[Scribus] Scribus suitability

[David Bleil]

It is with some trepadation I enter the cloud of invective on the merits of 
current DTP software I have been reading. However I feel that several points 
worth mentioning have been overlooked. 
One: It is improper to assign motive to the teached in question with out at 
the least giving that person the chance to explain themselves. As I former 
teacher I have observed that teachers i)try to know their students and their 
situations, ii)plan curricula which are optimal to their students and their 
situation. What may be optimal in a particular situation may not be apparant 
to someone on the other side of the Internet.

Two: There are users of Scribus who, like myself, are not professional 
designers, do not work at designing or publication as their profession and do 
not have a professional designer's budget. I use Scribus as I formerly used an 
ancient copy of Pagemaker to produce Newsletters, membership directories and 
similar materials for a small (100 members) sailing organization. This is an 
activity for which I am not paid. Many users such as myself do not need every 
possible bleeding edge capability. Scribus meets my needs perfectly. It 
produces predictable high quality results. When I place something it stays 
exactly where I put it. Try that with any Microsoft product and you will end 
up screaming at the screen as the document reformats itself to rules you can 
not control.

I look forward to Scribus 1.4.x even though I am sure it will contain features 
which I may never need but which I hope to learn how to use. Even if Scribus 
never displaces the commercial, feature dense DTP products it is a product of 
great value for those of us who have publications which we would like to 
produce as professionally as possible given that we are not publication 
professionals. For all those who have made Scribus possible and who continue 
to make it better--Thank you for all you do.


-- 
David Bleil
Catboat Sailor
from Crofton, MD