[scribus] My own small winter revolution...

AL newsletters at alexandreleray.com
Sat Jan 12 17:42:13 UTC 2013


Dear Scribus software,

We know each others for quite some time now. We met each other at the 
end of my graphic design studies; at that time I was in a romance with 
InDesign after a short flirt with QuarkXPress. Sure, InDesign was 
pretty, but sooooo closed-minded and arrogant... InDesign though it knew 
how things ought to be and there was simply no way to discuss. After my 
studies, I decided to quit InDesign. I wanted full freedom and without 
you I couldn't have reached it.

Our story hasn't always been easy: we had to deal with angry printers 
when they ripped our perfectly valid but incredibly "fat" PDFs, with 
colleagues with mismatching versions or, more importantly together when 
I struggled with your duplicating styles, missing tables or spot colors 
images, and when you pointed out my lack of patience when I was 
under-estimating your efforts to correct your bugs and support new PDF 
standards.

But together we have accomplished great things, ranging from simple 
flyers to complex objects like 320 pages books, either for 
self-initiated projects or professional commissions. Our families have 
been of a great help too us -- be it on the mailing-list or by IRC -- 
and our colleagues too.

Yet, I nowadays feel sometimes moody when it comes to talk to you, to 
interact with you. I feel like after three years I have learned your 
melody and, even if I won't leave you, I'm missing the little sparkle I 
saw in your eyes at first sight. It has nothing to do with your bugs: 
you've been working a lot on them and I really value your efforts but it 
has never been such a big deal to me. I actually find it beautiful that 
you expose your bugs contrary to the others. No, It is more like we are 
not talking the same language: I tell you "contextual design", you 
answer "stability" or "PDF export". Again, I understand your reasons but 
what I really want with you is to do another kind of design. We should 
look more carefully into what we really want, me as a graphic designer 
and you as a free software. I want you to inspire me, and I want to 
inspire you. Let's look around us: so many things are going on right 
now; so many possibilities are offered. We have a card to play here and 
I know together we can do it, but we will have to be wild and invent our 
future.

Love,

Alex



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