[Scribus] Open Source Software and Book Authors

Andrew S. Townley ast
Fri Dec 15 15:06:36 CET 2006


Or DocBook?  There are a few tools with GUI support out there or you can
always mark it up yourself and process it with open source tools...

On Fri, 2006-12-15 at 13:53, Nicholas Vettese wrote:
> What about using Latex? 
> 
> Nick
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: scribus-bounces at nashi.altmuehlnet.de 
> > [mailto:scribus-bounces at nashi.altmuehlnet.de] On Behalf Of wtb41
> > Sent: Friday, December 15, 2006 8:26 AM
> > To: scribus at nashi.altmuehlnet.de
> > Subject: [Scribus] Open Source Software and Book Authors
> > 
> > 
> > I have written a book containing no graphics (no pictures or 
> > charts); it has straight type, bulleted lists, numbered 
> > lists, and tables. I need the ability to automate the 
> > building of a table of contents and an index. In addition to 
> > the standard font for type, I need a font (expert set) 
> > providing small caps, ligatures, and oldstyle figures. I need 
> > to be able to produce a PDF with embedded fonts. I also need 
> > an option regarding subsetting of the embedded fonts (some 
> > book manufacturers want subsetting; others don't). 
> > 
> > As far as I know, the open-source community offers 2 
> > applications that might be used to meet my needs. They are 
> > (1) Scribus and (2) OpenOffice.org's Writer. Neither of these 
> > applications is feasible today. Here are the
> > reasons:
> > 
> > 1. Scribus cannot (a) automate the building of a table of 
> > contents and an index or (b) import tables. The procedures 
> > that have been sketched to me for getting tables (from 
> > another document) into a Scribus document are too onerous to 
> > be considered seriously (my book has many tables). So scratch 
> > Scribus off the list of feasible solutions.
> > 
> > 2. OpenOffice.org's Writer. I have encountered 2 major 
> > problems that almost surely are bugs within Writer. These 
> > problems are as follows:
> > 
> >      a. Writer's font menu. I bought 4 Windows Postscript 
> > fonts: (1) Adobe Garamond Regular, (2) Adobe Garamond, 
> > Italic, (3) Adobe Garamond, Bold, and
> > (4) Adobe Garamond Regular Expert. I got all 4 of these fonts 
> > working in Scribus simply by entering the path to the folder 
> > containing the font files (really simple). I installed the 
> > fonts into Microsoft Word (using the free ATM light), and all 
> > 4 fonts worked perfectly. The 4 fonts appeared on 3 lines in 
> > Word's font menu. One line serves the regular and italic 
> > styles, with italic (true italic) produced with the I (I for 
> > Italic) botton. A second font-menu line says, "AGaramond, 
> > Bold." It appears on a separate line because the family of 
> > fonts contains a semibold (which the B button produces). The 
> > third font-menu line says, "AGaramondExp." I have tried 
> > valiently to install the fonts in Writer, and each attempt 
> > has failed. I installed them first using the program called 
> > spadmin. When that did not work, I used KDE's Font Installer. 
> > I installed the fonts in the order listed above. Each of the 
> > first 3 fonts installed and worked fine until the expert set 
> > was installed. After its installation, the font menu still 
> > had only one line for the fonts, and now it produced only 
> > glyphs from the expert set. The first 3 fonts became 
> > inaccessible. I got that same result using both installers. 
> > It's clearly not a font problem (because they work perfectly 
> > in Scribus and Microsoft Word). Logic suggests an application 
> > problem, the application being Writer.
> > 
> >      b. Writer's PDF generator. I added small caps and 
> > oldstyle figures to my book's first chapter. I then used 
> > Writer's Export as PDF menu option to produce a PDF of the 
> > chapter. The PDF has multiple defects, all of which concern 
> > small caps. Each defect appears at first sight as tho a 
> > letter did not print (a missing-letter look). But upon close 
> > inspection, one sees that the letter is there (in the PDF), 
> > but it's misplaced. Example: Three letters should have 
> > appeared (in small caps) as IMO. Instead of that clean 
> > 3-letter appearance, the O prints over the M (the M and the O 
> > are superimposed). The PDF generator put the I; then it moved 
> > one space to the right, and put the M. It should have moved 
> > one more space to the right and put the O, but it didn't. It 
> > put the O in the same spot at the M (the M and the O are 
> > superimposed on one another). This error occurs 17 times in 6 
> > pages of text, but not every instance of small caps has this 
> > error. Example: page 2 has (in small caps) BTW, and each of 
> > the 3 letters is in its proper place. Then page
> > 6 has SST in small caps. Those 3 letters also are in their 
> > proper places.
> > Sometimes the misplaced letter is at the end of a string 
> > (such as IMO); other times it is in the interior of a string 
> > (as in GUIDE, where the I is misplaced to give the 
> > missing-letter look, as in GU  DE, with the I printed over 
> > the U and a blank space where the I should be.).
> > 
> > My work on Chapter 1 produced a series of 7 PDFs of that 
> > chapter. Each of the 7 contained the aforementioned defects; 
> > so it was not a one-time fluke.
> > The aforementioned defects--all involving small caps--could 
> > be due to (1) the font, (2) the PDF generator, or (3) the PDF 
> > viewer. The problem is not the font because it displays and 
> > prints perfectly in the OpenOffice Writer application. The 
> > problems first surfaced in the PDF. The problem is not the 
> > PDF viewer because I viewed it with 2 viewers [the one within 
> > Linux (KPDF) and Adobe Acrobat's Reader within Windows]. Both 
> > viewers showed these defects. I then printed a hard copy of 
> > page 6 from the PDF, and page 6's defects (those listed 
> > above) appeared on the hard copy. Ergo, the problem 
> > apparently lies with Writer's PDF generator.
> > 
> > I also should mention that Writer offers no option regarding 
> > the subsetting of fonts during the PDF-generating process. 
> > The PDF viewer (KPDF) that came with my Mepis 6.0 
> > distribution tells me that fonts are embedded in the PDF, but 
> > it does not tell me whether it subset them.
> > 
> > The bottom line: It appears as tho the open source community 
> > does not now offer an application that will meet my current 
> > needs regarding my book's publication. Your thoughts on the 
> > matter will be appreciated.
> > 
> > Bill Bailey
> > --
> > View this message in context: 
> > http://www.nabble.com/Open-Source-Software-and-Book-Authors-tf
> 2827027.html#a7891370
> > Sent from the Scribus mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
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> > 
> 
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-- 
Andrew S. Townley <ast at atownley.org>
http://atownley.org




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