[Scribus] Scribus / XaraLX files

[frank gaude']

Craig Ringer wrote:
> frank gaude' wrote:
>
>   
>> I use Scribus and the developers did say they plan on being able to 
>> import .xra files one of these days.
>>     
>
> Hopefully it wont't be necessary to really "import"" them natively. 
> Ideally the Xara application can be used to handle the document its 
> self, feeding Scribus data in useful formats transparently to the user. 
> When you import a Xara file, it'd just ask Xara to render the preview ; 
> when you then output to PDF, it'd ask Xara to do a high res raster 
> render for Scribus to include (or maybe later a PDF indirect object that 
> Scribus could reference).
>
> The Xara format is really capable, and Xara has to flatten parts of its 
> output when sending to PDF (for example) because its document model can 
> do things PDF can not. It'd be rather counterproductive to try to 
> implement all the Xara facilities natively in Scribus, surely, so I tend 
> to see using Xara to handle its own format as a much better alternative.
>
> It'd be interesting to take the same approach with other apps, but it 
> only seems viable for OSS apps where there's a fair chance they can be 
> safely shipped with Scribus or depended upon by it or a plugin (think 
> `$YOUR_PACKAGE_MANAGER install scribus-xar-support' pulling in Xara LX 
> automatically). Additionally, the ability to work together to establish 
> good interfaces for the apps is unlikely to be available for many other 
> apps.
>   
Thanks, Craig. From Charles Moir, Xara Ltd., re this subject:

" CDraw on its own doesn't help create a stand-alone browser, as it's 
just the really low level, and very dumb, rendering engine. In order to 
create a stand-alone renderer that can take .xar files we need a much 
larger chunk of Xara Xtreme LX. However we do hope to create exactly 
this at some point. i.e. a simple library that can render .xar files, 
that could then be used by third parties for a number of things, such as 
browser plug-in, or stand-alone file viewer."

frank