[Tfug] Desktop Publishing Software

[Bexley Hall]

Hi,

--- Claude Rubinson <rubinson at u.arizona.edu> wrote:

> So, I come asking for recommendations on appropriate
> software for the
> task.  This is completely new territory for me, so
> I'm not even sure
> what questions to ask.  I think that I've opened
> Scribus once but that's about it.
> 
> In descending order of desire, I'm looking for
> something that has the
> following characteristics.  But, in general, any
> pointers, tips,
> suggestions or recommendations would be great.
> 
> - A solid f/oss project that will be around for a
> while.  If I'm going
>   to invest my time in learning a new software
> package, I want to know
>   that it's not going belly up.  I tend to have more
> faith in packages
>   that have been around a while.

I write a *lot*.  E.g., specifications, proposals,
etc.  I even "take notes" using DTP (notes scribbled
on Post-Its tend to disappear.  Notes written on
sheets of *paper* get all wrinkled... and THEN
disappear!  Notes laid out "professionally" tend to
get actively *preserved*  :>   "Know thyself"  :>  )

Unfortunately, this req kills my all-time-favorite:
FrameMaker.  Definitely not free but the quality
of documents that I *quickly* get from it has
me sold on it regardless of what the OSS world
comes up with.  Ventura *was* a better product until
Corel dicked with it and made all of the nice ASCII
files "proprietary" (before that, you could write
scripts to mangle the hell out of your publication
at will)

Unlike most folks, I pick a tool/version and stick
with it "for a long time" -- "updates be damned"!
FrameMaker has proven to be pretty robust for me.
There are some pathological layout cases where it
comes up with some unfortunate choices (e.g., a
wide graphic spanning all columns *close* to the end
of a page...) but you can usually kick it a little
by adjusting orphans/widows to get what you want.

Or, if you are NOT a purist, resort to manually 
inserting directives to force next column/page/etc.

> - Something graphical.  I know that may seem odd
> coming from me but my
>   limited aesthetic sensibility suggests that I'll
> do better if I can
>   actually see the results immediately.
> 
> - Good documentation and/or responsive user-base.  I
> want to be able
>   to get good answers when I go looking for them.

I've never *had* to ask a question about FrameMaker.
It's just *that* intuitive (at least "to an engineer"
:>  )
 
> - Preferably, something that has a decent Windows
> and/or Mac port.  I don't
>   expect that I'll be editing this newsletter for
> too long and it
>   would be great if whoever takes over didn't have
> to reinvent the
>   wheel.
> 
> - If it were scriptable, that would be great.  It
> may be the case that
>   we might want to move some of this material onto
> our website at some
>   point in the future.  I would be great if we could
> write a script
>   that would automatically generate the newsletter
> for people who
>   prefer to receive a hardcopy.
> 
> I appreciate any help or direction!

If you're interested in seeing the types of things
it hacks together for me, I can send you a PDF...

Good luck!
--don

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