[scribus] TOC from several files

[John Culleton]

On Sunday 14 December 2008 07:33:29 am avox wrote:
> John Culleton-3 wrote:
> > For Scribus to be comparable to TeX for long books it needs to be
> > able to justify a paragraph at a time, optionally
>
> That's a nice-to-have but not mandatory. I think the justification
> algorithm in 135 is good enough.
>
> > use hanging punctuation, optionally use microtypography,
>
> Late additions to TeX and already available in 135
>
>  handle books of a thousand pages or more without subdividing the
> files, provide for
>
> > indexing, toc, automated footnoting,
>
> True
>
> > automatic placement of graphics, tables etc. on the current page
> > or on the next page depending on how
> > things work out,
>
> That's something you control manually after TeX had it's try, so
> maybe not so essential.
>
> > allow the insertion of a paragraph with automatic repagination as
> > needed and automatic adjustment of both the toc and the index,
>
> Well, that's what you expect from automatic pagination and
> indexing. Or do you mean that Scribus should insert new pages
> automatically? I'm still looking for a specification where and with
> what master page that should happen. I'm afraid that users might
> have quite different needs when it comes to inserting new pages.
>
> > provide a facility for putting out different page sizes and page
> > orders with a simple switch from the same file,
>
> Uh, like an A4 and an A5 version from the same file?? That's a
> design layout no-no IMHO.
>
> > draw bibliographic references from a bibliographic database, with
> > automatic formatting and ordering of those entries depending on a
> > bib style selection and etc.
>
> That's only needed for scientific books.
>
> > I said before almost anything can be done with almost any tool,
> > as the man with the IBM 1100 proved.  But it is not sensible to
> > use a tool ill suited for the purpose at hand.  I am in the
> > process of writing an e-book on using Scribus for book cover
> > design. Book cover design is a task for which Scribus is
> > admirably suited.  But the e-book publisher insists that the book
> > file size be held to less than two megabytes.  If it goes over
> > that parameter I may have to redo it in TeX.  I can compress a
> > pdf from Scribus but then I lose anchors etc.
>
> The e-book publisher wants a PDF? Is that also the final e-book
> format or are the pages reflowed? Would be interesting to see the
> specs.
>
The pdf version will be encapsulated in an exe file but basically it 
is pdf. You can't reflow pdf using any tool I know. It is a final 
format.  Basically you send them a pdf. 

> > I am not knocking Scribus. I am putting in a lot of hours on
> > learning it.  But all of us need to have more than one arrow in
> > our quiver.
>
> Sure. But Scribus will get there eventually.
>
> /Andreas

My actual case was a newsletter that was double column 8.5 x 11 inches 
imposed on 11 x 17,  single column 5.5 x 8.5 inches with different 
margins of course imposed on 11 x 8.5 for a pamphlet ,  and the 5.5 
x8.5  layout in normal page sequence for proofing.   

Now this requires formatting and paginating on the fly based on some 
commands up front and a command line switch that selects the correct 
format.  Here is an extract of the code:
------------------------------------------------
\startmode[full]
\definepapersize[reg][width=8.5in,height=11in]
\definepapersize[ful][width=11in,height=17in]
\setuppapersize[reg][ful]
\setuparranging[2UP,rotated,doublesided]
\setuplayout[textwidth 7in,marking=off,textheight=9.5in]
\stopmode
\startmode[hal]
\definepapersize[halff][width=5.5in,height=8.5in]
\definepapersize[ful][width=8.5in,height=11in]
\setuppapersize[halff][ful]
\setuparranging[2UP,rotated,doublesided]
\stopmode
%%
\startmode[online]
\setuppapersize[letter][letter]
\setupcolors[state=start]
\setuplayout[textwidth 7in,marking=off,textheight=9.5in]
\stopmode
%%
\startmode[pruf]
\definepapersize[halff][width=5.0in,height=8.5in]
\setuppapersize[halff][letter]
\stopmode
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The underlying philosophy of Scribus is enough different that such 
games are not practical. But within the page-oriented scheme of 
Scribus there should be better handling of very long documents. The 
reason? An automated index pretty much requires handling the whole 
document as a single  entity.  And indexing is essential. 

Knuth, the author of TeX, created the paragraph-at-a-time 
justification scheme and InDesign copied it.  So for text-heavy 
documents that is the standard practice today.  You may judge 1.3.5 
good enough. Others will compare the results to e.g., InDesign and 
judge that Scribus is not a serious player.

It might be possible for the authors of Scribus to copy the paragraph 
making algorithm of TeX just as the authors of InDesign did.  I don't 
know the code so I can't judge. 


-- 
John Culleton
Resources for every author and publisher:
http://wexfordpress.com/tex/shortlist.pdf
http://wexfordpress.com/tex/packagers.pdf
http://www.creativemindspress.com/newbiefaq.htm
http://www.gropenassoc.com/TopLevelPages/reference%20desk.htm