[scribus] font on top of ISBN barcode

[Gregory Pittman]

On 09/08/2017 01:44 PM, scrib at wexfordpress.com wrote:
>   
>   Scribus 1.5.3 does a fine job of creating an ISBN barcode block. However
> the human readable text on the top of the barcode is very faint on my
> computer. I would like to write this line in OCR-A font. I can of course
> overlay this line of text with a text block but I am looking for a more
> general solution. What works for me may not be convenient for other people
> when I write my book about Scribus bookcovers.
>    
>    
>
Hi John,

This font is built in to the barcode generator plugin, and so unless you 
know how to edit that, I don't think you can change it. Certainly there 
is no option to change it in the dialog that comes up.

I managed to write a python script that generates a Code 39 barcode:
https://wiki.scribus.net/canvas/Generating_a_Code39_Barcode

This required looking up the requirements for the code, such as the 
width of lines and spaces, things like starting and ending features, and 
so on, as well as the sequence of lines and spaces to denote various 
numbers.

With the complexity of the ISBN barcode, I would suggest directly 
editing the numbers. What you get out of Barcode generator is I think a 
PS structure, or a grouped vector graphic. If you ungroup twice you get 
down to the basic elements, the individual glyphs for the numbers and 
individual lines. Where you might speed up the editing would be to write 
a script to generate the numbers in the font and font size of your 
choice into a text frame for placement as desired.

Greg