[scribus] The Scribus target - a question for the developers

[Mike Morris]

Thanks to all of you who have responded to my earlier question on developer
goals.

Regarding the imposition capability, I offer the following thoughts (from a
former shop owner's perspective):

For certain items, such as business cards and letterheads (among other
items), it is true that I, as shop owner, preferred to do the imposition
in-house, rather than try to train my customers.  After all, how I would run
the job depended on its complexity and quantity, and even, to some extent,
on other jobs on order.  If a customer brought me (in those days) a
Pagemaker or Quark file, I would open the file and change the imposition so
that it would fit the way I wanted to run the job.

Now I know that the Multiple Duplicate feature in Scribus can accomplish
this task for such items--provided both customer AND shop have Scribus.
However, the Scribus development goals appear to exclude use in shops:

" As for imposition, as you specifically mentioned it, as I have rarely come
across a print shop that wanted it done for them - it is a little hard to
place in terms of requirement. We certainly see the need for the basics for
those wanting to replace the functionality in say MS Pub, but to go all the
way and replace the software worth thousands specifically designed for
imposition.. well.. one day.. but maybe not on our first priority list."

It is not clear to me how to change imposition, once defined in a PDF file.
I have been out of the printing business for several years, so perhaps there
is a way to change a PDF file with business cards set up as:

4 up on 5.5 x 8.5

to 4 up on 4 x 8 (one set up used for Thermography)--as one example.

Another example:  a customer brings in a PDF file of a letterhead.  It uses
3 spot colors with tight register and one of the spot colors is used in a
bleed bar at the top of the sheet (bleeds left, top and right).  The
quantity is 20,000.  I might want to run that  4 up on 11.5 x 17.5 or
perhaps 8 up on 23 x 35.  In this case, perhaps the ability of Scribus to
import PDF's will work.  But, if I correctly understand Scribus, I would
then need to create a PDF of the "imposed" document before I could send it
to the image setter.  Is that possible?

If not, the customer (or graphic designer) must have a detailed discussion
with the print shop before starting the project.  While that is normally
expected of a graphic designer--and I am certain that all contributors to
this list make the effort, my experience is that it is (or was) an
occurrence much rarer that it should have been.

As for multi-page documents (whether marketing documents or newsletters,
etc.),  whether they are created within the shop or by the customer (or
graphic designer), the imposition feature (or "booklet" feature) is an
important element of a true page layout software application--even if the
customer doesn't know the difference between "reader spreads" and "printer
spreads."  If I correctly understand the threads that have been posted on
this issue, there are work-arounds, but they are not as efficient as a true
"booklet" feature.  That means higher cost to the print shop and higher
prices to the customer--and possibly a non-competitive situation compared to
someone using InDesign or Quark.  Or lower profit to the shop using Scribus.

As I understand the current status of Scribus, the booklet feature can be
implemented with a plug-in (at least with the Linux version).  I use the
Windows version, and I have not tried this task.  Given the nature of the
Scribus development, this seems to be an acceptable alternative, but with
the reservations expressed above.

Despite my reservations, I wish to state once again, that I find the efforts
to date of the development team remarkable indeed.

On Mon, Sep 1, 2008 at 8:41 PM, Mr. Beast <mrbeast at shaw.ca> wrote:

> I consider the imposition feature (akin to pagemaker's "build booklet") an
> important step forward for Scribus. While the printshops I deal with may be
> happy to impose multiple copies of one or two images on a large sheet. When
> it comes to two up double sided sorts of printing they want it already done
> so that all they have to do is hit print.
> Cheers,
> B
>
>
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