[scribus] Long book project in Scribus on 64 Studio

[Louis Desjardins]

Daniel James a écrit :
> Hi all,
> 
> I've long been a Scribus fan, using the program for short documents, of 
> only a few pages. Many years ago I used to lay out books using Quark.
> 
> Now I'm attempting to lay out a 300 page plus A5 book, all text and no 
> pictures. I'm using Scribus 1.3.3.12svn in our 64 Studio 2.1 distro 
> (Debian Etch based). I believe our 2.1 release was slightly before the 
> final Scribus 1.3.3.12 release, hence the package version number.
> 
> At the moment I'm up to about 90 pages, and navigation through the 
> document is already quite slow, for example after clicking in a text 
> frame. The page up and page down keys aren't always responsive either. 
> I'm running the software on a dual Opteron 240 with 1GB RAM, so the 
> hardware isn't particularly slow. Also, opening the document is very 
> slow, taking a minute or two.
> 
> I've already disabled all the fonts in Preferences -> Fonts except the 
> ones I'm using. Are there any other speed-up tips I could try?

Hi Daniel,

It’s not the machine, it’s the application!

Currently, it is better to cut this kind of project in smaller pieces. 
Otherwise, it will only get more and more frustrating and to a certain 
point it may become even worse than that. It is advisable to make 
sections of 20 to 30 pages to ease the tension on one of Scribus weakest 
point at the moment. Other than that, I would have no fear that Scribus 
can handle your project, provided you don’t have to deal with too many 
footnotes and index entries.

> I notice that each text frame is treated as a separate layer, even though 
> they don't overlap - perhaps that doesn't help.
> 
> I'd be very happy to document the process, to help other people working 
> on long book projects. I already have one tip...
> 
> When setting up page numbering in Edit > Master Pages, the Scribus 
> documentation 
> (http://documentation.scribus.net/index.php/Page_Numbering) suggests 
> using two hash characters for double-digit page numbers, and three 
> hashes for triple-digit page numbers. This would imply using different 
> master pages, depending on the page number in the project, which could 
> get complicated if you moved pages around the document. In fact, you can 
> use three hashes on all master pages, and Scribus will ignore the 
> redundant digits on pages 1 to 99.

I am not sure if the following bug has been fixed in the version you are 
using, 1.3.3.12 (I am using 1.3.3.10 on a Mac here). In any event, you 
can check the following behaviour: if your page numbers are left 
aligned, you can use this 3-digit technique and you won’t notice 
anything. When you center or right align your page numbers there will be 
alignment issues if you use the 3-digit technique throughout all pages. 
Scribus will ignore the redundant digits but will not ignore the 
position of those digits. Depending on your layout, this might prove to 
be more or less annoying, acceptable or not. The workaround is as per 
the documentation.

This seems to be fixed in the current development series as I can’t 
replicate this bug with 1.3.5svn.

> Note that typing a ordinary hash character into the box on the master 
> page does not work; you need to use Insert > Character > Page Number, or 
> the appropriate keyboard shortcut for your installation.
> 
> I can add this tip to the Scribus wiki if people think it's useful.

Sure! Go ahead!

Cheers!

Louis
> 
> Cheers!
> 
> Daniel