of the Mac's dominance in the DTP arena is that the type collection is so massive, and most converters don't do the fonts justice (in previous experiences, this held true, not sure if it's like that now). A strong offerring of type face compatibility as well as image capability (scanning/editing), would help users move to Linux for their DTP needs.
The font collections available on Windows are equal to or wider than Macs.. Ten years ago, that might have made a difference.
Not only are Windows Type 1 and True Type fonts binary compatible, but Scribus will use the.afms (ascii font metric files) to automatically adjust the kerning (spacing between glyphs) when printing. Thus, if you install a high quality Type 1 font with the.afms files, Scribus will print the letters exactly as they would print within any professional DTP app on Win 2k or XP.
For that matter, does it import.eps and allow you to fragment the image into subcomponents easily? Can anyone comment on color management?
Scribus imports EPS and PDF.
The color management is quite good, provided you know what you are doing. The next version of littlecms looks very promising
Re:Some good comments-and one from a dtp programme
on
Scribus 1.0 Released
·
· Score: 1
Two really great points were made here, about fonts and trapping. The lack of good Mac-based fonts due to liscensing trouble nearly killed Mac DTP, and even now the choice of available fonts is critical. So if you already have fonts, or know what fonts are available at the output agency, the ability to use these predictably will be extremely useful. So perhaps a kerning table that matches commercial printers' fontsets will allow you to simulate printing with a certain font that you don't have.
Scribus can use and take advantage of high quality Type 1 fonts. If the correct.afm files are installed, Scribus will use them to adjust kernig properly.
The point about the need for trapping is also great. Trapping is basically an algorithm to control how differently colored areas overlap or don't. If you do it right you don't get wierd intersection effects, but it is hard to get a computer to do it right every time. Get some professional DTP people to try the software and send feedback about it - tough love maybe but it will make for better software for all users.
With Scribus created PDF, you can and should do the trapping at the RIP or imagesetting level, not in the app.
So it just seems that if the authors take a single very specific problem domain (say a small to medium size company printing camera-ready advertisements for a magazine, or perhaps printing a sales brochure) and actually trying this with real users they will get excellent feedback and the word will get around. But even a small DTP (design) shop wants to use tools that are going to allow quick import and creation of line art and photos, and provide the basic tools (thinking of fonts and illustrator-like drawing functions) to get as much high quality work done in as short a time as possible. $1000 bucks is nothing. The question is can a better, cheaper system be provided for any users.
Scribus can create line drawings and other vector shapes, as well as layer them and support transparency. Scribus also can import high resolution tiffs from Photoshop. Scribus can also import EPS files, which most illustration software can export.
Actually after writing this I found that Pantone is already on linux. Check out Corel PhotoPaint 9 which says it does Pantone color management. I guess this is another competitor to Scribus? Though commercial. Anyway, I am looking forward to Scribus!
Scribus can import TIFF's from Corel Photopaint without a problem. Moreover, you can use the same icc profiles in both applications.
Let me begin by noting I wrote most of the documentation and have done significant testing of Scribus since 0.3.7. I also support DTP and pre-press folks professionally.
I can assure you Scribus was not created to be a "Quark killer" or divert Quark or Mac users to Linux. That would be stupid and pointless. I find in the pre-press business here and there folks who are quite bigoted about Quark and/or Macs, but that is another discussion.. MacOSX in this case is irrelevant. Moreover, Windows 2k and XP in particular have reached near parity in DTP app support. Until MacOSX, they are far more stable than the older Mac OS's. I have clients who are magazine and newpaper publishers who run entire production departments not on Macs, but on Win2k.
Quark is not the end all and be all of DTP.Quark has many many weaknesses going forward into the new PDF oriented workflows of commercial printing. Personally, I think Indesign 2.0.2 is the current state of the art in DTP. It is much better than earlier versions. Printers who bitch about the current version, typically need to update their RIP's.
The value of Scribus stands alone. Scribus gives Linux and *nix users a badly needed tool for the desktop. Scribus gives Linux/*nix users around the world the ability to create content like hi-res PDF and DTP files, previously impossible before..
Scribus has many unique features and design goals which are somewhat different from Quark and Indesign:
It is translated in 17 languages and porting to other languages is really easy. It also supports right to left languages like Arabic and Hebrew.
It has the ability to create interactive PDF with hyperlinks, form fields and javascript. Only Acrobat can do this equally. Other DTP apps like Quark, Pagemaker and Indesign can do a very limited set of these features.
It is much more user friendly than quark without the dumbed down wizards of other DTP apps.
The Scribus format is XML and fully documented.
With the optional color management of littlecms, the first open sourced color management system in any app. Hopefully, the GIMP folks will follow with CMYK support. Scribus supports CMYK fully, including importing spot colors in EPS.
Slashdot Mirror
Here is your answer why: Scribus FAQ In addition, MS Pub files do not even transfer well between versions.
Some questions:
Did you use the latest version ?
Define "immature" ?
What is your professional qualifications to make such a judgement ?
I will just point some relevant links:
The "hobbyists" - NOT: The Scribus Team bios. There are a handful of people who are involved with Scribus who have extensive experience in publishing, pre-press and image engineering among others.
Capabilities: Scribus Specs
(In the users words) Success Stories: http://wiki.scribus.net/index.php/Success_stories
Made with Scribus
Press Reviews
Despite the naysayers, there is a growing interest from publishers both large and small in open source software - not just the back-end server stuff, but yes even the desktop tools... Things like the overwhelming success of events like www.libregraphicsmeeting.org and the open sourcing of Xara are concrete signals the arrival of open source what was once strictly proprietary domain.
Well since we have released 1.2, two other newspapers have come forward that are using Scribus for production. Stay tuned for details....
We on the Scribus Team have begun over the past few months working closely with the Inkscape devels on improving SVG import export with with both apps. You can take your Inkscape created SVG, import it into Scribus and create a highly compliant "press-ready" CMYK or PDF/X-3 PDF. Thanks to steady efforts and collaboration, support is improving daily. A few notes and comments:
Ahh yes, the eternal GIMP vs Photoshop debates.
I find these kinds of "reviews" really not so interesting. As a professional DTP IT consultant, I use most all of these tools daily: Photoshop et al..
Where I find these reviews lacking is:
Running apps in less than ideal conditions. Fink is a nice and very useful bridge to enable lots of excellent FLOSS to run, but it is not really fair to compare GIMP, Scribus, Inkscape or any other comparable Linux app when it is not run on its native platform. It would be the same having an experienced Unix/Linux tester, familiar with apps like development tools and then switching to a Mac. There are things I find incredibly frustrating when switching to a Mac too.
The reviewers overlook or miss things which show a lack of knowledge about other OS's. To me this review shows someone who has used nothing but a Mac and is clueless about other paradigms in computers.
The reviewer, in his or her ignorance completely overlooked some of the less obviously superior features of GIMP: Scripting in Python, Perl or Scheme come instantly to mind. The GIMP also has PNG support which is far better than Photoshop.
*Sigh* - It gets tiring hearing from both FLOSS bigots and Adobe fanboys who are so blind to their own zealotry.
That said, I use both and both have their strengths. Which one is better ? Neither. Both have their place and I confidently install GIMP right besides thousands of dollars of high end DTP apps including Photoshop.
GIMP 2.0 is a dramatic improvement which shows, IMO just the start of GIMP reaching a new level in image editing. The release of 2.0 will be followed by 2.2 sometime we hope, this summer. The hard under the hood work has been done, from which the GIMP team can build more functionality and refinements like substantial color management support.
The UI has been dramtically improved. There is a "small" theme for those who work on smaller monitors. Yes, there is a help system and other add-ins which extend GIMP like the freetype tool and GAP (GIMP Animation Package).
The GIMP authors and programmers are part time volunteers who do this for the joy of programming and probably a hundred other reasons... They should simply ignore this nonsense and keep on coding. Photoshop is one of the prize jewels of Adobe and is a wonderful program - but it is far from perfect.
If you really know both programs, you will learn NEITHER is better - they are different.
Best way is to do the chapters in separate files and then combine at the end. Can it do it ? Yes - the 1.2 Docs, which are certainly going to be over 100 pages will be done in Scribus.
Scribus can import spot colors via EPS, as well as DCS 2.0 files. Support for Pantone requires licensing the Pantone libraries.
Some other points:
Replying to myself to correct a few omissions and corrections:
My personal view of the reviews of Scribus:
Unfortunately, we have yet to see a review of Scribus by someone who has used professional DTP applications. As a IT/DTP consultant, even though I am a member of the team, my testing with professional DTP pre-flight tools has consistently shown Scribus creates PDF and PS output which most certainly equals and sometimes exceeds those of commercial apps.
Lastly, DTP is itself a complex subject and takes time to master. The "Wizard" approach of other apps really dumbs down the true capabilities of an app like Scribus, just like it would Blender, GIMP or any other similar type of application.
Scribus is a desktop publishing program for Unix and Linux which has been gathering momentum recently. SuSe now proudly proclaim that with SuSe 9.1, Professional layouts can be prepared with the desktop publishing application Scribus. Scribus is also recieving critical acclaim from other big open source quarters such as Newsforge who recently proclaimed Scribus to be one of Free Software's Killer Applications.
ut what is Scribus really like? Can anyone just pick it up and use it? Is it really as powerful as they say it is? And does it live up to the hype surrounding it?
About ScribusScribus is a desktop publishing program for Unix and Linux. It is built with the Qt libraries and is run natively in the KDE desktop environment. Scribus is published under the Gpl and is similar to similar to Adobe PageMaker, QuarkXPress or Adobe InDesign. Scribus has an unusually small development team and is mostly the work of a German programmer called Franz Schmid. The Scribus team are positioning the program as an easy to use DTP publishing program for the Linux and Unix operating systems with support available for professional publishing features. These professional publishing features include:
EPS and PDF import/export
Complete ICC colour management
Font embedding and sub-setting in both postscript and PDF exportIn addition to this Scribus also provides:
As can be seen Scribus certainly isn't devoid of features, and there are many others in the program which I haven't described above. All in all, Scribus is a fairly feature rich program and more features such as importing from Microsoft Office and OO.org are expected in future releases. Installation of Scribus
I installed Scribus by going to the download section of the Scribus homepage in order to obtain the latest version which at this moment in time is 1.1.6. There are several different methods of installation available, including source and prepackaged files. Prepackaged files are available in the form of RPMs for Red Hat 9, Fedora Core 1 and SuSe 9, Deb files are also available for Debian users.
Since I'm using Fedora Core 1 I downloaded the RPM from the site and installed it. I used the Scribus website instead of a Fedora Yum repository as I have only been able to find out of date versions of Scribus on them. When installing the RPM I did encounter a dependency issue in which I needed to install a program called
That is the older one. The new one is Scribus Home Page
Link: Scribus Screen Shot Gallery
In a word, Scribus
It has very complete support for PDF 1.3,1.4 and PDF/X-3, including interactive PDF, bookmarks, color management via littlecms.
Try it..
Good news for open source applications like Sodipodi, Sketch and Scribus, which all have SVG support.
This means open source drawing and publishing applications will have a file format which is open, scriptable, XML based and can display on the web and print well.
Scribus was the first application to directly support PDF/X-3, an ISO standard. Scribus did so 6-8 months before Acrobat 6. Every test I made of Scribus PDF-X-3 files passed, even with devel releases.
Especially Quark 4, where it's PDF import is apallingly unreliable and quirky.
Amen You will find Indesign light years ahead with this.
We're considering buing some win2k boxes with InDesign for ad design and layout.
I am migrating one client to this now. It just works
You mention that the Scribus format is XML - would that happen to be loaded with verification + good error checking? A DTP app that didn't just crash on damaged documents would be a godsend. "EPS Element 'bobsyouruncle.eps' is damaged and cannot be loaded" not "*blurk*The application QuarkXPress unexpectedly quit with an Error Type 2".
If the file is mangled you can open it up in a text editor and see what is amiss.The XMl doc format is completely open and documented. There are notes in the 1.0 package on handling Scribus files.. Look for "pre-press.pdf" in the docs folder when Scribus is installed.
I hate to rain on anyone's parade, but while it might be exceptionally attractive to have a nice DTP app for Linux (from the user perspective), there is NO CHANCE that this product will EVER be able to "even marginally compete" with Quark without one thing happening... it has to be supported by output and print houses, and they tend to be extremely conservative about supporting/adopting new software.
Scribus is not about "competing with Quark"Scribus is all about giving Linux/*nix users the same kind of high quality tools to publish files in the same way that Quark is used on a Mac.
I'm not talking about Kinko's-type places who will happily dump a PDF on their DocuTech, I'm talking about professional offset printers (which most people outside of the print industry don't even know exist). when InDesign came along, the places I dealt with lagged for a good year and a half before they'd even consider accepting jobs laid out with it (and they were right to do so, since the software was hugely bloated and appallingly slow). considering that these are the people who control the output of everything you see in print publications -- all the ads get submitted from all the dozens of different ad agencies, to say nothing of the actual content -- these are the people you have to sell on the idea of a new "platform," considering that they tend only to accept jobs in Quark, Illustrator, and Photoshop. maybe InDesign. definitely NOT Freehand, Ventura Publisher, M$ Publisher, Corel Draw, Word, PowerPoint, or whatever ersatz program the wouldbe designer happened to get their hands on. as a requisite aside, GIMP is worthless as a publishing tool unless your platform is the internet. not only does it lack CMYK support, but it only supports one resolution, so let's not confuse the purpose of the program. it is a design and paint app for the internet, and only the internet.
Today, if you are smart about preping files for commercial printing, you are almost always outputting to PDF, so platform is irrelevant.
you can move users (and only a select few), but you will never move an industry unless you take their needs and requirements into account. on the other hand, if you're talking about a good solid open source replacement for Publisher, Pagemaker, Word, or any of the other lightweight apps that stand in for professional layout programs, then these guys have a chance and I wish them all the best.
Exactly. Scribus is all about giving users an alternative on a platform (*nix), which has never had a real WYSIWYG page layout app.
What is the availability of type faces on Linux?
Any Type 1 or high quality True Type font is 100% usable with Scribus.
Part of the Mac's dominance in the DTP arena is that the type collection is so massive, and most converters don't do the fonts justice (in previous experiences, this held true, not sure if it's like that now). A strong offerring of type face compatibility as well as image capability (scanning/editing), would help users move to Linux for their DTP needs.
The font collections available on Windows are equal to or wider than Macs.. Ten years ago, that might have made a difference.
Not only are Windows Type 1 and True Type fonts binary compatible, but Scribus will use the .afms (ascii font metric files) to automatically adjust the kerning (spacing between glyphs) when printing. Thus, if you install a high quality Type 1 font with the .afms files, Scribus will print the letters exactly as they would print within any professional DTP app on Win 2k or XP.
For that matter, does it import .eps and allow you to fragment the image into subcomponents easily? Can anyone comment on color management?
Scribus imports EPS and PDF.
The color management is quite good, provided you know what you are doing. The next version of littlecms looks very promising
Two really great points were made here, about fonts and trapping. The lack of good Mac-based fonts due to liscensing trouble nearly killed Mac DTP, and even now the choice of available fonts is critical. So if you already have fonts, or know what fonts are available at the output agency, the ability to use these predictably will be extremely useful. So perhaps a kerning table that matches commercial printers' fontsets will allow you to simulate printing with a certain font that you don't have.
Scribus can use and take advantage of high quality Type 1 fonts. If the correct .afm files are installed, Scribus will use them to adjust kernig properly.
The point about the need for trapping is also great. Trapping is basically an algorithm to control how differently colored areas overlap or don't. If you do it right you don't get wierd intersection effects, but it is hard to get a computer to do it right every time. Get some professional DTP people to try the software and send feedback about it - tough love maybe but it will make for better software for all users.
With Scribus created PDF, you can and should do the trapping at the RIP or imagesetting level, not in the app.
So it just seems that if the authors take a single very specific problem domain (say a small to medium size company printing camera-ready advertisements for a magazine, or perhaps printing a sales brochure) and actually trying this with real users they will get excellent feedback and the word will get around. But even a small DTP (design) shop wants to use tools that are going to allow quick import and creation of line art and photos, and provide the basic tools (thinking of fonts and illustrator-like drawing functions) to get as much high quality work done in as short a time as possible. $1000 bucks is nothing. The question is can a better, cheaper system be provided for any users.
Scribus can create line drawings and other vector shapes, as well as layer them and support transparency. Scribus also can import high resolution tiffs from Photoshop. Scribus can also import EPS files, which most illustration software can export.
Actually after writing this I found that Pantone is already on linux. Check out Corel PhotoPaint 9 which says it does Pantone color management. I guess this is another competitor to Scribus? Though commercial. Anyway, I am looking forward to Scribus!
Scribus can import TIFF's from Corel Photopaint without a problem. Moreover, you can use the same icc profiles in both applications.
My first slashdot post..:o
Let me begin by noting I wrote most of the documentation and have done significant testing of Scribus since 0.3.7. I also support DTP and pre-press folks professionally.
I can assure you Scribus was not created to be a "Quark killer" or divert Quark or Mac users to Linux. That would be stupid and pointless. I find in the pre-press business here and there folks who are quite bigoted about Quark and/or Macs, but that is another discussion.. MacOSX in this case is irrelevant. Moreover, Windows 2k and XP in particular have reached near parity in DTP app support. Until MacOSX, they are far more stable than the older Mac OS's. I have clients who are magazine and newpaper publishers who run entire production departments not on Macs, but on Win2k.
Quark is not the end all and be all of DTP.Quark has many many weaknesses going forward into the new PDF oriented workflows of commercial printing. Personally, I think Indesign 2.0.2 is the current state of the art in DTP. It is much better than earlier versions. Printers who bitch about the current version, typically need to update their RIP's.
The value of Scribus stands alone. Scribus gives Linux and *nix users a badly needed tool for the desktop. Scribus gives Linux/*nix users around the world the ability to create content like hi-res PDF and DTP files, previously impossible before..
Scribus has many unique features and design goals which are somewhat different from Quark and Indesign: