subject: Scribus 1 3 5 Beginners Guide - Book Review [print this page] Scribus 1 3 5 Beginners Guide - Book Review
Version 1.3.5 Doesnt Exist
The first thing to point out is that there *is* no Scribus version 1.3.5!
Download version 1.4.
At the time of writing, 1.4 is a release candidate - a version which is still being tested but should be pretty much OK. The latest stable version is currently 1.3.3.14 (but it doesnt match the book) and the development version is 1.5.0 (dont even go there unless you understand what Subversion means in a programming context)..
Quality of Writing
The author is French and the English has a French accent! E.g. chapter 1, first sentence: "If you are reading this book, you have surely decided to use a new software called Scribus." A software? Its the French (un logiciel) translated word for word into English.
The occasional sentence seems a bit laboured and difficult to follow. Maybe Im just thick (no emails please), but
"...why Scribus? Is it because you dont need to spend a penny for what InDesign is worth based on a human month of work?"
doesnt make a lot of sense to me. He probably means Why Scribus? Because its free, thats why!
The problem is that, as a reader, you lose the momentum and forget what the author was on about while you re-read one sentence a few times, trying to make sense of it.
Anyway, its not all quite as obtuse as that. 2 instead of 2 on a cover page image doesnt affect your understanding at all. Ive used Scribus a little, but Im pretty much a raw beginner so my comments are from that perspective and not as an experienced user.
So dont get me wrong, its mostly well-written and grammatically correct, just not always, and some of it is just style. Even where there are grammatical errors, its usually understandable, it just sometimes knocks you out of your rhythm. I think you need to be aware, though.
The Books Structure
Chapter 1 - Getting Started with Scribus
Starts off a little confusingly for a beginner like myself. The author rather assumes that you know what otherapplications like Inkscape and sk1 do.
"Begin with papers and color pencils. Work at 100% scale. So if you use a special paper size, get it cut if needed. Once youve found something nice, plug yourcomputerin and launch Inkscape, which will be a more practical, reactive tool to go deeper into the details. Youll then get a mockup"
Thats it. Thats all the explanation you get. Paper and pencils I have experience with. But theres no explanation of what or how to do anything with Inkscape.
But then we get to what I wanted to see - how to put something on a page.
But the instructions arent precise and accurate. You can deal with
Drag the mouse to the right-hand side and the bottom of the page so that the new label information of the width and height tooltips read 70, and release
it should read Drag the mouse towards... but
Get thephoto of your beloved (whoever or whatever it is) by pressing Ctrl + D.
doesnt work. Ctrl+D duplicates the selected item in version 1.4 and is Get Text in version 1.3.3 so that threw me for a while (its Ctrl+I or right click and choose Get Image).
Surely someone should have checked this - or is there (was there?) a version 1.3.5 that did it all this way but now its gone? Or is it Ctrl+D in the French version (if there is one)? Or different in Linux (Im usingWindows)? Who knows.
The chapter then goes on to setting preferences, something you might well come back to when you know what you are doing and know what preferences you want!
Chapter 2 - Creating a First Layout
We start off with how to create a newdocument (something you must have worked out already or you cant follow the examples in Chapter 1). Were making abusiness card.
Again, I had problems: with the logo, I didnt have an appropriate vector file to import and had to search the web for one. Your average email-and-Word user would be stuck at this point.
The author states:
The little square at the bottom right of the Text Frame indicates that the content is fully displayed.
whereas in my version, at least, it seems to indicate that *not* all the text is displayed
At one point you are asked to Click on the "bucket fill" button - its not a text button saying Bucket Fill so an image (or at least some indication) of what youre looking for would be useful. You are asked to Click on the color named FromSVG#FF8080 - there isnt one because I imported an EPS file, not an SVG file and it doesnt have #FF8080 in it either. So you just pick any old colour, but its a problem that shouldnt be there. It would throw a novice user for a while.
Chapter 3 - Mastering Pages
Tells you how to create multiple-pagedocuments, navigate, create, move, and delete pages, introduces master pages and other page-related stuff.
More annoying errors, though - Set the page number to 8 when what is meant is Set the number of pages to 8 for example. I dont blame the author - his English is better than my French, thats for sure, and thats a translation problem - but this should have been picked up in the publishing process somewhere. (Sorry Packt, but its true!)
Ill stop mentioning these from now on, but its a constant problem in the book. None of them are insurmountable if you are used to computers but if youre not, then youll probably have problems. Ive taught people how to usecomputersoftware in my time, and I dont believe that (lets call them) Level 1 users (who can surf the net, use email, save and look atdigital photos, write and print Worddocuments, but not much more) would cope with a jump from:
1. In the File menu choose File | Import | Get Vector File.
to
2. Thecursor has now been changed
without a problem because theres no explanation of how to choose the file and open it, and your average user wont have any vector files and wont know where to get one from or even what it is.
This book calls itself a beginners guide but it makes assumptions I feel it shouldnt. A Level 1 user probably wants to create and print a newsletter with a few photos of Prize-Giving day or whatever. I cant help feeling that this would be a better book if it were organised into a number of sections of increasing complexity. When the reader wants to know how to do something more technical, they read on.
Chapter 4 - Using Text in Scribus
Here you get to find out more about text frames, how to link them (so text flows from one place to another, for example, from page 1 to the frame that continues on page 7 so you can edit text and it all automatically adjusts itself.
Chapter 5 - Formatting Your Text
Character and paragraph properties, fonts and styles.
Chapter 6 - Special Frames for Complex Content Management
Tables, data from spreadsheets, frames within frames, and LaTeX (adocumentmarkup system akin to HTML if that means anything to you).
Chapter 7 - Drawing Advanced Frames and Shapes
How to turn text into images so you can manipulate it distort it, and lots of other cool things.
Chapter 8 - Importing Images
Importing, laying out and generally playing about with images, and (finally!) an explanation of what EPS, SVG, and other formats are all about.
Chapter 9 - Applying and Managing Color
Colours, gradients, patterns, transparency and the rest.
Chapter 10 - Print Your Layout
Now I know its the last thing you do, but shouldnt Chapter 1 have let you create a simple text-plus-a-picture-or-twodocumentand print it so you get some kind of feeling that you can actually do something? There isnt a decentcomputerprogramming book in the world that doesnt let you print Hello World before youre half way through the first chapter.
But anyway, you get told how to print right here in the penultimate chapter.
Chapter 11 - Customizing the Creation or Viewing Process
Pretty much beyond what the average user will want to do - writing Python scripts, changing the Scribussource code - too complicated for your an ordinary printer* to consider learning, but it can be done, so it might have deserved a place in the book if the title didnt have beginner in it.
* By Printer I mean someone who prints stuff (as opposed to a machine which uses ink which, millilitre for millilitre, is priced at over 1000 time the cost of vintage Champagne.)
Summary
It has its faults, but it doesnt stop it being a useful resource.
It doesnt always read well, and there are errors in the examples. Its a personal preference, but Id like to see a series of sections each tackling an increasingly more complex project, building on what has gone before, and explaining enough to take the reader to the next level and letting them achieve something each time.
If you come from a print background, you should have no trouble at all. If you have a computer background, youll be OK. I feel, though, that someone who has only used Outlook Express, Word and Picassa, and who wants to make a simple newsletter would not have an easy time of it.
But with those reservations, Id recommend it. It *will* teach you how to use Scribus.
