Open Source DTP @ Scribus

9 months ago

Though the Desktop publishing is made popular by professional applications like Adobe Creative Suite3,Adobe Page Maker, Adobe InDesign & Quark, many people cannot opt them because of the high cost involved in using them. The only alternative in these conditions would be open source software and Scribus tops the list of best Open Source applications for Desktop Publishing. It was designed by the computer expert Franz skimid in the year 2001. The latest version of Scribus supports Linux, Windows and MAC

Installation:
--> Go to the downloads section on scribus.net and download Scribus that suits your Operating system.

--> To support Adobe postscript & PDF formats, first download "GhostScript" supporting software and install it.

--> While installing Scribus if you encounter a error that says:

"The following programs are missing:
GhostScript: you cannot use EPS images or postscript print preview."

just go to File-->Preferences and set the previously installed GhostScript software location.

The most interesting option worth noting in Scribus is the "Story Editor" with which you can type the text in your publication similar to a word processor. Scribus Story Editor also provides you with many word processing features like font-size, style, tracking, alignment etc. You can also create paragraph styles and much more...

Scribus users also get exclusive access to enthusiastic and friendly community that assists beginner and pro alike through their mailing list, IRC channel, wiki, contracted support, and the bugtracker.

Hope this helps...