Javascript and PDF § Document Index § Part 2

Optimizing Your Linux Workstation for Scribus and DTP


This section is based on the author's experience attempting (sometimes frustrating) to optimize Red Hat 7.x for DTP layout and printing to work with Scribus since version 0.3.7. Plus, I hope to an overview on working with other applicattions to support your DTP efforts with the prgrams like GIMP, Sketch, Sodipodi, as well as commercial programs like Cameleo, the Corel Linux applications and testing Artstream, a vector editor migrated from SGI's Irix. This essay will also include many hints and concepts for Linux users who have migrated from Windows or the Mac platform like me. The objective is to ensure your workstation is setup for maximum DTP quality and interspersed are some tips for preparing files for output for the highest quality possible in an office setting or for later output at a commercial printer.

The future of DTP on Linux has much promise. As Scribus has now attained one important measure of file quality: 100% compliant ISO Standard PDF/X-3 PDF's. Moreover, I have been very impressed with the progress and improving quality of GIMP, Sketch and Ghostscript and Sodipodi. As all of the these applications continue to be refined, users will have excellent tools to do layouts and publications.

Some of these suggestions may or may not apply depending on the vintage of your particular distribution, but will give you things to consider when using Linux as a publishing platform. Moreover, working within a pre-press or professional printing environment will sometimes necessitate working with closed source programs owning to patents or copyright protections.

Linux for Desktop Publishing ?

Scribus and some Linux applications have many, if not most, of the ingredients for producing publications for several purposes; web, internal corporate presentations, brochures or in preparation for commercial reproduction. As more and more service bureaus and printers can handle high resolution v.1.3 & v. 1.4 PDF, the excellent support for PDF with Scribus means platform compatibility is a non-issue. Moreover, Scribus from every test I have made using commercial and expensive pre-press pre-flight applications,exports robust PDF's and reliable postscript and EPS files. In my own small business, I have produced training manuals for DTP users of commericial DTP applications. Why? Because, I find it is more efficient to use and the PDF quality is superb.

The other good news is many of the subsystems of Linux and open source Unixes are becoming much more adept at serving the needs of What You See Is What You Really Will Get on the Paper. The continuing improvements in Xfree86 4.x have helped. The newest Freetype rendering libraries now have an auto hinter so, on screen font quality will contiue to improve. On screen rendering with good Type 1 and True Type fonts is getting much nearer to the quality of the the closed PC platforms. The new fontconfig mechanism in RH 8 and XFree86 4.3 will make font management much easier in the future.

One of the great strengths of Linux and its UNIX cousins is the robust and mature support for Postscript - the lingua franca of professional and commercial printing. The 7.x versions of Ghostscript remove some of the previous limitations to working with CMYK images, specifically icc profile support and better True Type handling. The newest AFPL Ghostscript 8.0 has spot color support for up to 8 separate plates. As a comparison, Pagemaker 7 comes with the Pantone Hexachrome Hi Fidelity color libraries which only have six color capabilitiy. Scribus is the exact type of program which will benefit and push the need for these ongoing developments. The coders who are working on these important bits of Linux deserve our appreciation.

Historically, Sun and other proprietary Unixes have been relied upon to do the heavy lifting duty in the back end of commercial pre-press. Taking a look at available higher end RIP's Raster Image Processors, which are used in commerical pre-press, you will find a number of solutions which almost uniformly have been been proprietary UNIX based. Reliability is extremely important in the commercial press industry. Some newer RIP's are based on Windows NT, but not until recently. Linux is making great strides in this area too. One leading company, Dalim has ported almost their entire line of pre-press work flow applications to Linux.


Javascript and PDF § Document Index § Part 2