[Scribus] Tips for a newbie and request for examples

[linuxlingam]

On Tue, 2004-11-16 at 02:46, Sandip Bhattacharya wrote:
> I am a newbie in the field of typesetting. Regardless, I am fascinated by 
> the field and like other fields of art, find this terribly attractive.

the discipline is not typesetting, but typography.
[typesetting=>clicking. typography=> photography]

> 
> My observations while going through Niyam's excellent tutorial, was that 
> the following aspects - among numerous others, are crucial in producing 
> professional grade documents.
> 
> a. How to "space" content in the document - less is more.
> b. Know where to use which kind of fonts.
> c. Knowledge of the complete printing process.

c is very crucial.


> d. Color theory - especially being always aware that what we are creating 
> in (the screen) is quite different from where it is ultimately coming out 
> (the printer). This otherwise elementary concept is mostly missing from the 
> vast population of word-processor users.

yup, this is about color transformations. rgb to cymk and back. with
lots more to it.

> 
> 
> Having some technical writing background, my interest (at present) 
> primarily lies in creating technical documents, manuals, etc. for my normal 
> development work.

please get inspired by the work of donald knuth. the father and
fountainhead of it all in the digital domain. i hazard a guess that
perhaps even adobe is at times inspired by d.k.

> 
> I would like to know if there are any Scribus scripted books and manuals - 
> fiction/non-fiction, technical/non-technical (in Scribus source format, of 
> course) which I can observe to get a "hang of the field". Like other fields 
> of art, I do understand that typesetting is not something that you can read 
> in a book and start off right away. It comes more from experience, a sense 
> of aesthetics, a lot of observation power, among others. I just want some 
> like a heads-up for starting off in this field.
> 

surprisingly, the best way to do this, is to buy a calligraphy pen, and
google for getting started with calligraphy. practising calligraphy by
hand, with wet ink on your hands, teaches you all about the intangible
world of digital typography. don't worry if you are not good at
calligraphy. the point is to feel the flow in your hands.


> Also, is there a mailing list where general typesetting discussion takes place?
> 

i believe linux-delhi is in the process of setting up a creative mailing
list for such issues....

> Thanks,
>   Sandip


:-)
LL