[Scribus] Mulatiple page print-out

[Peter Nermander]

> Just as a side note and if it can save coding time, the juxtaposition of 
> .pdf and .sla files into one imposition seems to me not /that/ necessary 
> since it is so easy to create a .pdf from a .sla file right into 
> Scribus. Unless I miss something!

You are just missing one small detail: Editing possibilities.

When importing from PDF you can not edit the content on the imposed sheet. If importing SLA you can do minor tweaking.

> Also, from the printer point of view, crop and fold marks can be reduced 
> to their simplest expression when you need to save paper (this happens 
> *all* the time). Nice long crop marks are sometimes reduced to something 
> as small as a dot on the real world printed sheet. When printing 
> digital, we also often only use a dummy sheet with a keyline that we use 
> to set the cutter. Of course, these keylines don't show on the printed 
> job. The same applies for dotted lines used to show a fold. A 
> hand-folded dummy is *always* a better solution and if a client doesn't 
> provide it, we will do it ourselves anyway.

Since with this proposal the imposition will be done just like any other page in Scribus crop and fold marks will just be a matter of drawing (or deleting) lines. So a script could draw those, and sample scripts be provided to let users tweak them into what they want.

> Registration marks are *not* needed for digital printing since no plates 
> are involved, no makeready, no adjustements on a per-job basis. The 
> machine has to be set properly and checked out regularly and for this it 
> has its own set of test pages with all the marks you can imagine.

Yes, but then again, registration marks and color bars are just a matter of drawing some stuff. It can easily be scripted.

> I said earlier in this discussion that imposition is a piece of its own. 
> It is *not* a simple task and most printers I know are actually asking 
> for single pages. They by far prefer to do the imposition according to 
> their specific setup.

As I see it, this solution will allow for creation of complex impositions, including adjustment for creep etc. Many things might not have to be done by the scripts, some things can be done manually since the finished imposition will be possible to save as a Scribus document. For a printer ususally only a few impositions are used since it depends on their press and folders.

/Peter