[Scribus] Big Project - Question/Comments

[Bart Alberti]

Christoph Sch?fer wrote:

>Hi Marshall,
>
>Marshall Lake schrieb:
>  
>
>>I am currently working on a book-type project.  In the end I want to have 
>>three digital versions ... one in plain text, one in HTML format, and the 
>>third in PDF format.  I am nearing completion of the plain text version. 
>>I have many images to include in the project which will not be part of the 
>>plain text version but will be part of the HTML and PDF versions.
>>
>>
>>I was thinking that I would create the HTML version of the project next, 
>>and then the PDF version using Scribus.  But it occurred to me that 
>>possibly an HTML version can be automagically created from Scribus.  Is 
>>this possible?  It seems to me that saving a project in HTML out of 
>>Scribus would not be too difficult.  If it's not possible now, is it in 
>>the works?
>>
>>I'm open to any and all comments and/or suggestions concerning my project 
>>and how to proceed.  (It's a big project ... the plain text version being 
>>a little under 5 MB currently.)
>>    
>>
>
>A few comments and suggestions:
>
>HTML export is planned for Scribus but not implemented yet. However, it 
>might never be possible to use Scribus for some kind of "cross 
>publishing" (print and web) as propagated by Adobe (InDesign) and Quark 
>(XPress). As it seems, most Scribus developers and users seem to agree 
>that both kinds of publishing are different and in many aspects opposite 
>tasks (see: http://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=1977).
>
>Here is what I, personally, would recommend you to do. If your PDF 
>doesn't need to get printed (colour printing), you can try 
>OpenOffice.org. From there, you can export HTML as well as PDF.
>
>Another possibility is to use LaTeX. I don't know if you are already 
>familiar with it, but in case you are not, let me tell you that it is 
>the state of the art in digital typesetting, despite of its age of more 
>than twenty years! From LaTeX you can export to PDF and HTML. If you 
>don't want to learn LaTeX, you should use LyX. It is kind of a graphical 
>front end to LaTeX and has an excellent documentation that makes it easy 
>for beginners to produce excellent output.
>
>You wrote that your plain text file already has the size of 5 MB, so it 
>looks like a mountain of text. Add images and you will have to run 
>scribus on a mainframe or split your project into dozens of scribus 
>files, at least in the current versions. So actually I think it boils 
>down to either LaTeX or OpenOffice.org, and even then you will need 
>quite a bit of RAM ... ;)
>
>Cheers,
>
>Christoph
>
>  
>
LaTeX gives you a base text file with tags and then you process it as 
you want: html or /and pdf (pdflatex, a separate package which comes 
with most distributions along side e.g. tetex). You can have chapters in 
different files and call them into the base file, sort of like calling 
another batch file into a  basic batch file. There are packages for 
presentations, too.  Also pictures may be called in and precisely 
placed. There is a GUI namely LyX also there is KILE in KDE.
The basic idea is the base file is used to generate the others without 
compromising itself.  There is I think a TeX 'resource limit' which 
could be exceeded; but that may be evaded by using sub-files.

Bart Alberti