[Scribus] Scribus on Linux & Fink/OS X

[Kevin Walzer]

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I'm increasing my use of Scribus in my day-to-day business for cover
design, and I used both a Linux box and OS X for a recent project. I
thought I'd share some impressions with the list.

Scribus runs OK on the Mac under Fink, but it's a bit slow. I have an
old PC (733 mhz/P3) that I put Suse 9 on a while back, so I thought I'd
build Scribus 1.1.7 there and see how it worked.

What a difference it makes working in the native environment! Scribus
immediately picks up the look and feel of KDE. It also "feels" a bit
faster, owing to the lack of two windowing systems (the Mac has its own
Aqua windowing system and also runs Fink apps with an X11 server).
Without the distractions of working in two environments, I was able to
get the cover done a bit more quickly than before--and also explore more
of Scribus' new features. I especially like the better color mixing
capabilities, and the support for transparency (don't know if that was
there before 1.1.7, but the great tutorial that was posted recently
pointed it out to me).

It does, I must admit, make a difference doing graphic design on a
desktop with a 17-inch monitor instead of a laptop with a 14" screen,
which is my usual environment. Working this way, Scribus comes very
close to InDesign.

The one area where I'm not yet ready to use Scribus in a more day-to-day
context is for page layout of books. Losing text formatting if I have to
make an edit in the story editor is a bit of a pain. It's OK for a few
paragraphs of cover text, but not for a 100-plus-page book of poetry.

The day Scribus gets a rich-text import filter--say in OpenOffice.org
format--then it will match InDesign in every essential way. Even if I'm
running it under Fink on a laptop. (I already use OpenOffice.org this way!)

I hope this feedback from a "power user" perspective is useful.

Regards,
Kevin

- --
Kevin Walzer, PhD
WordTech Software--Open Source Applications and Packages for OS X
http://www.wordtech-software.com
http://www.smallbizmac.com
http://www.kevin-walzer.com
mailto:sw at wordtech-software.com
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