[scribus] testing Scribus Limits :-)

[Femke Snelting]

Rich Shepard wrote:
> On Wed, 25 Jun 2008, a.l.e wrote:
> 
>> you could create the catalogue without the first page and make a pdf out
>> of it.
>>
>> then create one or several documents with a bunch of first pages (200
>> pages is a bit too much for a scribus document...). export them as a pdf.
> 
>    That's what I would have done. Then I would use the pdftk (the pdf tool
> kit) to concatenate the cover and the rest. It would need to be scripted,
> and care taken to ensure one cover per catalog.
> 
> Rich

Thanks for looking into it -- your support is really very encouraging, 
on the list and on IRC.

The good news is: Scribus *just* finished producing 500 covers -- 
meaning it has run for 24 hours non-stop without complaining. The 
documents have been uploaded to the printers server now, we're keeping 
our fingers crossed the books will be delivered on time (pictures next 
week).

We were actually only generating the cover (1 page). The inside was laid 
out by hand so yes, Rich and a.l.e. -- it would be a bit crazy (although 
next time... ;-)) to try and generate the whole book in one go.

I've uploaded some more files, including earlier attempts with corrupted 
fonts (resulting in monstrous pdf's that open correctly on Ubuntu but 
crash the printers' preflight checker):
http://ospublish.constantvzw.org/sources/pzicatalogue/

What I feared did not happen -- Scribus did NOT incrementally slow down, 
but just a few seconds were added each run (I think). I'll need to look 
again to find out what really happened; will check with python abled 
people here to see whether we can make it better and I am sure we (or 
you) will find another use to it!

best,

Femke