Moaning about Scribus

[Rob Lang]

I'm laying out the next version of Icar in Scribus so that it is easy for people to download and remix. However, as soon as I try and get the text to join into text boxes, it hangs for a few minutes. I have 200 pages of this to go.

Anyone had a similar experience? Is Scribus the only option left?

[Onix]

I didn't get very far with Scribus. I used it to make the DrivethruRPG cover for Jump Temp but that's about it.

I was trying out Affinity Publisher which is in beta at the moment (Free!). I didn't have much success with it as it kept crashing. There are updates that I haven't downloaded yet that might help.

[Rob Lang]

Thanks mate. I'll give it a go. In a sense, I've not wasted a lot of time on it but I don't want to re-layout 3 books in it if it's not up to it. I might have to go back on my idea of open sourcing the game as the tools aren't there.

[kylesgames]

Scribus works really well for me, but I have a pretty hefty Windows machine and really good luck. For me there's a tiny little bit of a hang, but it lasts all of about three-to-four minutes.

One thing to consider is your workflow. When you're moving text over, are you making one text frame and then linking subsequent frames? That's a good way to avoid some issues, and it leaves the text in a semi-editable state (by the time you're in layout, you shouldn't be making major changes, but if you change something that overflows a line on one page but fits neatly on the following page it's a lifesaver).

I've found that it takes a while, but you can also do an import, which I do from .odt. I was really pleasantly surprised by how much it inherits (styles, page-breaks, and so forth), though it's a shame that it won't handle some advanced features like TOC elements.

[Rob Lang]