Re: [Nolug] Fw: Re: DTP Programs for Linux [Was Re: OT: Rant]

Ron,
    Since I refused to teach DTP this year (Administration: "You can't have
any money for materials, but you have to teach this course." Me: "Oh no I
don't!"), I haven't followed the latest developments. Thanks for letting me
know about the updated version of Scribus. It sounds promising.
Dave Prentice
prentice@instruction.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Ron Johnson <ron.l.johnson@cox.net>
To: nolug@nolug.org <nolug@nolug.org>
Date: Monday, January 21, 2002 5:11 PM
Subject: [Nolug] Fw: Re: DTP Programs for Linux [Was Re: OT: Rant]

Dave,

Thought u might be interested in this.

Begin forwarded message:

Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2002 06:19:13 +0800
From: csj <csj@mindgate.net>
To: debian-user@lists.debian.org
Subject: Re: DTP Programs for Linux [Was Re: OT: Rant]

On Sat, 19 Jan 2002 11:17:45 -0600
Ron Johnson <ron.l.johnson@cox.net> wrote:

> On Sat, 19 Jan 2002 09:43:12 +0800 csj <csj@mindgate.net> wrote:
> > On Thu, 17 Jan 2002 22:45:39 -0600
> > Ron Johnson <ron.l.johnson@cox.net> wrote:
> > > On Thu, 17 Jan 2002 17:39:26 -0600 Kent West <westk@nicanor.acu.edu
> > > wrote:
[snip]
> > > > So what would you recommend as a DTP program in Linux?
> > >
> > > There's one in Freshmeat. Don't know how good it is, though.
> >
> > I suppose you're referring to this:
> >
> > http://web2.altmuehlnet.de/fschmid/about.html
> >
> > The description looks promising: "Scribus is a Layout program for
> > Linux®, similar to Adobe® PageMaker?, QuarkXPress? or Adobe® InDesign?,
> > except that it is published under the GNU GPL."
[snip]
> That's the one...

My first impression of Scribus: QuarkXpress for LInux. All text goes in
frames, rather than text blocks. (The diffrence between these two layout
models? In the "frame" way of desktop publishing, frames are created
before text is "placed" on the page. In the PageMaker way, text blocks
are created on the fly without the need to create a frame beforehand.)

Unless you're typographically fussy, Scribus appears ready to do your
church or your kid's primary school newsletter. It can already do
multi-column/page layouts, shaped text (practical application: you want
to put a cartoon "balloon" on your ex-BF/GF's scanned photo), and
rotated text and graphics (more accurately: slanted text/graphics)

I say "appears" because I haven't yet tried to print anything from it. I
don't know yet how crash-proof or -prone Scribus is. But its feature set
is a pleasant surprise (and I had done print DTP for more than a
decade). Its light dependencies (QT rather than KDE) means it can fit
neatly even in a Gnome-ish environment, unlike the other contender,
KWord (which aspires to be the FrameMaker of the free software world.)
This is one app that the GPL world needs rather than the next greatest
groupware suite (mail + the kitchen sink ;-) or web drowser.

BTW Scribus is also available as a Debian package in sid.

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