[scribus] reading pub and idd files

["Christoph Schäfer"]

> Gesendet: Donnerstag, 18. April 2013 um 08:45 Uhr
> Von: "Joop Kiefte" <ikojba at gmail.com>
> An: "Scribus User Mailing List" <scribus at lists.scribus.net>
> Betreff: Re: [scribus] reading pub and idd files
>
> Czarek, this feature is important for one very important feature of a lot
> of open source software: to prevent lock-in. Even in organisations that
> really shouldn't depend on InDesign their designers use it, and as such
> force to use the client to use it too (and pay a big buck or pirate it...)
> just to change what was commisioned. This really is unacceptable and indd
> support would solve this huge problem.

As much as I agree with you, you don't seem to be aware of the sheer size of the tasks.

1) Re-engineering the INDD file format(s) is a huge task.

2) To enable proper import of INDD files requires cloning of all of InDesign's features. Good luck with that!

3) Since we're talking about file exchange, Scribus should also be able to *export* INDD, shouldn't it? Who on earth has the skill and the time to write the code? Of course we could exchange files with InDesign users via PDF, but the PDF Importer/Exporter in 1.5.0svn is already equal or better than InDesign's.

4) Speaking of export, Scribus has quite a lot of features that can't be exported to InDesign, simply because ID doesn't support them. 

To sum up, "file exchange" in DTP is pretty much an illusion. What is needed is something like a commonly agreed-upon open file standard, like ODT (and even that one is being torpedoed by MS) for Office documents. 

Let me re-instate my case: Let's refine IDML (and XTG, Xtag) support to a stage that it can be taken seriously. Franz did so with XAR, AI and PDF, and I have no doubt that he'll do the same with his current work on PUB.

But reliable "document exchange" with other DTP programs, including InDesign, in the absence of a real, reliable and versatile DTP exchange format will remain a dream for the time being.

Christoph