On Thursday 01 April 2004 06:09 am, John Pettigrew wrote:
In a previous message, "Carlos E. R." <robin1.listas@tiscali.es> wrote:
tell me why I should use it instead of, say, OO or LyX. Sell it to me :-)
If you've never noticed the shortcomings of OOo or similar apps then you don't need it.
The advantage of proper page-layout apps is the total control they give you over exactly where and how the text and graphics are displayed on the page. The best also excel as content-creation apps but some are really only for laying out pre-existing content (as you mentioned). Unfortunately, Scribus is nowhere near the required standard yet - it's getting there but is a long way off, with many crucial features completely absent.
The best page-layout software I've seen for linux is Pagestream, which is very capable if a little idiosyncratic. Unfortunately, it's commercial (although there's a good demo available).
John ==============
Sounds like you have not used a recent version of Scribus, John, as Scribus is very good and much closer to the standard than PageStream on Linux presently. I've used both or used Scribus and tried to use PageStream, I should say. PgS can't match the PDF output of Scribus, plus many other features. The developer of PgS doesn't have the Linux knowledge the Scribus guys do and it shows in the present state of PgS. That's sad too, because on the Amiga computer PgS was a top desktop publishing contender with anything out there, but on Linux it's not even in the game yet. I used PgS extensively on the Amiga computer, but it's sadly disappointing for Linux and hardly worth $149 in it's present state. For Carlos, you need to catch up with the times. Scribus provides you with a simple, clean interface for page layout with many features, including SVG support, color separation & PDF output to take to commercial offset printing companies. As John points out, the control it gives the user in putting together everything from a single page to a book or PDF presentation is unmatched and Scribus gives you that, right now! It's worth a look, if you need or do much of this type of work. Many have been waiting for a good DTP program for Linux to yet have another excuse to break from those other operating systems and Scribus gives you that. ;o) Lee -- --- KMail v1.6.1 --- SuSE Linux Pro v9.0 --- Registered Linux User #225206 On any other day, that might seem strange...