[Scribus] ISO page sizes

[Craig Ringer]

On Fri, 2005-02-04 at 09:13 -0500, Pierre Abbat wrote:
> On Friday 04 February 2005 07:49, Craig Bradney wrote:
> > No, the page sizes should be correct to the spec, for sure. However, a mm
> > and a pt dont relate well.
> > 1 postscript pt = 1/72 in, = 0.352777777 mm
> > 1 TeX pt = 1/72.27in, = 0.3514589035mm
> >
> > and then theres the other, older versions.
> 
> Exactly the point ;) There are two different definitions of the foot in use in 
> America, and at least three ounces. There is only definition of the meter in 
> use worldwide (the definition has been changed for precision reasons, but 
> it's still the same length). So type size should be measured like anything 
> else, in meters.

Perhaps so ... but PostScript uses points, and I suspect (I'm not sure)
that PDF does too. DTP is built around printing and PostScript, so
Scribus needs to use what the underlying formats use.

It can, however, present an interface to the user in their units of
choice. Personally I use pt because it's what I'm used to, but I'm
otherwise all-metric (grr US paper sizes grr). Anyway, if you find any
issues with the translation between the underlying measures and the
presentation of them to the user, it'd be good if you could mention
them. I don't think it's realistic to hope that the app would ever
switch away from points internally, though.

> PostScript has no problem scaling type or images; I'm making a drawing of the 
> paper sizes and began the page with "2.8346457 dup scale". The %%BoundingBox: 
> comment, however, is required to be in integer points. I think it should 
> allow decimals, and there should be a %!PS-Metric comment that says that the 
> unit is millimeters.

That's an issue you'll have to take up with Adobe, I'm afraid. I doubt
they'll be very receptive though, as PostScript is an established format
and breaking compatibility like that wouldn't make them any friends.

-- 
Craig Ringer