[scribus] Need Arial, Times New Roman Font "equivalents"

[John Culleton]

On Tuesday 22 February 2011 05:51:35 S C ribus wrote:
> > > MSWord it is easily recognizable as the product of an
> >
> > amateur
> >
> > > typographer. So I suggest something outside the
> >
> > Microsoft Windows
> >
> > > collection, such as Bitstream Charter, Minion, Adobe
> >
> > Garamond or
> >
> > > Sabon.
> > > --
> >
> > I would think that the work of an amateur typographer will
> > look
> > amateurish whichever font he uses. Similarly, I would
> > expect the
> > work of the professional to look professional regardless.
>
> totally agree.... as an example check out (not my work)
> http://instudio.power.com.pl/wp-content/themes/simplixity/flash_ove
>rview/overview.html
>
> It's Verdana through and through and that does not make it look
> unprofessional

Well it is a very handsome site (much better looking than mine) but 
like any site it can be improved. It does not appear that Scribus was 
used. The PDF file was put together with Photoshop and not Scribus.  
IMO Scribus would set up the text better, given a fighting chance. 

Your html pages and their pdf version show that a lot of work went 
into them. But they can be improved with a little attention to the 
typography, including font selection. And if you use actual text 
instead of images on your html pages your SEO will be improved.  First 
people need to find your pages, then you can impress them with the 
content. 

I note that in both versions the paragraphs are seriously gap toothed. 
Hyphenation is badly needed. Scribus can do an acceptable job of 
hyphenation if you turn it on. Otherwise use ragged right.  I would 
suggest a serif face rather than non-serif. But whatever the typeface 
the questions of rivers of type  and gap toothed lines need to be 
addressed.

On the html pages where presumably you used Verdana bold a bit lighter 
serif face would do better. Georgia (a Microsoft face) is designed 
specifically for online viewing.   In the paragraph titled "Efficient" 
the last four lines have a "river" of white space where the words 
"processes" "seconds." "browse" and "source" end. The gaps after these 
words all line up, but some are wider than the others. Again 
hyphenation will improve the situation. Some people shy away from 
hyphenation but any professionally laid out document will use it where 
justification is in force. In my test document referenced below some of 
the text is set ragged right and some is set justified with 
hyphenation. The Scribus examples are on page 11 and 17. 

http://wexfordpress.com/tex/compare2.pdf

In short the problems I find with your site are not just the use of a 
sans-serif font like Verdana.  The justification of the text is a much 
more serious problem. And on the pdf version at least I would have 
used Scribus plus a nice serif font, and hyphenation. 

On the html version I would consider using some "real" text somewhere 
on the pages as well as tags etc. to give your offerings a chance for 
some search engine rankings.  Right now the Alexa rank is not bad  
(1,641,359) but the Google rank is nonexistent. My much cruder page

http://wexfordpress.com

is no thing of beauty but it gets a Google rank of 4. And if you use 
the two search terms "typesetting" and "indexing" together in a Google 
search it comes up first. Try it and see. 


-- 
John Culleton
Create Book Covers with Scribus:
http://www.booklocker.com/p/books/4055.html
Typesetting and indexing http://wexfordpress.com
book sales http://wexfordpress.net
Free  barcode: http://www.tux.org/~milgram/bookland/