Oct
15
Scribus: open source DTP
Category: Noteworthy, Software |
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Today’s NftP was the first to be produced using Scribus, the free open source DTP package that supports SVG. I have been truly impressed at the power of this application and it truly seems to me that open source software has now come of age. NeoOffice 2 knocked MS Office 2004 off my Christmas list a short while ago. Now I can finally achieve professional quality page layout without spending vast sums of money.
A lot of open source software has previously been let down by poor documentation. Not Scribus. It already has enough documentation for me to make good use of it and this appears to have been written by a user rather than a programmer.
The two key differences between Scribus and its commercial counterparts appear to be speed and beauty. As with many open source applications, the icons could be a lot prettier and the program could run more quickly. Frankly, with the money that is saved by not buying commercial software, cheapskates like me could possibly afford to buy a faster machine (or more RAM).
Because the program fully supports SVG
, users can make good use of the Open Clip Art Library, a repository of mostly good quality public domain files. One oddity I discovered is that I get a far better end-result by creating a PDF before I print than by sending my work direct to the printer.
For those who are interested, the first open source NftP is available here for download as a 1 megabyte PDF.
