RE: my magazine project
You could release some Perl script which as an argument loads a file you reformat as you wish then writes text using PCS. Take a look at /usr/lib/gimp/x.x/plug-ins/*.pl Regards, Fabian -Message d'origine- De : Michael K. Nacos [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Envoyé : mardi 23 mai 2000 15:20 À : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Objet : my magazine project Hello everybody, my project is the production of a small school magazine. I'd like to make it look good. Previous versions of the magazine were done in Microsoft Word (eek!) :-) It's not the graphics bit that worries me, I don't have much exprerience but I've read the manual and I like to experiment. What I'm looking for is ideas on arranging text. I suppose I could get text rendered on different layers, then move them about until I get a decent result. BUT: GDyntext doesn't seem to Justify the paragraphs it produces. (I'd like to get left-aligned text without the jazzy edges of text produced by lines of variable length) I've inserted text by means of a PostScript (groff made) file before, but I've re-installed Linux since and last night it refused to work (file displayed fine in gv). Is there potential down this path? Assuming I solve the problem of rendering text from txt files in a way that allows me to freely arrange the text on a page, could I then make the edge of a paragraph wrap around something I've drawn? Any help will be appreciated. Thanx in advance. Michael Get your FREE Email at http://mailcity.lycos.com Get your PERSONALIZED START PAGE at http://my.lycos.com
Re: my magazine project (more)
You wrote on Die, 23 Mai 2000: > my magazine project is a one-off thing, as it gets published once per > year, so I don't mind a bit of extra effort. > > plus, I'd rather do it in Gimp, if it can be done, so that I learn one > or two things in the process. You can learn a lot in this process -- first of all, that gimp is not the tool you really want to use for anything like typesetting. Think about your final magazine going to print: each page has to be made in the final resolution! A simple grayscale A4 page (210x297 mm^2) is 33,2 MByte and in RGB 99.6 MB ... And not to say: dynamic text is not able to use different fonts at once. Gimp is very good for the illustration, making and working with scanned and photographed pictures. So you really _want_ to choose another program for layouting!!! There are some alternatives (for linux): o (La)TeX as already suggested. But this is only cappable of making text in one direction -- no (easy) turning of paragraphs. But if you want some booklike layout it is very good at producing high quality output. Things that are "brandnew" for Indesign are there in TeX for millions of years ;-) o there is a modern alternative to LaTeX: ConTeXt http://www.pragma-ade.nl/ look at the examples and the up-to-date! It has a lot of features in the core that are available as extra modules in LaTeX and it has tremendous pdf capabilities. o there is a very good frontend for LaTeX: LyX (and KLyX for KDE) that is very good if you don't want to turn every knob yourself ;-) o from all what I have seen, the new KWord (from the beta KDE 1.1.90) is very promising -- though it is very near to word ... http://www.kde.org o Adobe has made a version of framemaker for Linux that is available as beta that expires at the end of this year. http://www.adobe.com (and http://freshmeat.net) o Deneba also has made a beta version of their Canvas 7 available for linux. For me it is to slow (Winchip 200) but maybe your system runs faster ... http://www.deneba.com (and http://freshmeat.net) o there are a great number of utilities to create high quality output in a number of formats: - lout - htmldoc - docbook is an sgml class for writing (hand)books look at http://freshmeat.net for the exact location for all this layout programs you can use to make very good pictures (maybe for vector illustrations you may use xfig, sketch or killustrator. Hope this will help you Uwe -- mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://rcswww.urz.tu-dresden.de/~koloska/ ---- right now the web page is in german only but this will change as time goes by ;-)
Re: my magazine project
On Tue, May 23, 2000 at 04:10:45PM +0100, Olivier Lecarme <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >>>>> Regarding Re: my magazine project; Mike Markowski <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> adds: > > MM> With TeX, you can > MM> create paragraphs in the shape of circles and that sort of thing. But > MM> fair warning - it takes a good bit of effort to learn! > > It is no longer necessary to use TeX in order to be able to make all the > fancities you can imagine. Using LaTeX, you can create heart-shaped > paragraphs if you mind, ... That's right, I forgot... For the original poster, "The LaTeX Companion" by Goosens, Mittelbach, and Samarin, page 54, describes the "shapepar" (shaped paragraph) package for LaTeX. That's probably a good way to get the shaped paragraphs that you want. Olivier is right that that's the better approach, rather than tackling TeX. Ignore my previously posted recommendation! :-P Mike
Re: my magazine project
>>>>> Regarding Re: my magazine project; Mike Markowski <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> adds: MM> On Tue, May 23, 2000 at 09:53:29AM -0400, Luc Bouchard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >> I would recommend you lear LaTex. For document preparation nothing comes >> close to its flexibility. I used this many years ago to do University >> papers. This "language" gives you full typesetting ability and allows for >> almost precise image placement. MM> I agree. And if you're feeling really ambitious, you might even look MM> into TeX. (LaTeX is a set of macros that make using TeX easier and MM> practical for straightforward typesetting projects.) With TeX, you can MM> create paragraphs in the shape of circles and that sort of thing. But MM> fair warning - it takes a good bit of effort to learn! It is no longer necessary to use TeX in order to be able to make all the fancities you can imagine. Using LaTeX, you can create heart-shaped paragraphs if you mind, but you can also include all sorts of graphics, build tables of any complexity, change the style of your whole document by simply changing a few parameters, use all possible character fonts, and generate Postscript, HTML or Pdf at will. See the invaluable series of books published by Addison-Wesley. Olivier Lecarme
Re: my magazine project
On Tue, May 23, 2000 at 09:53:29AM -0400, Luc Bouchard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I would recommend you lear LaTex. For document preparation nothing comes > close to its flexibility. I used this many years ago to do University > papers. This "language" gives you full typesetting ability and allows for > almost precise image placement. I agree. And if you're feeling really ambitious, you might even look into TeX. (LaTeX is a set of macros that make using TeX easier and practical for straightforward typesetting projects.) With TeX, you can create paragraphs in the shape of circles and that sort of thing. But fair warning - it takes a good bit of effort to learn! Have fun! Mike
Re: my magazine project
I would recommend you lear LaTex. For document preparation nothing comes close to its flexibility. I used this many years ago to do University papers. This "language" gives you full typesetting ability and allows for almost precise image placement. I haven't used the Linux version of LaTex but have been told it works very well and has enhancements since my use in the early 90s. Good luck. On Tue, 23 May 2000, Michael K. Nacos wrote: > > Hello everybody, > > my project is the production of a small school magazine. I'd like to make it look >good. Previous versions of the magazine were done in Microsoft Word (eek!) :-) > > It's not the graphics bit that worries me, I don't have much exprerience but I've >read the manual and I like to experiment. > > What I'm looking for is ideas on arranging text. I suppose I could get text >rendered on different layers, then move them about until I get a decent result. > > BUT: GDyntext doesn't seem to Justify the paragraphs it produces. (I'd like to get >left-aligned text without the jazzy edges of text produced by lines of variable >length) > > I've inserted text by means of a PostScript (groff made) file before, but I've >re-installed Linux since and last night it refused to work (file displayed fine in >gv). Is there potential down this path? > > Assuming I solve the problem of rendering text from txt files in a way that allows >me to freely arrange the text on a page, could I then make the edge of a paragraph >wrap around something I've drawn? > > Any help will be appreciated. Thanx in advance. > > Michael > > > > Get your FREE Email at http://mailcity.lycos.com > Get your PERSONALIZED START PAGE at http://my.lycos.com > -- Luc Bouchard [EMAIL PROTECTED] 90 Sidekick 2dr Softop - Rubber Zuki 94 S-10 2wd Longbed Nepean, ON, Canada
my magazine project (more)
my magazine project is a one-off thing, as it gets published once per year, so I don't mind a bit of extra effort. plus, I'd rather do it in Gimp, if it can be done, so that I learn one or two things in the process. Michael Get your FREE Email at http://mailcity.lycos.com Get your PERSONALIZED START PAGE at http://my.lycos.com
my magazine project
Hello everybody, my project is the production of a small school magazine. I'd like to make it look good. Previous versions of the magazine were done in Microsoft Word (eek!) :-) It's not the graphics bit that worries me, I don't have much exprerience but I've read the manual and I like to experiment. What I'm looking for is ideas on arranging text. I suppose I could get text rendered on different layers, then move them about until I get a decent result. BUT: GDyntext doesn't seem to Justify the paragraphs it produces. (I'd like to get left-aligned text without the jazzy edges of text produced by lines of variable length) I've inserted text by means of a PostScript (groff made) file before, but I've re-installed Linux since and last night it refused to work (file displayed fine in gv). Is there potential down this path? Assuming I solve the problem of rendering text from txt files in a way that allows me to freely arrange the text on a page, could I then make the edge of a paragraph wrap around something I've drawn? Any help will be appreciated. Thanx in advance. Michael Get your FREE Email at http://mailcity.lycos.com Get your PERSONALIZED START PAGE at http://my.lycos.com
