A Look At Scribus (Page 3)

Is the Interface Intuitive?

For the basics, yes. For some of the more advanced features, perhaps not so much.

Scribus’s interface will be familiar to those who have used QuarkXPress and InDesign in the past. There are tool bars (which initially are part of the window but which can be detached to create the feel of a QXP or ID interface), and the Properties palette combines quite a few features found in ID and QXP palettes and dialog boxes and can be kept open in the same manner as ID floaters. Switching between individual palettes is as easy as clicking on a title bar.

The essential workflow paradigm is also respected. Text goes into text frames, graphics into graphic frames. Things can be stacked atop other things, familiar things such as styles and master pages are available.

Like someone going from a QXP shop to an ID shop (or vice versa), one has to spend some time getting to know the program; some things are not in the same places, and some things are not in obvious places at all. For example, above where I attempted to find access to specify clipping paths, the title of the dialog, “Extended Image Properties”, didn’t immediately suggest to me that this is where I would find the clipping path list; moreover, it took a while to find (It turned out to be on the contextual menu or from the Item dropdown), and the online help was of no help in this case. Even when I had finally found this window and had selected the Paths tab it was kind of unclear what the palette did; its function had to be intuited, but once found, it was easy to use.

Kind of a super Measurment/Control Palette, the Properties Palette provides quick access to many functions.

As we’ve said before, the program is a work in progress and the interface shows these growing pains. Zooming and panning were touch and go; window-zooming operated randomly, making the safest way to pan and zoom clicking with the mouse and using the scroll bars. Some of the controls on the Properties palette were undependable; the Edit Color button wouldn’t open the corresponding dialog box; we had to get that one from the menu dropdown. A particularly frustrating problem in AuqaScribus’s Aqua skin in the current release is the inability to enter text in text boxes by any other method but the Story Editor (although it worked fine in the other skins).

Another irritating problem was the gradient ramps in the Color panel of the Properties palette. Gradient stops could be added to the ramp with a single click, but not a thing I could try would get rid of them once there. Anyone building a gradient would be advised to duplicate the color first.

This being said, the interface in AquaScribus is very polished and every skin included looks very good. There’s even a “Platinum” skin for those of us who fondly remember the OS 9 look, and a Windows-style skin as well. Our text-box problem has been referred to the Scribus team, and this may well be corrected in the next release.

Should you use Scribus?

Whether or not a layout artist should add Scribus to their repertoire depends on where they’re coming from and where their needs are. It is a pleasingly complete application that can be used to put together layouts–the Scribus team has done its homework about what a layout artist might need and is working to satisfy most of those needs.

As it stands the application still needs to develop before it could be used in production settings with which we are familiar. The output is fabulous but it is available in two forms only–PDF and the native Scribus document (.sla) style. While most service bureaux accept PDFs there is also the question of whether the documents produced by Scribus will fly with individual providers. In as much as it is unlikely (as far as we know currently) that your local bureau will have Scribus set up, they may be of little or no help in diagnosing problems, and they certainly wouldn’t be able to accept native .sla files. Support, while knowledgeable and friendly, is provided by volunteers, who may not be able to address concerns straight away.

Keep An Eye On Scribus

In its current stage of development we see Scribus as an application more suited to the needs of the independent designer or hobbyist who has a little more hackerly mojo than the standard end-user (and not a lot of cash to lay down on professional packages like QuarkXPress or InDesign).

This is not to say that Scribus is of poor quality: on the contrary, the production overall is quite polished, and when installed it seems to run with few problems. Rather we’d say that one who likes the open source alternative should keep their eyes on Scribus. It’s in a stage of development now that suggests that, as it nears maturity, with the passion and obvious devotion of the Scribus team, this could be the Open Source layout tool.