[scribus] New Linux User -- Scribus in place of Page Maker 6?

[Frank Swygert]

My main "product" is a "fanzine" that averages 22-24 pages and usually has a lot of photos (old cars... d/l the 8 page sample PDF from the link in my sig or drop me an e-mail and I'll send a full copy as a PDF file if anyone's that interested).  I don't do layers. I mostly print in a two column format with pics interspersed through out. I don't flow text around pics, I change the size of the text boxes to go around them. I find that easier to do and much easier on editing. Changing text size, font, etc., might lead to a slight adjustment of text box size, but flow still works right... in PM6 anyway. The pics are embedded in the document, so the PDf file might be 5 mb one issue, 13 mb the next -- depending on number and size of pics. I generally keep resolution to no more than 200 dpi, though 150 dpi is generally enough for a 1200 dpi laser printer (I like to have a little leeway in case I need to make a pic a bit larger, that's why I usually leave it 200 dpi). Pics are edited with Corel PhotoPaint now, I don't need anything as complicated/powerful as Adobe PhotoShop. The GIMP will probably be overkill. 

I sometimes work on a full 200-300 page book. If Scribus works well with the magazine I can deal with breaking the book into chapters then merging PDFs with other tools. 

The bottom line is I know Scribus isn't the only DTP program out there for Linux. I'm considering PageStream also. It sounds like PgS is what I probably need, but I'll give Scribus a test drive along with the PgS demo (which has some feature limitations... couldn't find out what -- might not save or print, or be limited to one or a few pages). Since I'm not doing anything complicated, Scribus might have the features I need. When I print in color it's not through separations, but straight to a color laser. Someone more into professional DTP than I probably wouldn't be satisfied with it, and I may not be, but will give it a try anyway. I'm not in a hurry to switch, I could go on using PM6 for another 10 years as long as it functions on the hardware I have! 


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Date: Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:09:29 +0200
From: JLuc <jluc at no-log.org>

From my perspective, Scribus is not usable :

Stable version runs slow with midly large documents,
crashes more than wished,  proposes a couple of buged basic features
and a cripled usablity.

This being said, Scribus is very ok and powerfull for most basic works
(like a single page with text and images but not too many layers)
or for experts being pleased to slalom between bugs and external tools.

-- 
Frank Swygert
Publisher, "American Motors Cars" 
Magazine (AMC)
For all AMC enthusiasts
http://farna.home.att.net/AMC.html
(free download available!)