[Scribus] Windows booklet printing

[Alastair M. Robinson]

Hi,

 > Not the way I see it. Booklet prinitng is having the computer guess
 > how you want things to look. Imposition is telling the computer how
 > you want it to look.

Well, in the case of printing an A5 booklet on A4 pages, there's very 
little ambiguity about how it will look (except, perhaps, creep 
settings, and maybe margin fine-tuning to compensate for paper-feed 
miscalibration).  But my point was essentially the same as your point in 
a previous mail - that a full imposition implementation is capable of 
everything needed to perform booklet printing - hence that's a subset of 
imposition.

 > DTP is about telling the computer how you want things to look. You do
 > not want the computer to make any guesses or "help" you where you
 > don't want help.

Again, in the very specific case of booklet printing I don't see any 
ambiguity - any opportunity to misinterpret my intentions.

I suppose this whole discussion comes down to the difference between a 
general solution (imposition) versus a specific solution (A5 2-up on A4 
booklet printing).  We're both arguing in favour of the general 
solution, yes? :)

 > When I want to do simple things and want the computer to help me, I
 > use MS Word.
 > When I want 100% control of how things look and are placed, I use
 > Scribus.
 > And when I want good layout for complex documents without having to
 > work to much I use LyX.

Yup, horses for courses. :)

 > Som drivers add the documents margins to the printer margins (to make 
 > sure whe whole printed image is visible on the paper), paper feeding
 > might make margins different from one page to another etc.

Paper feed inaccuracy is indeed a factor.  As for adjusting margins, 
that's a pet hate of mine - it destroys any machine-independence the 
document might have had, and only preserves the printed image in one 
corner - you lose *double* the amount in the opposite corner, unless 
your media is larger than the document you're trying to print.  But 
that's off-topic, I guess...

 > The point is WHY do they need to print A5 booklets? My guess is they
 > need it because it's all they know. And that is the problem. The use a
 > "not so good" solution because it's the only solution they know.

A5 is a convenient format to hold; the width provides a comfortable line 
length at readable body-text point sizes, and it divides conveniently 
into the most common paper size used in (European) desktop printers, so 
it should be no great surprise that printing A5 booklets is a common 
usage case!

 > I think you should always use the tool that is right for the job. Not
 > use the most advanced tool for simple jobs because you MIGHT have us
 > for it in the future.

Agreed!  But for full-colour, press-printed publications, Publisher is 
*not* the right tool for the job (in my considered, totally unbiased 
opinion! ;) ).  In many cases it gets used, however, because it's what 
people are familiar with, yes?

 > Most of my friend use Photoshop for their digital photos. What do they
 > use PS for? Well, cropping the images and changing the size. Maybe
 > sometimes also change brightness. Why are they using PS for such
 > simple tasks when there are cheaper (even free) alternatives that can
 > do it? Because someone have told them "Photoshop is the best there is".

Again, agreed.

All the best,
--
Alastair M. Robinson