[Scribus] Flyer for Scribus

[jwminer at accessvt.com]

Thomas Z. wrote:
> Please, feel free to tell me what do you think about it!

This is a very promising flyer. Thanks for your efforts.

There are some typographical and grammar mistakes that need
to be fixed in order for the flyer to appear as professional as it
needs to be. On the first page, "More Information and Downloads," it
should be
The Logos of Scribus's Friends
instead of
The Logo's of Scribus' Friends

An error like that would put me off right away.<g> I'm not the
only one, I assure you.

I suggest putting more space between the units and less space
between the first and second lines of a unit in the "More
Information and Downloads" section.

It should be
Scribus's Friends
at the top of the left column, not
Scribus' Friends

I wonder if you could include URLs for the friends. That would be
helpful to the readers.

There are several things that need fixing on page 2. I'll simply
move through the text from the top.
*     The text directly under "Why Scribus?" does not tell us why we
should use Scribus. I suggest you move the two lines at the bottom
of column one to the top of column two. You have plenty of room to
do this if you reduce the size of the pen in the bottom right
somewhat. As it is now, "Why Scribus?" looks as if it's disconnected
from the text describing why we should use Scribus.

*     There is no need to hyphenate Linux in "Open Source Desktop"
etc. Just move the whole word to the next line. In any case the
hyphenation is incorrect because the word is pronounced LIN-uks in
English, not LIE-nuks. Hyphenated, the word is Lin-ux. But I
wouldn't hyphenate it here.

*     It should be Mac OS X, not MacOSX.

*     Please use curly quotes!

*     The "Called by" sentence should be like this:
Called by Newsforge "..one of the killer applications for Linux",

No comma between Newsforge and the quote, no need to italicize the
quote, and in American usage, the comma would go inside the closing
quotation mark. Much of the rest of the English-speaking world would
put the comma outside the quotation mark. The word spacing in that
sentence is dreadful because of the difficulty of justifying within
a narrow column. If you make the correction I suggested, the word
spacing should be better. No matter what, though, big gaps between
words is not something we want to see in a flyer promoting
Scribus.<g>

*     "Scribus 1.2"
We're beyond that now. Maybe leave the version number out?

*     "New features like separation previews, cross-platform python
scripting, advanced PDF 1.4 support" should be
New features like separation previews, cross-platform python
scripting, and advanced PDF 1.4 support

Note the "and."

*     I don't like to see hyphens after a two-letter syllable, as in
in-terface. "Publishing" is incorrectly hyphenated. It should be
publish-ing

*     "Other features include PDF Import, EPS import/export, Unicode
text including right to left scripts such as Arabic and Hebrew."
should be
Other features include PDF Import, EPS import/export, and Unicode
text including right-to-left scripts such as Arabic and Hebrew.

Note the "and" and the hyphens.

*     Leave out the colon after "such as:" in the next sentence. No
punctuation is needed there.

*     "The Scribus file format is XML based; open and completely
documented." Don't use a semicolon! Use an em dash. Alternatively,
use a colon (I don't like a colon there) or a comma. The em dash
would be best, but there's a dash in the next sentence. Perhaps
reword to "is based on XML, which is open and completely
documented."

*     "There is an easy to use drag and drop scrapbook" should be
There is an easy-to-use drag-and-drop scrapbook.

*     "Coming" in the first paragraph of the right column should be
hyphenated as com-ing, not co-ming.

*     "userbase" should be
user base

I realize that some of these errors may be in the text that was
copied from the source. Let's not repeat them in the flyer.

I hope this isn't coming across as too critical, which is absolutely
not my intention. Unfortunately, small errors take away from the
credibility of what's being promoted. Using typewriter quotation
marks is particularly damaging in a promotion for a desktop
publishing program, as are incorrect hyphenation and bad word
spacing in justified text.
--Judy Miner

Registered Linux User #397786