[Scribus] suggestions

[Craig Ringer]

> Pagemaker was a doddle (took about an hour to figure the basics out),
> Quark is a constant pain (after three weeks, it was unstable. After 6
> weeks, it more stable, but still unstable!)

heh - it only has to be better at opening Quark files than Quark. And 
that's not as hard a target as it should be ;-)

> and I don't have any
> documentation for InDesign format, so that could be anything.

If sample InDesign files are needed, I can help out. Additionally, I can 
convert QuarkXPress documents to InDesign if that would help in decoding 
formats. We don't use InDesign here, but we've got a couple of copies 
lying around from Adobe Design Collection bundles. We're planning on 
using it later maybe, so I can't alas just send you one.

> If someone wants a specific format adding in, then either myself (or
> Franz or anyone else who wants to) will look at it and decide if it's
> going to be an effective use of time away from the core application. We
> won't say no (unless it's impossible or really nasty like MS Publisher)
> but they will drop down the list.

Another one I'd suggest for "impossibly nasty" would be Word. An MS word 
"text only + text styles" import would be very handy, but full 
formatting... there's no point IMHO. If it's needed, it might be better 
done by loading a word doc in OO.o (which has established mediocre but 
working word import) and copy+paste to Scribus. Full-formatted content 
copy+paste between OO.o and Scribus would no doubt be handy for many 
other things, of course, and seems a good way to support file formats 
that go in the "too hard" baket for Scribus, but are implemented in OO.o 
. Just a few ideas, mind you - nothing more.

Personally, I don't get the need for file-format compatability. It's 
handy, but not all that much more. I'd /never/ actually shuffle 
documents back and forth between two DTP apps voluntarily, it will never 
work perfectly and perfect is all that's good enough. The need is rare 
anyway - how often do you now recieve a Quark document, Indesign file, 
or whatever instead of a PDF? I know that here, at the paper I'm working 
for, we don't even accept Quark or Indesign files anymore - your choices 
are PDF, EPS, TIFF or JPEG. Our printers only talk PDF. Then again, 
perhaps it's just the section of the publishing business that I'm in - 
others needs could easily be different.

Craig Ringer