[scribus] Question on editing fonts

[Gregory Pittman]

On 07/24/2011 10:28 AM, a.l.e wrote:
> hi deanna,
>
>> Now, I'm trying to rebuild the cover in Scribus (for fun, I guess).  I
>> can import the old ebook cover at 300 dpi, but the fonts are not as
>> crisp as they are when generated by Scribus.
>>
>> How can I manually tweak the fonts in Scribus to selectively fade
>> out/erase parts of the font?
>>
>> A picture of the ebook cover is here:
>> http://wonderlandpress.com/?p=199
>
> to  get it crispier:
>
> a/ for a cover 600 dpi may be better
> b/ use png / tif instead of jpg
> c/ in scribus, set the preview settings to "full resolution" (context menu on the image...)
>
> finally, gimp is not that bad for that work, inkscape could be not that bad either (if you want to do it vector based), but scribus is probably not the best tool for such an effect (mum told me, that i shall prepare my sources before starting working with scribus... :-)
>
a.l.e is probably right, but here is some additional commentary I would 
have:

1. you can consider incorporating Scribus in a workflow for this font. 
Example: make a custom page only big enough for the word(s) you wish to 
edit graphically, then export the page as a PNG (File > Export > Save as 
Image), minding that you give it a sizable DPI (like maybe 300), then 
import that to Gimp, where you will find a great many tools to achieve 
what you want, including using a transparent background. Then take it 
back to Scribus as an image for your cover.

2. Inkscape may work depending on what you do, but some of the very nice 
features of Inkscape may not be importable as an SVG (blur for one thing).

3. I have a bit of a hard time from your cover understanding what effect 
you are trying to achieve (i.e., what it is you wish to visually suggest 
to the reader that is happening to these letters). The fire below might 
suggest they could be "melting", yet some look like water is running 
over them, so they are dripping white ink/paint. Other parts of letters 
are punched out/flaked off (to simulate aging?), yet again, how does 
this connect with the fire?

What I hate to feel is the sense that someone has spent quite a bit of 
time producing something that in the end looks amateurish.

Greg