Episode 077
Episode 077 – Desktop Publishing
by heathenx
In this screencast I will illustrate some functionality in Inscape 0.46 for desktop publishing.
Announcement:
I don’t really want to hijack episode 077 with something unrelated but I’m going to anyway. Richard Querin and I have made a new section at the Screencasters called Microsodes. Check it out. 
Tags: desktop publishing
December 10th, 2008 at 9:01 am
Well, it is nice to know that in emergy situation, you can do a Simple PDF with Inkscape. I would use Scribus, a real Desktop Publishing application for that thing. Usually I do text with OpenOffice.org, graphics with GIMP and Scribus and then bring them to Scribus for layout and building a PDF what goes to print/online.
December 10th, 2008 at 9:20 am
@Fri13
Yeah, for the complex stuff I would definitely use Scribus. I use InDesign at work rather often since our advert agency uses it. We share stuff so it’s nice not having to convert documents. However, InDesign is not cheap. Scribus works well for my personal stuff.
If Inkscape had text styles and just a few other things then I could see myself using it more. Inkscape is perfectly fine for brochure design. I’ve mocked up several things with it.
December 10th, 2008 at 10:52 am
I had never tried the Text-> Flow into Frame thing before. Neat!
Now I can do that Cooking in the Nude newsletter I’ve been wanting to publish. I’m a big proponent of bacon-free recipes however.
December 10th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
I enjoyed the example of using Inkscape to mock up things like DP pages.
Although I\\\’ve only viewed one, I bet the \\"miceosode\\" idea turns out to be extremely well received. A brilliancy, maybe even!
I do notice that downloading plus vlc works [much] better on my Linux box. I wonder if it might be possible to put a download link to the .flv right in the blurb, because it turns out quite awkward to get to and use the save-as dialog. I think there may be some serious javascript incompatibility in my [Opera] browser? Anyway, a separate link would save me and perhaps others some minutes as well as some frustration.
Regards,
..jim
December 10th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
@James G Sack (jim)
Yes, it was awkward. I didn’t even like it. See http://screencasters.heathenx.org/microsodes for updated look.
December 10th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Thank you so much!
I just finished a new version of a brochure I made with Inkscape – and to think I did all my fitting-text-into-space by hand, including kerning! I feel so stupid now that I know I could\’ve used Text-> Flow into Frame
(I briefly tried Scribus, but have never used any DTP program before, so I thought I stick to Inkscape.)
Well, I learned a valuable lesson, so thank you again and keep up the good work!!!
You guys rock, seriously!
December 11th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
LOL @ Richard re: Cooking in the Nude newsletter. I would submit an article around doughnut making but I’m still healing… I learned you have to make the holes before you put them in the oil… and you need to watch out for splashing oil… OUCH
Gr8 work guys!
December 11th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Ha! That reminds me of a Trailer Park Boys episode where Randy is cooking burgers on the grill and grease splatters on his belly. Friggin’ grease!
December 11th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
@Flow into Frame…
Just a warning that I feel should be stated, don\’t expect to view the results in any other svg viewer (eg, you get black boxes in Firefox instead of text!)
This is for 2 reasons
1) It’s not valid SVG 1.1, but from a draft SVG 1.2
2) It’s no longer in that draft (well, has changed how it works in newer versions)
see http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/FAQ#Are_Inkscape.27s_SVG_documents_valid_SVG.3F
for more details. Still useful, but defiantly not portable
December 11th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
@tomh
Thanks for information regarding the svg spec.
Really though, a project like this should be exported into a 300dpi png file or a pdf when completed. Those serve as your “portable” documents and your printable ones. The svg serves as your master document. Inkscape isn’t a traditional DP so one has to make do with what is offered.
December 12th, 2008 at 9:20 am
Many thanks for this episode, I also never had used flow text into frame before, this will prove very useful, even if in just website mockups….
I’m finding myself using inkscape more and more for this porpuse, i love the workflow in this program, very easy to work with, and yes, thanks to the screencasters’ screencasts I am much better at it!
<3 u guys! Keep doing the great job you do!
P.S. just discovered the microsodes section… never foudn out about it because i keep up to date with this website through RSS, any chance of geting those posts to also show up in the feed? I will checkout those during this week, many thanks!
December 12th, 2008 at 9:50 am
@tomh
to view the results in other svg viewer, once you have given the shape to your text with Flow into frame, select all your text and Menu Text>Convert to text, the text will be set back to normal text keeping the shape given by flow into frame.
great screencasts, very usefull!
December 12th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
@Manuel – While Heathenx have not explicitly discussed this, I think we will just post about each new microsode in the blog feed. While the microsode will not be attached, you could at least be notified of any new ones by subscribing to that feed (what do you mean you’re not already!!)
Remember, I’m talking about our blog feed (http://screencasters.heathenx.org/blog/feed/) not our main episode feed.
RQ
December 12th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
@ Richard – Oh indeed – I was using the feed for the episodes http://screencasters.heathenx.org/feed/ only. I’ll subscribe to the blog feed, but i will stil use the ep feed casue its easier for me to dl the files with it
– thanks for the clarification!
December 12th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
@Manuel – no.. definitely you want to stay subscribed to the episode feed. I just wanted to point out that the blog feed is there too and not that many people know about or subscribe to it. You should definitely subscribe to both and not one over the other.
RQ
December 14th, 2008 at 9:13 am
@Manuel
We have constructed a very simple RSS feed for the microsode page. If you navigate there and click on the RSS feed icon in the address bar of your browser you’ll notice a second feed. One is the episode feed and the other is the newly created microsode feed. You may subscribe to that.
The feed is very simple looking. Just a description, link back to the website and the flv download.
December 15th, 2008 at 5:32 am
Thanks a ton guys!!! you are the best!
I’ll keep my subscription to all three feeds, since the blog posts are also interesting anyway. I just downloaded the last microsode through the feed, and it works great, thanks again!
December 20th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
I have recently prepared an advertisement/anouncement for me and my girlfriend. I prepared it because we make some translations (like articles, homeworks, etc) to earn some money. At first I thought it was a bad idea to prepare a one-page simpe ad with Inkscape (instead of openoffice, some basic text editor) but it turns to be good. It was really fun. Then I saw you guys prepared this video. Thank you, Inkscape is really useful for nearly everything.