4 replies to this topic

[Tommo]

Hi

I recently came across a link to (new?) open source publishing software based on the same engine as Inkscape. The main difference was that this software was targeting print based end users as opposed to web based.

Shortly after I came across it, I was distracted and lost the link and the name. Can anybody help me out?

Thanks.

Tommo

[François Goulet]

Could that be Scribus?

[Tommo]

Could that be Scribus?

I think that was it. Has anybody used this in an open source workflow - production or hobby?

Also interested to hear if there are any open source projects similar to the Avenza products. I'd love to use them, but convincing the boss that they are commercially viable for a company that generally produces maps as appendices to reports is difficult. Not solely due to Avenza licensing costs, but the Adobe costs as well.

Tommo

[François Goulet]

Welcome to the club!

I've been trying to convince my bosses (we do the same kind of maps, for rapports) and showing them that we could gain a couple hours on each project is not enough... When clients accept a 10hrs quote (and to pay for it), doing it in 8 is not an argument... it means we "lose" 2hrs worth of salary (at least, that's my bosses point of vue).

[tonyw]

I think that was it. Has anybody used this in an open source workflow - production or hobby?
Tommo

Hi, I've used Scribus in a commercial setting to generate land use plans for one client and tour company brochures for a friend's business. Scribus is desktop publishing, all the parts of the final publication are best produced in other software. For instance, the land use plan had text composed in MS-Word (OpenOffice), photos edited in Paintshop Pro (Gimp), and maps created in Manifold (qGIS). I used commercial software but in (parenthesis) are open source alternatives. You'd use Scribus to layout your publication (think MS-Publisher) and wouldn't do anything like composing text in Scribus. It's not a word processor though you can do minor edits and write captions in Scribus. Anything more, go back to MS-Word/Open Office.

The results from Scribus can be sent to a printer or exported to PDF for web publication so it's not just print oriented. Scribus has "styles" so you can quickly change the font, text colour, etc. of headings, captions, body text, etc.