Scribus
Scribus is one of the best FOSS (Free and open source software) products I have found. This is a powerful and flexible desktop publishing tools for Windows, mac and Linux operating systems.
There blurb sums it up:
“Scribus is an open-source program that brings award-winning professional page layout to Linux/Unix, MacOS X, OS/2 and Windows desktops with a combination of “press-ready” output and new approaches to page layout. Underneath the modern and user friendly interface, Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as CMYK color, separations, ICC color management and versatile PDF creation. ”
But this isn’t why I am such a fan. I like it because it does what its told. There are several DTP tools that are commonly used that almost have ESP, as they anticipate your every move and format text and images accordingly. Unfortunately their ESP is flawed and the end result is frustration. Scribus does not do this it does what its told, it does not change font size or reformat boxes, its doesn’t hyphenate or run text between columns.
Its simple, straight forward and free. It is also well supported by a vibrant community too. This is an excellent low TOC (Total cost of ownership) tool and provides a sutable alternative for Microsoft Publisher
1 Comment Already
February 14, 2009 at 9:47 am Permalink
At the bottom of the page on the AFS website (above) you can see how Scribus gave us a way to embed our entire “Orientation Handbook for Youth Exchange Programs” right on our site where our volunteers could use it. This book had been out of print for many years, and we had the copyright to it, but no good way to reprint or distribute it ourselves. There were still many good ideas in it, but the book was a bit dated. This provided a no-cost solution that from start to finish was just a few months waiting time. And we got the book back as well.