Author Topic: SCRIBUS - Open Source Desktop Publishing (Read 38530 times)

tomos · « **Reply #25 on:** December 15, 2006, 11:17 AM »

Renegade -

from the Scribus site:
A great deal of time and effort has been put into Scribus to generate very high quality commercial grade PDF. Provided you follow the recommended workflow in the documentation, you should have few issues* with commercial printing.

but also:
This is beta software which is undergoing many code changes daily. While it is fairly stable and usable, caution is advised. It is not recommended yet for production use. The underlying file format is undergoing rapid changes and will not be finished until the 1.3.4 or 1.3.5 version is released.

I just downloaded 1.3.3.8 so hopefully "1.3.4 or 1.3.5" will be here soon.
*But as you say yourself, "few issues" could be a few too many

tomos · « **Reply #26 on:** June 25, 2007, 09:23 AM »

Scribus 1.3.4 Release

Wednesday, May 30, 2007
The Scribus Team is pleased to announce the release of Scribus
1.3.4 Антон (Anton, newly born son of a Scribus developer)

Almost one year in the making, this new developement release brings Scribus to a new
plateau in professional print capabilities, innovative features and a
completely re-written text layout engine. Among the major new features in 1.3.4:

* A rewritten preview mode which allows designers and artists to view
layouts on screen as readers with color viewing deficiencies would
view a document. Thus, this enables a designer to avoid color
combinations which affect legibility.

* Major additions to TIFF/PSD support. This includes the ability to
use clipping paths in TIFF and PSD files to allow text wrapping.In
addition, Scribus now can import special flavors of EPS exported from
Photoshop known as Desktop Color Separations (version 1.0 and 2.0).
Layers, blend modes, Duo,Tri and Quadtone PSD files are now also
supported.

* The new styles and text capabilities include style inheritance for
paragraphs, character styles and line styles. This is now managed by
a new style manager palette.

* The new text layout engine has a multitude of enhancements for
vastly better more appealing justification, including the use of
optical margins and more sophisticated word spacing algorithms.

*New pre-press capabilities including, registration marks, crop marks,
calibration bars and document meta info. These are all easily managed
within the print and PDF export dialogs.

* Color management enhancements including better CMYK > CMYK
conversions.
* A rewritten and more capable Scrapbook
* Support for patterns; both bitmap and vector
* A more capable Align and Distribute Palette
* Extended Multiple Copying
*New transparency features including blend modes for layers and
individual objects
* A new cross-platform Icon set from the Tango Project

Detailed release notes:
(EN) http://www.scribus.n....EN_releasenotes.pdf
(DE) http://www.scribus.n....DE_releasenotes.pdf

http://www.scribus.n...=article&sid=143

tomos · « **Reply #27 on:** June 25, 2007, 09:39 AM »

I came across a portable version as well
but it's still at 1.3.3.9 ..

I actually gave up on Scribus because it converted text to paths when importing EPS's which I didnt want for what I was doing.

At the end of the day that wasnt such a big deal - it was just no great advantage over using freehand so I stuck with what i knew best..
This (version 1.3.4) sounds like it's worth a try though

tomos · « **Reply #28 on:** May 13, 2008, 05:28 AM »

Scribus 1.3.4 Release

Wednesday, May 30, 2007
The Scribus Team is pleased to announce the release of Scribus
1.3.4 Антон (Anton, newly born son of a Scribus developer)
....
-tomos (June 25, 2007, 09:23 AM)

...
unfortunately still not available as a windows installer...

but to keep us going in the meantime
"12/01/2008 - Scribus 1.3.3.11 released" download somewhere here!

now will i or wont i .... $:-\$

tomos · « **Reply #29 on:** May 13, 2008, 09:23 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.
-Renegade (December 12, 2006, 09:29 AM)

bout a year & a half on from your questions ... an answer could be helpful to someone maybe

well, I'm just researching it again & came across this

Final Checks

Scribus has a Pre-Flight Verifier to examine your documents and look for problems before they reach the production line. With PDF files, I also recommend you put it to one more test. This is especially important for large production runs at a third-party print shop.

Scribus documentation and its Wiki suggest several on-line PDF-checking tools. I use PDF City at http://www.pdfcity.com/index.htm. By using its pre-flight inspection system, you will gain clues to potential printing problems before the printer does. PDF City provides this as a free service and gives any error details in a user-friendly format.
...
I'm impressed by this program. Being open source, it has room to grow with continued input and direction from users. The feature set is robust, and I feel confident recommending it to most small- to medium-size businesses with average to advanced publishing needs.

Donald Emmack is Managing Partner of The IntelliGents & Co. He works extensively as a writer and business consultant in North America.

-
that's a pretty definite recommendation!
http://www.tuxmagazine.com/node/1000225
from round about "2006-09-08" so - hopefully it's only gotten better since..

tomos · « **Reply #30 on:** March 17, 2012, 06:21 PM »

This (layout etc.) isn't my field -
sometimes I wish it was, but that's another story.

Scribus 1.4 final was released in January of this year.

There's a very nice review/summary here: Scribus 1.4.0 in a nutshell (from libregraphicsworld.org/)
including
What to expect in the future:

Screenshot - 2012-03-18 , 00_19_30.png

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #31 on:** March 17, 2012, 08:37 PM »

Looking back through this (rather old) thread ... interesting to see Scribus is still having issues with text (in which case what is the point?).

Also noticed our previous discussion of Ragtime - the old website has now gone and the new website is entirely based in Germany and the Windows version doesn't exist any more. Do you think they priced themselves out of the market? Bet anyone who bought the Windows version at those prices are now REALLY happy!

[Update]I was wrong - the Windows version does still exist but the website is less than clear until you start looking at price lists

Looking at the prices I don't think I would be interested anyway!

40hz · « **Reply #32 on:** March 17, 2012, 09:07 PM »

I had the opportunity to work with Ragtime a while back. My feeling was it really came into its own with things like database publishing. So for things like parts catalogs, user manuals, and other publishing tasks that needed automated style-sheet driven formatting, it worked quite well. But for traditional prepress work, where design, appearance, and typography were critical, it fell far behind what you could do with Quark or InDesign.

In many respects Ragtime reminded me of Interleaf (for those of you old enough or unfortunate enough to remember that beastie) in the way it approached publishing.

Not a bad program. But I couldn't personally see buying it for anything I do.

IainB · « **Reply #33 on:** March 18, 2012, 08:23 AM »

When I trialled it - a while back now - Ragtime 5 seemed to be unstable (crashed) and was thus not very useful.
In terms of a really good DTP (Desktop Publishing Tool), I have to admit that I always reckoned Adobe PageMaker on the Mac was the best out.
The Scribus link above seems to go to what Malwarebytes tells me is a malware IP address, so I didn't check it out.

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #34 on:** March 18, 2012, 08:37 AM »

Pagemaker was very good - probably because Adobe didn't write it! it was originally written by Aldus and bought by Adobe. They didn't do much with it and then replaced it with InDesign (which personally I find very confusing and difficult to use!)

IainB · « **Reply #35 on:** March 18, 2012, 09:33 AM »

Pagemaker was very good - probably because Adobe didn't write it! it was originally written by Aldus and bought by Adobe.
-Carol Haynes (March 18, 2012, 08:37 AM)

Ah. That's right. I would have used PageMaker in about 1985 (not sure exactly) - I forget whether it was Aldus or Adobe then.

Did you manage to get to the Scribus link above?

40hz · « **Reply #36 on:** March 18, 2012, 11:54 AM »

The Scribus link above seems to go to what Malwarebytes tells me is a malware IP address, so I didn't check it out.
-IainB (March 18, 2012, 08:23 AM)

The link to the official Scribus site here has a greenlight from WOT on my machine.

tomos · « **Reply #37 on:** March 18, 2012, 12:11 PM »

The Scribus link above seems to go to what Malwarebytes tells me is a malware IP address, so I didn't check it out.
-IainB (March 18, 2012, 08:23 AM)

which link is that?

IainB · « **Reply #38 on:** March 18, 2012, 08:29 PM »

There's a very nice review/summary here: Scribus 1.4.0 in a nutshell (from libregraphicsworld.org/)
including
What to expect in the future:
(see attachment in previous post)
-tomos (March 17, 2012, 06:21 PM)

These links.

IainB · « **Reply #39 on:** March 18, 2012, 10:09 PM »

The Scribus link above seems to go to what Malwarebytes tells me is a malware IP address, so I didn't check it out.
-IainB (March 18, 2012, 08:23 AM)
The link to the official Scribus site here has a greenlight from WOT on my machine.
-40hz (March 18, 2012, 11:54 AM)

Ah. Thanks for that @40hz.

tomos · « **Reply #40 on:** March 19, 2012, 08:44 AM »

There's a very nice review/summary here: Scribus 1.4.0 in a nutshell (from libregraphicsworld.org/)
including
What to expect in the future:
(see attachment in previous post)
-tomos (March 17, 2012, 06:21 PM)
These links.
-IainB (March 18, 2012, 08:29 PM)

Thanks, I let them know.

tomos · « **Reply #41 on:** March 19, 2012, 10:13 AM »

There's a very nice review/summary here: Scribus 1.4.0 in a nutshell (from libregraphicsworld.org/)
including
What to expect in the future:
(see attachment in previous post)
-tomos (March 17, 2012, 06:21 PM)
These links.
-IainB (March 18, 2012, 08:29 PM)

Thanks, I let them know.
-tomos (March 19, 2012, 08:44 AM)

I kind of thought it would be a false alarm - a site dedicated to open source software....

It's a false positive.

http://bit.ly/zOP3mM

I think I'll report that to
http://forums.malwar...dex.php?showforum=42, but in the
long run I'd rather not bother getting in touch with every anti-virus
software vendor out there

Thanks for reporting.

superboyac · « **Reply #42 on:** March 19, 2012, 10:21 AM »

Scribus is pretty cool so far, I'm a fan. I'm digging these new open source content creation tools. I'll take as many as I can get.

40hz · « **Reply #43 on:** March 19, 2012, 11:03 AM »

Scribus is pretty cool. And it works quite well for most DP tasks.

The bad thing about it is: it's not InDesign or Xpress.

Conversely, the really good thing about it is: it's not InDesign or Xpress.

mahesh2k · « **Reply #44 on:** March 19, 2012, 11:05 AM »

Inkscape is also good for DTP work. It's like Corel but it saves files in SVG format and it also lets you update PDF files which were made using that program.

IainB · « **Reply #45 on:** March 20, 2012, 12:21 AM »

I have also downloaded and installed Scribus from the link @40hz gave.
It looks pretty good, but I've not had much time to play with it so far.

superboyac · « **Reply #46 on:** March 27, 2012, 11:40 AM »

I'm using Scribus today to create a flyer for work. not bad at all! One problem so far: printing to a pdf has issues with transparencies. All the transparency settings I spent so long tweaking, they just print as opaque blocks.

40hz · « **Reply #47 on:** March 27, 2012, 12:10 PM »

I'm using Scribus today to create a flyer for work. not bad at all! One problem so far: printing to a pdf has issues with transparencies. All the transparency settings I spent so long tweaking, they just print as opaque blocks.
-superboyac (March 27, 2012, 11:40 AM)

http://forums.scribu...ndex.php?topic=375.0

http://forums.scribu...ndex.php?topic=311.0

Luck

superboyac · « **Reply #48 on:** March 27, 2012, 12:13 PM »

I'm using Scribus today to create a flyer for work. not bad at all! One problem so far: printing to a pdf has issues with transparencies. All the transparency settings I spent so long tweaking, they just print as opaque blocks.
-superboyac (March 27, 2012, 11:40 AM)

http://forums.scribu...ndex.php?topic=375.0

http://forums.scribu...ndex.php?topic=311.0

Luck
-40hz (March 27, 2012, 12:10 PM)

Thanks. The solution was to export to pdf and NOT print to pdf using the regular printer options.

superboyac · « **Reply #49 on:** March 27, 2012, 12:16 PM »

Here it is:

SCRIBUS - Open Source Desktop Publishing

Nothing special. But it was easy to slap together and I didn't have to bug IT to install Illustrator or Photoshop and all the headches/justifications/third-degree nonsense that goes along with it. And I know it looks like an engineer put it together, my artistic side sleeps during the day so it won't get me in trouble at work.