[scribus] OpenType features

[john Culleton]

On Sat, 14 Sep 2013 09:04:23 -0700
John Jason Jordan <johnxj at comcast.net> wrote:

> On Sat, 14 Sep 2013 11:44:06 -0300
> Gabriel Grosso <ggrosso.dg at gmail.com> dijo:
> 
> >I'm wondering if Scribus support the use of true small capitals -if
> >the typography has ones- or if they're created by the program
> >itself. I've seen a thread long ago about this and it has been
> >reported as a bug<http://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=1413>and a
> >future implementation in version 1.3 -long ago-.
> >
> >Also i have an issue when trying to use special characters like old
> >style figures -small caps numbers-. Fontmatrix detects it as
> >'Unmapped glyph' and also in Scribus i can't insert them via Glyphs.
> >
> >I've read some topics about OpenType in GNU/Linux can be accesed with
> >XeTeX or LuaTeX, but i have zero experience working with that.
> 
> The first step is to verify that your font has true small caps,
> ligatures, old style numerals, etc. and that they are encoded with the
> correct Unicode values. 
> 
> Assuming that your font has them, then the only way to use them
> currently in Scribus is to insert them one at a time manually. As far
> as I know the only program that can use them automatically (as opposed
> to just resizing regular caps) is InDesign. I read somewhere that
> QuarkXPress can do so also, but I can't verify that.
> 
> Automatically using alternate glyphs in OpenType fonts has been a
> feature request since at least 2006:
> 
> http://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=1413
> 
> I should add that there also exists Graphite, an extension toolbar for
> Libre/OpenOffice, which can do this, but it works only with a couple
> of specially created TrueType fonts (e.g., LinuxLibertine-G).
> Graphite is an interesting tool, but as far as I can tell it is a
> dead end technology. 
> 
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TeX, especially the latest Context MKIV form, will handle small caps if
they are actually in the font. For text only or predominately books TeX
is still the tool of choice. For book covers I prefer Scribus (see
below).

-- 
John Culleton
Wexford Press
Free list of books for self-publishers:
http://wexfordpress.net/shortlist.html
PDF e-book: "Create Book Covers with Scribus"
available at http://www.booklocker.com/books/4055.html