[Scribus] GIMP and the future of Open Source DTP

[Kai-Uwe Behrmann]

Am 06.02.06, 18:37 +0100 schrieb Tino Schwarze:

> Hi there,
> 
> On Mon, Feb 06, 2006 at 12:23:59PM -0500, Louis Desjardins wrote:
> 
> > This post might sound a bit "off-topic" but I think the following link 
> > http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/02/06/photoshop_on_linux/
> > is worth reading, and discussing.
> > 
> > In short: a growing number of people are demanding that Photoshop be 
> > ported on Linux. The GIMP, which apparently lacks Color Management and 
> > full CMYK support (although I understand there are plug-ins for that) is 
> > not yet suitable for pros.
> 
> Well, CMYK support is a long-standing item on the TODO list. And it will
> be done when they move to GEGL (which will bring support for all kinds
> of color spaces and color depths).
> 
> I'm also one of those waiting for a decent CMYK-supporting image app on

At least some teams are working on it. CinePaint is a "older" app 
supporting Cmyk. Next comes Krita to mind. With its Qt interface Krita 
is not so far from Scribus.

> Linux, but I'm not holding my breath. :-( I heard that cinepaint is
> supposed to support CMYK (in CVS at least) but last time I tried, it

Since version 0.19 CinePaint supports 16-bit cmyk editing. One can test, 
after installing CinePaint, by setting Scribus external editor to 
cinepaint-remote. CMYK images opened from Scribus look in CinePaint like 
in the Scribus window if the rendering is set accordingly.

> didn't work and the whole app feels so 90's. :-|

Well CinePaint had lot of bugs to fix before the last release. The 
actual 0.20 should be far more stable and is recommended. Just grab an 
rpm or dmg from sourceforge. 
To rework it, the interface is a bit out of scope for me as the last 
developer working on the old code base. 
At least I adapted some channel labels and implemented softproofing.
But the code rewrite called Glasgow is in development with a new graphics 
kernel and user interface.

Even though, new features are in development and available from CVS 
like a PDF import filter. Of course one can choose there between RGB or 
Cmyk as importing colour space.

regards
Kai-Uwe Behrmann
                                + development for color management 
                                + imaging / panoramas
                                + email: ku.b at gmx.de
                                + http://www.behrmann.name