[Scribus] We have a lock to grid feature (almost!)

[Louis Desjardins]

Hello all,

I want to add something to the discussion over the "lock to grid" feature.

I was not absolutely right the other day when I said that text is 
hanging from the top element, giving poor alignments results from one 
column to another. There was a case about subtitles where it was 
clear that a lock to grid feature would have been no help (instead, 
it was a matter of understanding well how "leading" works and how we 
can make really nice typography using the spaces before and after). 
There was another case - if I remember well - where a picture on the 
top of the 2nd and 3rd column was preventing text from beeing 
perfectly aligned in all 3 columns. The text in column 1 was not 
aligned with the text in column 2 and 3. Hope you still follow me. ;-)

The workaround I proposed then does certainly work. But it doesn't 
give credit to Scribus, which behaves far better than I thought at 
first. Also, I must say I was referring more to Quark than to Scribus 
(but the results were so identical...).

Scribus has, in a way, a lock to grid feature built-in. Only, in 
certain circumstances it doesn't work. Let me explain. Say you have a 
3-column text box. Text will flow from column to column and will be 
perfectly aligned. Add any item in the middle of any column, text 
will still be perfectly align (and will not "hang" as I thought at 
first, on the lower part of that element), as long as that item does 
not get over the gutter (space between the columns) or over the 
boundary of the text-box containing your main text. It is subtle 
though because it might even work in some cases. All this to say 
that, when handled properly, Scribus can be very kind!

Also, I noticed that if you don't provide enough space between the 
text box and the text (Property palette>Shape>Distance to text 
(translated from French), some text characteristics (such as small 
caps) and even other elements can generate a misalignment. The 
workaround : increase the value of the Top space. That way, the whole 
text will start a little lower than the upper limit of the box 
itself, leaving room to accomodate the styles and/or elements that 
are in the way.

This does not work when you have an element that would run through 
half of column 1 and then over column 2 and 3... There is still a 
need for this lock-to-grid feature. But, there are ways to live 
without it... for now!

The drop cap seems to be the only element (so far) that doesn't want 
to work, even with that workaround. The other column are misaligned 
when a drop cap is in the way. Also, we have very little control over 
the drop cap itself : it doesn't seem to want to fill the whole 
space. I still get better results using 2 additionnal text-box. So I 
guess I will ask for a tweak here!!!

I think the better way is to give it a try!

Hope this helps!

Louis