Author Topic: SCRIBUS - Open Source Desktop Publishing (Read 37834 times)

tomos · « **on:** October 13, 2006, 03:19 AM »

"Scribus is an open-source program that brings award-winning professional page layout to Linux/Unix, MacOS X and Windows desktops with a combination of "press-ready" output and new approaches to page layout.

Underneath the modern and user friendly interface, Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as CMYK color, separations, ICC color management and versatile PDF creation."

SCRIBUS - Open Source Desktop Publishing

Recent Screenshots here
Heres a screenshot from an older* version:

SCRIBUS - Open Source Desktop Publishing

There's been regular updates this year,
It seems to be a good website, good FAQs (I found them helpful anyway - I don't know much about page layout myself ...)

Take note!:
I just installed this but got told i should have Ghostscript installed first

*Needed to get permission to show the recent screenshots from their website. (aint got the time for that

)

[edit] jgpaiva: please use attachthumb=# instead of attach=# when using large images, i own a small screen

[/edit]
[edit] tom: okey dokey

[/edit]

JavaJones · « **Reply #1 on:** October 15, 2006, 06:10 PM »

Oho! Sounds very promising. Have you gotten a chance to play with this yet? Just about anything has to be better than Quark.

Indesign is ok, but open source and cross-platform is very attractive. I'd love to be able to more easily share source files with my graphic designer at work (who is on a Mac and using apps I have no access to).

Let us know if you have any feedback!

- Oshyan

Darwin · « **Reply #2 on:** October 15, 2006, 11:21 PM »

Ragtime 6 will be out in November and is well worth a look, too (though it is not open-source AND is only free for home/academic use, otherwise the price is pretty steep - $695...). I've played around with the beta for 6 and really like it as a free app (I qualify for educational licensing) but am not sure how I would feel if I was required to pay full price for it! I'll be giving SCRIBUS a look-see, too!

JavaJones · « **Reply #3 on:** October 15, 2006, 11:28 PM »

Interesting. Do Academic *organizations* (schools) qualify? I didn't immediately see any info about it on their site. I'll definitely take a look.

- Oshyan

tomos · « **Reply #4 on:** October 16, 2006, 07:21 AM »

Oho! Sounds very promising. Have you gotten a chance to play with this yet? Just about anything has to be better than Quark.
- Oshyan
-JavaJones (October 15, 2006, 06:10 PM)

I've installed it but it hasn't "found" ghostscript - think there's something in the FAQs about it but I havent had the time yet ..

I won't be able to compare it anyways cause I havent used Quark OR Indesign.

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #5 on:** October 16, 2006, 08:11 AM »

Ragtime 6 will be out in November and is well worth a look, too (though it is not open-source AND is only free for home/academic use, otherwise the price is pretty steep - $695...). I've played around with the beta for 6 and really like it as a free app (I qualify for educational licensing) but am not sure how I would feel if I was required to pay full price for it! I'll be giving SCRIBUS a look-see, too!
-Darwin (October 15, 2006, 11:21 PM)

I must be stupid but I can't figure out the RagTime website at all - how do you get to use it free for home/academic use?

I can't even see how to buy a copy (the webshop doesn't appear to work)

Scribus looks really interesting - nice find. It reminds me rather of PageMaker before Adobe bought out Aldus. It is still a bit rough around the edges too - I noticed text handling was a bit iffy (eg. if you change the font size it doesn't change the line spacing automatically so everything ends up overlapping or overspaced)

Darwin · « **Reply #6 on:** October 16, 2006, 09:09 AM »

Hi Carol,

Sorry, I should have been more explicit but was in a rush when I posted - Ragtime (the website for which was never easy to negotiate) is in between versions - they have Ragtime 6 (German) out, but won't be releasing localizations until next month. Go to the Ragtime website and click on Registration and then Ragtime Solo - Solo is the free version. What you are doing is registering for an activation key, which will be sent to you. This upgrades the 30-day trial version, which is available from the downloads section. Read the panel running down the right hand of the screen for info on using the German build for now:

"Download and install the 30 Day Trial Version of RagTime 6 from this page. This is the official release of RagTime 6 for German speaking countries. The application itself is multilingual (English, French, German, Dutch) but it does not come with documentation and sample files in languages other than German.

After installation, this version will work without limitation for 30 days, which gives you ample time to contact us under [email protected] and request a temporary authorization key. This key can be used with the trial version and will carry you until RagTime 6 is released in English, French and Dutch.

"Download and install the 30 Day Trial Version of RagTime 6 from this page. This is the official release of RagTime 6 for German speaking countries. The application itself is multilingual (English, French, German, Dutch) but it does not come with documentation and sample files in languages other than German.

After installation, this version will work without limitation for 30 days, which gives you ample time to contact us under [email protected] and request a temporary authorization key. This key can be used with the trial version and will carry you until RagTime 6 is released in English, French and Dutch."

I'm personally going to wait for the official release.

Hope this helps,

Mike

PS No direct links because everything loads within the main site...

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #7 on:** October 16, 2006, 09:15 AM »

The website now says Ragtime Solo is no longer available (under Product Info > Private Publishing). Does this mean that once the demo key expires you will have to buy a copy? The site is really very unclear.

I registered as you suggested but it asks for a version number (up to 5.6) but only version 6 is available as a demo download ??? It doesn't mention anything about keys at all ???

I even went into the shop pages but there seems no way to actually add anything to your basket to ckeckout and see prices etc.

Darwin · « **Reply #8 on:** October 16, 2006, 09:28 AM »

I hope that's only an interim move while they gear up for the localised, full release of version 6. It would be a shame if they dropped the free version. I'm monitoring their website, waiting for the November release, and will post back here with an update then.

Scratch the above - I've e-mailed the developer for clarification about this. I'll get back as soon as I hear from them.

[Ed: Did as you requested - scratched the above

]

Added in edit: thanks - I'd forget my head if it wasn't screwed on

tomos · « **Reply #9 on:** October 18, 2006, 10:36 AM »

Scribus looks really interesting - nice find. It reminds me rather of PageMaker before Adobe bought out Aldus. It is still a bit rough around the edges too - I noticed text handling was a bit iffy (eg. if you change the font size it doesn't change the line spacing automatically so everything ends up overlapping or overspaced)
-Carol

well, at least you got it installed !
Actually I have it installed but on startup it looks for Ghostscript.

I installed PDFCreator lately with the latest version of Ghostscript (one exe).
Scribus couldnt find it so I went looking for it & guess what - I couldnt find it either,
PDFCreator is working so I can only think theres no seperate exe file for GS.
I posted at Sourceforge but got no response so far.

Dont know
1) how important GS is to Scribus (presume its only for EPS's import or export)
2) if i install GS seperately will there be problems

Anyways,
As i said earler i havent any experience with page layout as such, but its something I've being wanting to learn/explore a bit.
Looking at a scribus tutorial I find I'm very interested, also either i know a lot of it already or its relatively easy

The tutorial does emphasize using text Styles which I guess would get around -

if you change the font size it doesn't change the line spacing automatically so everything ends up overlapping or overspaced
-Carol

but i can see you'ld prefer it just "worked"

Freehand, which i use, is also usable for page layout but it's not it's main function so its not so intuitive (again, i havent looked at that aspect of it much)

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #10 on:** October 18, 2006, 10:45 AM »

I shouldn't think installing GS would have any effect on othe programs (such as PDFCreator) as it doesn't do much apart from sit on you hard disc and let other programs use its libraries. It doesn't install printer drivers etc. and I don't even get an entry in the Start > Programs menu.

I have the full version of Adobe Acrobat 7 Pro on my system and GS hasn't affected that in any way - can't see why it would have any effect on PDF Creator - if that is the one from JAWS then it doesn't use GS as far as I know anyway.

tomos · « **Reply #11 on:** October 18, 2006, 10:59 AM »

if that is the one from JAWS then it doesn't use GS as far as I know anyway.

na, its same name but different maker (it open source i guess cause its on sourceforge.net)

sounds like no problem with GS anyway, thanks
tom

Edvard · « **Reply #12 on:** October 18, 2006, 03:35 PM »

Tomos: Do a search for "gswin32c.exe"
That is the most common Ghostscript executable used by most win programs that need it. PDFCreator, PDFBlender, et al.
I have it in E:\Program Files\gs\gs8.54\bin\gswin32c.exe

tomos · « **Reply #13 on:** October 19, 2006, 04:13 AM »

thanks Ervard
but,
na, its not in my programme folder
so I installed it there myself (seperately) -
its a bit scrappy cause PDFCreator seems to (in its own folder) have everything that should be in the GS installation except the exe file(s).
So now I have 2 sets of GS font folders etc.
But it works for Scribus,
and if it doesent work for PDFCreator I'll probably remove it

Edvard · « **Reply #14 on:** October 19, 2006, 11:44 AM »

Actually, you can point PDFCreator to wherever you have Ghostscript installed:
Open PDFCreator from the start menu.
Select "Printer -> Options".
In the "Program" box, select "Ghostscript".
From that dialog, you can manually enter a path to gswin32c.exe, wherever it may be.
Hope this helps.

tomos · « **Reply #15 on:** October 19, 2006, 05:22 PM »

Actually, you can point PDFCreator to wherever you have Ghostscript installed:
Open PDFCreator from the start menu.
Select "Printer -> Options".
In the "Program" box, select "Ghostscript".
From that dialog, you can manually enter a path to gswin32c.exe, wherever it may be.
Hope this helps.
-Edvard (October 19, 2006, 11:44 AM)

Yeah!
thanks Edvard,
would like to clean that all up

cheers, Tom

Darwin · « **Reply #16 on:** October 25, 2006, 09:12 AM »

I heard back from the developers of RagTime today. Here's (an edited version of) what they had to say:

The terms of the license for RagTime Solo have...often been misinterpreted or consciously violated - and that’s why we have decided to discontinue RagTime Solo. There will be no private version of RagTime 6...

RagTime would like to thank all users of RagTime Solo for their years of loyalty and also thank them for their constructive and valuable support during the Beta test of RagTime 6. We will soon contact all _registered _RagTime Solo users with an attractive transitional offer for RagTime 6.

We will also be offering a lower-priced version for students at school and at university or college for the duration of their studies. At the other end of the range of applications we have created a site license with RagTime XL, which can be used in all workplaces within one single company.

JeffK · « **Reply #17 on:** November 06, 2006, 08:42 PM »

I decided to ask the Australian distributor of Ragtime for the price of version six. He said, about $AU1,350. I'm down at my work's medical centre now after falling off my chair. I'll look elsewhere.

Jeff

Darwin · « **Reply #18 on:** November 06, 2006, 11:35 PM »

Wow... I wonder what an "attractive" transitional price will look like?

Gothi[c] · « **Reply #19 on:** November 07, 2006, 12:01 AM »

I just build the latest CVS version of scribus on ubuntu. Looks damn nice, but there's some issues with the table functionality. A table is really a grouped/bordered set of text frames, as a result of this, it is possible to resize a cell over another cell, and thus messing everything up, sometimes unrecoverable, so you have to redo your entire table (no undo). Quite annoying. But I guess they'll solve this later. Here's a screenshot of the cvs version:

SCRIBUS - Open Source Desktop Publishing

I'm going to use it to make report templates. I can export from scribus to .eps format, and use eps2pdf to procedurally generate PDF files from my perl CGI script. I was using LaTeX before for this, but having a wysiwyg tool is just allot easyer than having to write up all the latex source from scratch, especially if your report has to look a certain way. (LaTeX is very handy for writing papers and stuff without having to worry about formatting though.)

Gothi[c] · « **Reply #20 on:** November 07, 2006, 12:18 AM »

ah nevermind, the eps format isn't readable enough to parse through. I guess i'm sticking to LaTeX.

<edit>
It seems that the svg format, which is XML and convertable to PDF is allot more parse-able for procedural generation, and inkscape seems to output the svg format in a readable way, maybe
i'll try that route

that way i can still have wysiwyg reports and procedural generation in perl

</edit>

Edit by jgpaiva: fixing wrong url tag

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #21 on:** November 07, 2006, 04:28 AM »

We will also be offering a lower-priced version for students at school and at university or college for the duration of their studies.
-Darwin (October 25, 2006, 09:12 AM)

Don't you just love that wording - and it is getting more common to find this restriction.

In other words you license expires when you cease to be a student so you then need to buy a full version.

I have even found software titles that have a subscription format for students so that software ceases to function unless you prove student status periodically (and you have to pay for the privilege). For example the full version of Google Sketchup !

tomos · « **Reply #22 on:** December 11, 2006, 12:48 PM »

Scribus looks really interesting - nice find. It reminds me rather of PageMaker before Adobe bought out Aldus. It is still a bit rough around the edges too - I noticed text handling was a bit iffy (eg. if you change the font size it doesn't change the line spacing automatically so everything ends up overlapping or overspaced)
-Carol Haynes (October 16, 2006, 08:11 AM)

The tutorial does emphasize using text Styles which I guess would get around -
if you change the font size it doesn't change the line spacing automatically so everything ends up overlapping or overspaced
-Carol
but i can see you'ld prefer it just "worked"

Freehand, which i use, is also usable for page layout but it's not it's main function so its not so intuitive (again, i havent looked at that aspect of it much)
-tomos (October 18, 2006, 10:36 AM)

not exactly the same problem but related:
I'm using Freehand(9) for a layout project at the moment (my CV actually $:-\$ )
I find I'm not able to change the font size within a text block - Scratch that - I'm only able to change the font size by using styles - which I can see would be okay if youre doing the layout for a book or something but for something just a couple of pages long where you want a lot of variation, its a pain.

I wonder if this standard behaviour for a layout programme ...
I've started this in Freehand now so i stick with it but will try Scribus again soon to see how that works in that regard

dhuser · « **Reply #23 on:** December 11, 2006, 04:00 PM »

I recently tried out Scribus, and it was fine for most purposes. The program does take some time to load if you have a lot of fonts installed, though. Overall, it is good to perfect. For the more advanced items, I use Inkscape (http://www.inkscape.org).

dhuser

Renegade · « **Reply #24 on:** December 12, 2006, 09:29 AM »

OK - Here's the $64,000 question:

Would anyone use Scribus for production? (Or, is it used in real production? i.e. Not a high school news letter.)

I've used Quark, InDesign and a few other programs in the past. They all worked, but a DTP app? Open source and free? That's a lot of work. Especially to get right.

I suppose you could print plates first then check/test them, but that still runs you a pretty penny. (I've seen the tiniest of errors cost a lot of money in publishing.)

I'm interested in that app... Sounds pretty good, but I'd like to find out opinions before I bother looking at it in depth.