[scribus] Materials for a talk about Scribus

[John Jason Jordan]

On Thu, 23 Sep 2010 15:51:27 -0700
Joe Zeff <joe at zeff.us> dijo:

>Sometimes it's a good idea for a program to come with "training
>wheels." The only thing is, there needs to be a way to take them off 
>once you don't need them.
>
>For me, Scribus is just about right.  I'm no expert typesetter, and
>I'm nowhere near good enough to be considered a professional, but I've
>done a fair amount of amateur page layout in my time and have a good
>idea what needs to be done.  For me, at least, Scribus gives me the
>tools to do what I want then gets out of my way and lets me do it.
>Most of what I need to do is fairly easy to figure out, and when it's
>not, there's this mailing list and an IRC channel I can use.
>
>If part of your presentation is giving reasons your audience would
>want to use Scribus instead of something else (Closed
>Source/Expensive) this might be a good talking point: you can be up
>and running in short order, and expand your skills as you go.

I think I will just present Scribus and let it speak for itself. If it
clicks with members of the audience - and I'm sure it will click with at
least some - then Scribus has won new fans. If someone wants me to
compare it to other tools I'll just say that I don't have time to get
into detailed comparisons. 

A comparative review of the layout tools available is a big enough
topic for an entire talk by itself. Similarly, good design practice and
excellence in typography is a whole talk. How to get your book published
is another whole talk. In an hour and a half I don't think I can even
cover Scribus completely.