[scribus] Scribus

[John Culleton]

On Tuesday 25 May 2010 00:40:26 Christoph Schäfer wrote:
> Am Freitag, 21. Mai 2010 20:12:39 schrieb Jim:
> > Submitted on 05/21/2010
> > Submitted by anonymous user: [10.1.6.26]
> >
> > Submitted values are:
> >
> >    Name: Jim
> >    Email Address: findingskeeper at yahoo.com
> >    Subject: Scribus
> >    Message:
> > I need to vent. I can certainly appreciate the incredible effort it 
takes
> > to develop an application. I've written some code myself. But, 
above
> > writing code, I've been doing desktop publishing since the 
early 1990's.
> > I cut my teeth on Pagemaker way back when they were a 
standalone
> > application from Aldus. I've used Quark and have settled on a 
beautiful
> > application by Serif called PagePlus X4.
> >
> > I don't mean to be hyper-critical considering the PRICE of 
Scribus (free
> > an open source is usually a good thing), but I say this with 
conviction
> > that Scribus is the worst piece of software I have ever used; 
and I have
> > used a lot of software over the years.
>
> Thank you very much for the compliments. Troll?
>
> > Counter intuitive, klunky and overall frustrating to the point of 
ripping
> > the very hair out of my skull.
> >
> > The most ELEMENTAL thing you can ask of a desktop 
publishing app is how
> > effortlessly you can manipulate a text block. Resizing, kerning, 
etc. all
> > which apparently don't exist (with any level of ease) in 
Scribus. It took
> > me 2 hours to figure out how to resize a font. It took me an 
additional 2
> > hours to figure out how to recolor it. Again, maybe an hour on 
layering
> > said text frame.
>
> You know, there are things like an online help or a wiki that 
includes a
> tutorial and much more details.
>
> > If you need some inspiration on what a DTP should be, I 
suggest you take
> > a look at PagePlus X4. It's a meager $59.99 and provides 
OUTSTANDING
> > power and ease of use to become creative quite quickly.
> >
> > Again, I appreciate the developers time but I'd highly 
recommend USING a
> > desktop publishing package before you all go out and try to 
create one.
>
> You apparently never used a professional DTP program, and as 
far as I know,
> no one in the printing industry uses PagePlus. Most use InDesign 
and
> XPress, some use RagTime Solo or Scribus. I suggest you 
actually USE a
> PROFESSIONAL DTP program before you criticise a program.
>
> No regards, no signature
>
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As my late father would say, there are horses for courses. I find 
that Scribus is excellent for book covers and very handy for flyers, 
press releases and the like. But it cannot begin to touch the various 
forms of TeX for long documents with footnotes,  headers that 
reflect the chapter and section and the like. Only TeX and InDesign 
have the excellent paragraph at a time justification of TeX. IMO 
indexing is more sophisticated in TeX than any other product short 
of dedicated programs like Cindex and Macrex.

Within its range Scribus is a top notch product.  But the range is a 
bit narrow.

I have heard from other Page Plus advocates before. Apparently 
they like it. But I believe that if milk is free one needn't buy a cow.
I like the combination of Scribus for the formatted documents it 
does so well, TeX for formal documents and long books, and Open 
Office writer for saving .Doc files in more useful formats, including 
LaTeX. That is what I am doing today. 
 
-- 
John Culleton
Wexford Press
"Create Book Covers with Scribus"
Printable E-book 38 pages $5.95
http://www.scribd.com/doc/24676863/
http://www.booklocker.com/books/4055.html