What is Reddit's opinion of
Scribus?
From 3.5 billion Reddit comments
83 reviews of this app found across Reddit:
If you're looking for a free alternative to InDesign, you should have a look at Scribus. It's open-source and there is a not-really-huge-but-really-friendly-and-always-happy-to-help community. Basically, it allows you to do pretty much anything you would do with InDesign but without the expensive licence.
And I remember seing some tutorial on YouTube a few months ago about someone working on the design-part of his own RPG with Scribus. It shouldn't be really hard to find if you're interested in it.
- https://www.scribus.net/ has a similar toolset to InDesign but is open source. Alternatively, since Adobe CC turned to a subscription model, you ought to be able to pay for a single month of InDesign for like $20.
- People go to school for years to learn editorial design. Personally I don't think there's an easy way to learn this quickly. As such I'd recommend picking a book you think is roughly similar with regards to style & content and adapt it to meet your requirements.
- If you're having this commercially printed, learn about the difference between RGB and CYMK colour.
Instead of InDesign, you can try the open-source Scribus. I used it extensively in a past life for things much more complicated than a poster, and it was up to the task.
Other than that, there's always LaTeX (probably using the Beamer class). That has a steep learning curve though.
I use the GNU Image Manipulation Program for image editing. Pinta is a much simpler alternative, if you only need basic features though.
My only poster presentation was cancelled last April, so no idea what I would have done with it had I printed it.
The software you mentioned are great for writing up your game but not layout work. Scribus is an open source desktop publishing application that's pretty good; or so I hear.
If you really want to be creative with your layout, I highly recommend using Adobe's InDesign for layout, Illustrator and Photoshop for graphics. They work very well together though there is a bit of a learning curve. But once learnt, the workflow is phenomenal.
That could be a bit out of scope for a word processor (though it might be possible).
You could use tables for that. Tables can span multiple pages, so you could create one for each chapter. (Make it three columns with a narrow in the middle to keep the two contents separated. There is a strong argument to put each paragraph into its own cell, though, so you can easily align them with the translation. (Which will definitely not properly work with two huge cells!)
Or you might actually switch over to Scribus (https://www.scribus.net/), which is a desktop publishing application, and is closer to type setting, which is what you are basically doing. You can create a new master there with two text frames per page. You can select two and 'link' them, so the overflow is directed to the next text frame. That way you can create two chains of frames, one for the original, one for the translation.
I use Scribus. If I had Adobe InDesign I'd use that. But Scribus does the job, even though it's a bit clumsy like most free open-source software. I prefer it over word doc apps.
Las opciones gratuitas que entrega Wikipedia son:
- LibreOffice Draw: viene con toda una suite de ofimática.
- LyX: está basado en LaTeX. www.lyx.org
- Scribus: de este se incluso menos que de los otros. www.scribus.net
Ojalá alguno de esos te sirva.
InDesign or Scribus (free) are going to be your best bets for nice-looking layout work. There's a learning curve, but it's a much better investment of your time than trying to wrangle Word. You're using a word processor, but what you want is "Desktop Publishing" or DTP.
Never tried it, but Scribus is free (and open source) https://www.scribus.net/ and is for publishing.
Also, I've gotten things printed with Lulu before and have been happy with the speed and quality in the past.
If you're going to go with Lulu (or any online printer) you should download their template before you start doing layout, as different sizes of documents would have different templates (size of pages, bleed areas, etc) and you might have to redo your entire layout if you switch later.
For academic articles, look at the EServer Technical Communication Library. You should find a good bit of stuff there to get started with.
For the other articles, I can say that I'm always interested to read about what tools people are using, especially if they're NOT using applications like Word or RoboHelp or any of the usual suspects. And if the person is writing about one of those topics, I'd at least like to see an interesting use case or configuration option that I might not have known about otherwise. I also like to read about different workflows, and about any open source related items as they pertain to tech writing, such as using something like Scribus in an enterprise setting.
I downloaded an open source version of inDesign called Scribus to get a few more features than Pages could offer (also on a Mac). Invites came out really well through Cat Print.
Scribus is free and is basically an open-source version of InDesign (or Pagemaker). https://www.scribus.net/
But if you're just prototyping, you probably just want to use sheets of paper and a pen or pencil.
Here's what I use for making my own comics/zines - it requires a bit of investment for tools, but once you're set up it's SUPER easy.
Scribus (open source) for layouts/typesettings Adjustable length stapler Paper slicer
If you make your booklets as a standard "fold in half and staple" type of book, then you won't even need the slicer, which can be a little pricey if you don't find it used. The hardest part is honestly just the setup to make sure that when you print and bind it, that the pages are all in the correct order. Feel free to send me a message if you have any questions. Good luck!
Thanks!
Yes, I was quite happy to see that Scribus is able to load the swatch as well. For the color conversion from RGB to CMYK I have used this script by the way. The only adjustment that was necessary on my machine was to change the print statements so that they work with a Python 3 interpreter, i.e. change print "bla" to print("bla").
I haven't used Affinity Designer yet but I can imagine that some things would be easier with it than with Scribus. With Scribus on the other hand I can do everything on my Linux machine and don't have to switch between OSes. And it's free (although Affinity Designer definitively is on the cheap side as well).
InDesign is what I prefer, it's really great for book layouts. I've also heard people talking about Affinity Publisher in here lately, it's a cheaper InDesign alternative that looks pretty cool. There's also Scribus but I haven't used it and I think the vibe is that it isn't quite as full-featured but it's freeware so that's cool.
Well, that didn't really help with knowing what about Writer/Word you're trying to avoid, but LaTeX documents are very easily given a table of contents (and there are plenty of indexing solutions, but not quite as easy as the table of contents).
I would recommend, though, that you look at markdown or restructured text before finalizing your decision if you're going to go with a WYSIWYM solution instead of the more WYSIWYG of Writer/Word (especially if that's what you're getting at with saying their UL is distracting).
If it's not about getting away from WYSIWYG, you might consider something like scrivener (a tool designed to help authors write Word-based books with fewer writing distractions and more outlining/planning support), or maybe a desktop publishing tool like scribus/InDesign
Again, LaTeX may very well be the best choice, but it's hard to know whether it's right without knowing more. Personally, I would put my D&D notes in something like Google Docs (and by would, I mean have done). But, I've never found Writer to be cumbersome or distracting, so I don't know. I've used LaTeX for a wide, wide variety of things from simple letters to school papers to my grad thesis and even the policies manual for a nonprofit that I volunteer with.
Anyway, good luck with your project and if you have specific questions that we could help you decide with, please ask!
Check out Scribus, it's an open source software specifically designed to work with PDFs. It will have a better chance of getting it right.
LibreOffice doesn't always work well with PDF editing.
EDIT: Alternatively, you can use Xournal++, which is less advanced, but easier to use ans should be sufficient for your purpose.
I use just LibreOffice Open Office and export to PDF. It is super super easy for PDF-only projects, but for DriveThruRPG print-on-demand you must use a publishing software like Scribus. However, while Scribus is free there is a steep learning curve so be prepared to devote some time. (I bailed early, but Heidi tells me that's my undiagnosed ADHD...)
If you don't have any graphics skills at all, you shouldn't do it. They say your cover is the number one conversion element (unless your name is big enough to convert people into buyers). You need skill to pick the right font, color, position, etc.
That said, don't let the comment about GIMP scare you. It's not that bad, especially if you're not un-learning Photoshop. Paint.net is easy to use, free, has been around a long time, and is still being updated. I don't know if it'll output what you need, but you can create the image. Also look at another free paint program, Krita, and Scribus, a free desktop publishing program. If you look around, a lot of open source programs have templates and so forth because a lot of the open source guys create their own books, etc., using these tools.
Are you looking for an alternative to InDesign, perhaps?
Because it sounds like it. Inkscape is more like Illustrator, so graphics.
But you are talking about publishing stuff, so you are talking about Microsoft Publisher (if you can have access to it) , Adobe InDesign, and there are free alternatives such as Scribus, although I only know that one from reputation, I've no experience with it.
Personally I had Excel files with images inserted and columns containing the manually transcribed text, so I'm afraid I don't have much experience in the "right way to do it", but I sure would love to hear about it ! :)
I've been a Mac user since 1996, and all I can really recall are desktop publishing tools like PageMaker and Quark Express. I think the only thing out there now is Scribus. The help authoring tools all seem to live in the Windows world, which is why my company provides me with a generic Dell laptop running Windows 10 so I can run Flare.
What is your output going to be? I wonder if an ebook editor like Sigil would work, or Scrivener, which is built to create books.
Have you checked out Scribus? Its a free, open source alternative to InDesign (similar to GIMP as a Photoshop alternative. I've been using it recently to layout & design a rulebook and enjoy using it.
After seeing this video about using Datamerge in InDesign to generate cards from a spreadsheet, from Daniel Solis' great Youtube series, I was looking into doing similar with Scribus. The plugin Scribus Generator is actively developed and should accomplish the same thing.
I haven't actually tested the plugin out yet, so I can't tell you how well it works, but it looks like it could be a powerful tool for you.
Just to complete your accurate "commercial > open source" analogies with the InDesign equivalent...
Photoshop > GIMP
Illustrator > Inkscape
InDesign > Scribus
Thanks.
I used Scribus. Not sure if I used it very well seeing as I was pretty much teaching myself as I went -- this is the first time I've made something like this -- but it seemed to get the job done.
Adobe InDesign is probably the most popular professional desktop publishing (DTP) software out there, but it is subscription software and can be a bit pricey. It competes with other DTP software like QuarkXPress: http://www.quark.com/Products/QuarkXPress/
Those two solutions above are used by companies as well. That experience can be good to have, but if you just want something that's capable, below are some alternatives.
One free, open-source alternative is Scribus: https://www.scribus.net/
Another very affordable alternative is Serif PagePlus, which recently became discounted since they are focusing on their newer Affinity product line (Affinity Publisher will come out eventually)
When I get to that stage, and if I decide to do it myself, I'm going to look into using Scribus. I've used the program before and it's solid. There are templates out there (like these), but I'm not sure if there are enough to do the whole thing.
I haven't tried something like this in Word, but generally speaking, you shouldn't do general desktop publishing in Word. I haven't tried it myself in years, but the graphics guys who work with me roll their eyes every time they have to take over and fix something somebody tried to do in Word. But InDesign is expensive and has quite a learning curve, so a lot of people try, I suppose. I've done publications in PageMaker, Framemaker (both decades ago), Quark and InDesign, and I agree that you really need to spend some time learning the program and its conventions before you try designing something like a book. There are a lot more choices to be made than you'd think.
Scribus is free desktop-publishing software that can take care of your page layout needs.
Despite the points /u/mk572 makes, there's absolutely nothing wrong with starting to fiddle around with page layout right away! If nothing else it's still good practice, and unless you're being super finicky, it's not that hard to adjust layout based on changes to the material. The majority will be slotted into the same page template after all.
It tries to be a desktop publishing program, like Scribus, but more expensive, with fewer features, and less integeration with a CMYK printing workflow.
Libreoffice would be pretty simple. I host a free template for a tri-fold pamphlet which could probably be worked into a 3-column newspaper with some effort. The newest versions of LO will let you spread a background texture (like a newsprint texture) all the way to the edges of a document, for a more realistic look.
There's also Scribus which can do some really impressive publishing work.
Beyond that I think I'd try modifying the words and imagees on a CSS template and then you could have all kinds of control over how you print it later.
This does kind of raise the question of how long those articles are though...Good luck.
I'd say Scribus for general Editing, Xournalpp (see u/igorlogius's comment) for drawing or handwriting.
Both can most likely be found in the repo of your distro of choice, if you're using Linux.
Several ways. I've used blurb.com a few times. You can use their proprietary software, or upload a PDF that you've created in other desktop publishing software. So the options are:
Use the proprietary software provided by blurb.com and when you're done, just submit the book through the interface provided. The software itself is free, and dead easy to use. However, this locks you into Blurb's proprietary system. You can't bring your book somewhere else, and if blurb goes out of business, you'd have to remake your book some other way to reprint it. Also, there aren't any Master Page templates, you have to build each page one by one (at least, last time I looked ... which was years ago).
Adobe InDesign is extremely robust, and is the industry standard, However, it uses an expensive subscription model.
Quark Xpress ($474 and up) still exists, but I haven't used it in 20+ years, since InDesign took over that space.
- Scribus is free, open source desktop publishing software. It's extremely clunky to use, very un-intuitive, and lacks some basic options (boxes and lines around paragraphs, for example). However, the online help is not bad. I find myself always having to look up things that should be obvious.
https://www.scribus.net/downloads/
- Affinity Publisher (US$55, one-time purchase, no subscription) is a relatively new entrant in the game. It appears to be a robust and inexpensive competitor to Adobe Indesign. (I haven't used Publisher, but I do use their Illustrator competitor, Affinity Designer, and it's very good).
https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/publisher/
- MS Word stinks, I'd rather eat garlic than use it. It's not really proper "desktop publishing" software. But you could use it, especially for small projects, and export your result as PDF.
Those are the desktop publishing software options I'm aware of.
if you have budget and simple is the overriding factor then probably MS publisher. The problem is that layout programs by nature are powerful and complex. Alternatively you could take a look at https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/publisher/ . If you want free/open source then https://www.scribus.net/
Using LaTeX for something like that is pretty cumbersome, IMO.
It is certainly possible but I would advise using something like Desktop Publishing Software. A pretty good free and open-source solution is Scribus (https://www.scribus.net/). It is not very difficult to use/learn and would be the right tool for the job.
Alternatively, I would suggest something like LibreOffice Draw.
If you specifically want LaTeX though, I think starting from a template for a newsletter or scientific poster would be the way to go.
I have a font that works in browsers, image editors, even Windows Notepad. But it will not display correctly in Word 2007, perhaps due to age. I gave Scribus a go, but the font wont display at all in that. Are there any other (preferably free) programs I can try?
Well, you would need to pretty it up with sheets and InDesign seems like a good idea. Maybe not worth the subscription fees Adobe charges now.
You might be able to batch the work with Scribus, a free open source solution. Check it out. https://www.scribus.net/
[Resolve](AfterEffects is one I've struggled to find an alternative for. Resolve has Fusion built-in which is excellent for compositing and VFX, but lacking for motion graphics. ) is probably the best option for a free/single purchase professional NLE right now, if not the only option for something professional-grade.
AfterEffects is one I've struggled to find an alternative for, and is the main reason our studio is still all-in on the CC suite. Resolve has Fusion built-in which is excellent for compositing and VFX, but lacking for motion graphics.
InDesign I'm not to sure, maybe Scribus?
Photoshop's best free alternative is GIMP. I hate GIMP. Like really hate it, swearing at my screen every time I have to use it, everything takes like 5 more steps to do than in Photoshop... but it's the best alternative there is and is perfectly capable.
Being a 20+ years GIMP user I think you are working with the wrong program here:
Are you making a template where test and photos shall always be in the same spot while the general aspect (maybe header, logo, company details) must stay the same? Text and photos are "variables", the layout is a constant. Did I get that right?
You need Scribus https://www.scribus.net/ or any alternative Desk-Top Publishing (DTP) solution (there are dozens) for your task. This will allow you to define the layout and "reserve" the space for your changing content, including wrapping text around images and so on.
You should be able to do this with Scribus, an open source (free free, free free free) page layout software. https://www.scribus.net Input your text cut/paste and choose the size you want your project to be. You can get fancy with it. Save as a PDF and send/take it to a print shop that has a printer big enough to print your project. I always thought these were cool. I may have to do this myself. Good Luck!
I do my first prototype in Excel (Well. Libreoffice Calc. But it's a clone. Google Sheets would also work). It's fast and easy - I can do everything with merged cells, and adjust things around pretty easily to see if the layout I have in mind will work out.
When I finalize layouts I use Scribus
the universe is funny like that! congrats on your art show!
i do have some suggestions, one is scribus which is a totally free book design software! pros: super sophisticated, can do a lot, free! cons: a bit of a challenge to learn (there are manuals out there tho!)
my other is: adobe free trials! adobe indesign is my preferred program, i think it’s pretty intuitive to use (and there are lots of youtube tuts out there to help if you get stuck). you can do a trial for 7 days, which is enough to meet your deadline!
i also think cutting and pasting is awesome, so if you get do frustrated with your digital design and end up going down that route- i bet it’s gonna be amazing!
My wife used Print Shop as well. I kept a Win98 VM running for years just for her to use it. She has finally switched to using LibreOffice Draw.
If you need more features, you could also try out Scribus.
You need the Mac version on this page: https://www.scribus.net/downloads/unstable-branch/
The ones on the page you posted are incompatible with your version of MacOS. These are unstable builds so there's no guarantee they're bug free.
I love InDesign but only because I can afford it. If you want software in which your students can learn design and practice at home for free, it makes more sense to introduce them to Scribus.
It really depends on your expectations and use case. If you're sending the job to a printer, I'll assume it's beyond a simple WORD template. We use WORD, print in-house and place in leather covers. While Photoshop is the industry standard for graphics/design professionals, desktop publishing software may be more appropriate. Talk to your printer. Ask what format(s) they prefer. PDF seems to continue to be the standard. Most software, both commercial and open source/free, are capable of saving or outputting to PDF.
Some options include: MS Publisher, Affinity Publisher, ADOBE InDesign, QuarkXPress, Scribus, and LibreOffice Writer. Scribus is the best free option. If you already pay for a MS 365 subscription, MS Publisher is included. After those two, I've become a fan of Affinity Publisher. It's affordable (no subscription - currently on sale for $25) and cross platform.
~Good luck!
There's desktop publishing programs like Indesign, though Affinity Publisher is cheaper - only $25 if you catch it during one of their sales, or Scribus, which is free (https://www.scribus.net/).
There are open-source alternatives like; Inkscape as an alternative for Illustrator; and Scribus for Indesign.
They basically serve the same purposes but the toolset varies quite a lot and to be honest, are quite limited at times.
And if you are receiving instructions on Adobe Software like we do, then it's not going to help you much either.
Bottom line is, you can probably make do with these but you are better off getting a students license for Adobe anyways.
Just be aware that Photoshop creates shitty PDF documents. And can't export using properly defined bleed and crop marks.
There are alternatives to InDesign that are cheaper or free:
- Affinity Publisher – $50 (not subscription)
- Scribus – Free
> Does anyone know how I can design the layout, cover, etc without adobe software?
The only open source (ie, free) desktop publishing software I'm aware of is Scribus. Scribus, at least on Mac, has a poor user interface IMHO and isn't very Mac-like, but it works.
Also: /r/scribus exists.
Affinity Publisher might be a better alternative, for US$50. In fact, I expect it would be a lot better, because Scribus can be a pain to use. But it wasn't released back when I was doing my last book project:
https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/publisher/
Then you can out put a PDF and send it to most online printers. I have used blurb.com for several projects, though I haven't used them in years.
A free page layout / desktop publishing program is Scribus. I have not used it in some time, so I'm not aware of current ease of use or feature richness. There was a steep learning curve last I knew.
I'm sure there are other programs available as well. Wikipedia frequently provides a list of software if you search by type / category.
How are you sharing?
Because you're asking for a content layout system, and there's a significant difference between "web content layout system" and "print layout software"; for example, Adobe makes both, but each is separately super-expensive.
If you're doing PDFs, then u/alice_i_cecile's suggestion of Overleaf is good if you're willing to learn how to "code" LaTeX markup. If not, Scribus is an open-source WYSIWYG page layout program; it's also got a learning curve, but doesn't directly use code.
For web, then you should look for web content editors (like Adobe Dreamweaver, but don't pay for that).
Can you show us some screenshots, like the image as opened in GIMP, with the full user interface visible, and a sample export of like one page?
Also, please note that GIMP is not primarily intended as a PDF design tool, and its PDF-exporting capabilities are mostly there because someone invested the time and effort to implement what is there right now, and for people who might need a quick way to export to PDF.
For someone who wants and needs to invest serious time into designing an actual book with great control over what the result will be, my suggestion would be to have a look at Scribus: https://www.scribus.net/
[eo] Latex ne estas facila por chiuj. Open Office povas havi modernan kadron. Sed https://www.scribus.net/ pli taugus. Au wiki kun simpla formatiga kodo, kaj programaro por transformi ghin al Latex.
Sed mi pensas ke la unua bezono estas komuniki por ricevi bonajn artikolojn en plurajn lingvojn. Poste, ni provos je changhi la tekniko, por ke ghi esti pli rapida kaj pli rapida kaj plu bela...
Remarko: mi ne plu volas paroli Esperanton. Mi baldau lernas alian lingvon por povi komuniki tie. Vershajne Nova Lingvafrankao, ech se mi shatus paroli en Moderna Adjuvilo au en Mondlango ankau. Mi preferas LFN, sed mi shatus ke ekzistu almenau unu baza esperantido ;-)
Google Docs isn't a bad free option, and here's a list of handwritten fonts that should be available to use in it. Otherwise you'll be wanting a free alternative to Adobe InDesign. Scribus is popular, but I've never used it so I can't personally give you a recommendation about it.
Maybe Scribus? There's a portable version.
A colleague of mine is a fan of Adobe XD. It's kind of "free", though not open source. And you need to register.
Since you mentioned Inkscape, I’ll share an open source InDesign alternative: https://www.scribus.net/
I recently read an article somewhere about folks in India using this as part of an Open Source toolset for publishing. Seems neat. I still use indesign, but if you’re not already paying for a Creative Cloud license, it might be useful.
In either case, YouTube tutorials is a good starting point.
Scribus is a free, open source, professional Desktop Publishing software similar to InDesign but much easier to learn. Win, Mac and Linux. It can do almost anything that InDesign can do and a few things that InDesign cannot do. It can't do eBooks like the other software mentioned here but you can always import text or copy and paste. I own Scrivener and it's great for eBooks but for a paper book you have close to zero control.
Scribus gives total control over every page. It's a tiny bit buggy and has rare crashes but just save often, use the autosave feature and you'll be fine. The vector graphics tools are stellar. I don't even use InkScape any more; I go right to Scribus for all graphics creation. For now, use nothing higher than 1.4.x because 1.5.x is not stable, is still experimental.
You're being downvoted a lot... It has to do with posting in the wrong subreddit, but also your seeming unwillingness to fix it yourself.
It's not such a bad suggestion though, really. Take the time to learn something like Scribus, i.e. read the manual, and you'll be able to have it just like you want. And you'll have a new skill to top it off!
Well, it has to do with how are you controlling your text placement. Also I am assuming you are using Writer not Draw.
Set the page up as two columns by going to 'Format > Columns', one for each side of the two magazine pages. Set the spacing to what you need for the center gutter (the center where the pages are attached together). The gutter serves to protect the type from being obscured by other pages in the booklet and possibly also from binding instruments like staples. It is usually set by the page margins by using a left and right page setup. As you are using a single page, you need another mechanism to set up the gutter to protect the type. This has the side effect of fixing you problem. Obviously in the middle page (center of the booklet), you can change it or eliminate the columns to write from outside to outside or put images across the center. Keep in mind however that text lines that are too long are disturbing to read. So now by using the columns, you can center images anchored however you want (character, paragraph), just NOT to the page with the align settings on right clicking the image. You can also place the image across the gutter extending all the way across the page (over both columns) by dragging it where you want. However, you will need to anchor it to the page if you want to align it with the align tools like above if you do so.
Also FYI, there is a FOSS Desktop Publishing tool called Scribus which is a replacement for Adobe InDesign and is compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux. It's probably overkill for you, but if you wind up pushing the boundaries of Writer in the future, you might want to look into it.
I hope this helps.
These are some flags I made for the Transcommunal Confederation, a fictional, decentralized/distributed confederation of autonomous communes modeled after the Rojava Constitution: https://en.wikipedia . org/wiki/Constitution_of_North_and_East_Syria). The source files can be found at https://github.com/pojntfx/transcommunal-confederation and are free culture (CC-BY-SA-4.0). If you want to do so, feel free to check out the free (as in freedom) software Scribus: https://www.scribus.net/!
The Confederation itself has two flags; a simple one which is made up of a golden star on a red background as well as a more distinct, complex alternative flag that intends to symbolize the progress which is gained by the high efficiency and effectiveness of decentralized/distributed planning of the communes.
In addition to these two, I've made some simple communal flags (more like cantons, but hey) modeled after the Catalonian "Estelada" for some European regions (as well as Rojava, of course).
Hope you comrades like them, it's my first time creating any type of flags ;)
I have never used Canva so I don't know how practical it would be, but personally when making prototype quality cards I use Scribus since it's fast and easy to make a template then generate my cards from it. I am not going to use it for final publishing versions but for quick prototyping it's great.
I frequently hear nandeck as a frequent recommendation for card generation. I did download it once but it seemed a bit too complicated for fast/dirty card generation so I have never really used it.
If these PDFs are meant to be filled in digitally after being exported to PDF, a combination of Adobe InDesign CC and Adobe Acrobat DC can make beautiful PDF character sheet documents with fillable text fields overlaid atop the sheet, easily. There is no way that I know of to allow someone without proper tooling to insert an image into a PDF, however, that's simply not a function of the PDF format (as far as I know).
Though I've never used it personally, you might give Scribus a look to see if it meets your requirements. t also supports fillable text fields, but again, Scribus provides no way to insert an image into a PDF the same way one can insert text, which means your players would have to manage their character portraits at the drafting stage before (re-)exporting their sheet as a PDF document.
I could have sworn I saw another free alternative to InDesign/Acrobat floating around here recently, too, but when I looked, I couldn't find it. Best of luck with your search!
I make educational apps: https://play.google.com/store/apps/dev?id=7958135279745318182
newsletters are time consuming, make it monthly for your sanity, here is a open source editor: https://www.scribus.net/
I love open source tech, Blender for 3D and video editing, Audacity for audio, Gimp (photoshop alternative), Krita (painting), Open Toonz...
also: Typingclub.com for typing, code.org for coding basics, ClassDojo, Google sites, Blogger (which we heavily customized).
I teach elementary (1st grade atm), computer art and coding.
my biggest problem this year: projector in the classroom I am teaching in sucks, last year I had an amazing one, this year it is unusable. :’(
scribus does work on mac 64 bit and both InDesign and Scribus are layout programs that produce PDFs.
They have a slightly different features set and InDesign is often seen as more polished. You can freely download and test Scribus to see if it fits your needs:
I use Blurb.com for most of my books, and their Booksmart software is OK if you have lots of the same layout repeating, and if your book is image heavy. Of course, you'll be locked into Blurb for future revisions and reprints. If Blurb goes out of business, forget revising or editing your book.
If you want the flexibility and future-proofing of an open source desktop publishing software, there's Scribus. Available for many operating systems.
I have to say, Scribus is kind of terrible in some aspects of its interface, but you learn to live with it. Scribus can export high quality PDF's, and most bookmaking services accept PDFs.
I don't understand what the "unique things" are? But from what I see, any DTP software should do it - Adobe inDesign and Quark Express are the most popular commercial options, and Scribus is a free/open source option. Although if you've never used these programs before, you might want to start with a simpler design to learn with.
InDesign tu dois pouvoir télécharger un essaie d'une ou deux semaines, ce qui devrait être suffisant pour faire ton CV (après sinon c'est par abonnement, entre 20 et 60 euros par mois).
En alternative il y a Affinity Publisher qui est en beta en ce moment (du coup gratuit pour l'instant) https://affinity.serif.com/fr/publisher/
Ou Scribus qui est gratuit et open source https://www.scribus.net/
Check out https://www.scribus.net/ - it's an open source desktop publishing/page layout tool, sort of like Adobe InDesign or Microsoft Publisher.
https://www.lucidpress.com/ is another one that has a free educational license. I think it's web-based.
I've experimented with putting everything together as a book before, but found it less practical than using something wiki-like when it came to looking stuff up and updating/adding information.
I've tried LaTeX, Scribus, and the new beta for Affinity Publisher (along with the product it replace, Serif Page Plus). By and large, getting the content in wasn't hard (though a bit tedious at times), but making it actually useful and good looking is distinctly harder.
I hear you. That's the only gripe I could possibly see nowadays. The example software you bring up are expensive as fudge and one should only expect the absolute best for the price. I get that if one depends on it for professional reasons it's not a possibility to make the switch.
I used to muck about a lot in InDesign - not for professional reasons only for recreation (and grid-addiction haha). Got into it studying graphical communication, but as it was just I hobby I've found Scribus fits my needs just fine.
Pros and cons really :) I still install Photoshop 7 because I enjoy the GUI, tools and workflow more than what GIMP offers - I've given GIMP my darnedest to become friends but we just don't click. Wish I was more techy and a developer so I could help out more on certain projects.
Nice! I do use the Pixelbook full time, and the Linux container is a life saver. I like it so much, I wish I had the money to buy one for everyone in my company.
I do lots of things directly with ChromeOS, including decision support with Microsoft's Office365 and GSuite. I even have a $15 USB stick SDR that works with a ChromeOS App. I also do foto edits with the Polarr ChromeOS App, plus glamour foto edits (via Android).
On Linux: I do software development for Python, C++, bash, and other languages; digital photography DAM, alternative foto work like camera raw import with Raw Therapee; I run csound, and csound-qt (playing the digital audio file from ChromeOS, until USB comes along); Also, the open source DTP application Scribus just up and ran, it works excellently well.
The Pixelbook has enabled me to really enjoy computing, like a first love, something I've not experienced this much since first using a time-sharing BASIC system hosted on a HP-2000C minicomputer in 1969.
Professional tools is the Adobe Creative Cloud.
You want to run free? Scribus
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Printed poster will be 300 dpi at full size generally 24x36 inches.
If you do any work just do it at 300dpi minimum, 600dpi is fine to if you think maybe you'll blow it up.
Vector art, Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape, vectr.com can change size infinitely, fyi.
Some printing techniques and applications make resize pixelization a moot point, ask your local /online print shop.
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That's out the way.
You got your Desktop Publishing App (Scribus/Indesign/Illustrator/Photoshop/Gimp, something)
You got your blank 24x36 inch document
You import some other art you make in Krita or whatever
You place it and size it.
You do your text stuff.
You ask someone to proofread it.
You print or save to PDF , you e-mail that to someone and double check it's not a big mess.
You e-mail that to the print shop and pay them to print x copies.
You can even print on canvas. or cover a bus. That's a good one for conventions like E3.
Anyway this is generally the process.
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I have a deep love for paint.net but for publishing, if you’re looking to keep it free, check out Scribus. I’ve never used it myself, but if it’s anything like what adobe offers (InDesign) it can bring your game to a new level and make editing faster and easier.
I’ll write up some more notes in a bit.
Your sample image is not something that should be done in Photoshop, but rather in page layout software like InDesign.
Especially if the intent is to make things that will be printed.
https://www.scribus.net is the only free alternative I know of. Unsure how good it is as I haven't tried it.
Anyway, this isn't very hard to do from a technical stand point, assuming you have all the logos/images required. You simply place them on the page, and adjust the size of the "boxes". That's most of the job right there. Making it look good layout-wise takes skill and experience though. I'm sure I could teach my mum to do it, but it would still look like crap from a design perspective. Hopfully you've got a decent eye for it...
Usually multiple applications are combined. Photoshop is a photo/raster editor and is what you would use to adjust the photos if they require it. E.g. correct the color, clean up skin, remove background, etc. Then Illustrator for editing vector artwork (typically logos), and InDesign for combining it on a page and export final PDF files.
Hi u/donovanNagel,
I recently wrote several PDF form templates for various functions like shipment manifests and production tracking.
Basically, the employee clicks on an icon from my web server and is taken immediately to a PDF form where they fill out their operation data. When a truck is loaded, for example, the employee grabs his tablet and fills in the load data as the truck is loaded. The employees love it because they're mobile and they can see what the PDF will look like before they send it up for processing.
Relevant to your question is this: once the employee presses 'submit' the form is uploaded to a server where my shell script "slices and dices" the data to the specified output format. In my case I simply create a report totaling the lot numbers, etc. from the data but you can easily do whatever you like. In your case you could create a LaTeX template and compile.
I used Scribus to create the forms and "plane Jane" shell scripts to process the form data on the backend. I did it this way to ensure that the system was intuitive to use and reliable.
Best of all, PDF forms support Javascript so you can put in signatures, change the form based on drop-down menu selections, etc.
So, in short, you may not need to use LaTeX on the backend (and I _love_ LaTex) but you sure can if you like!
Scribus is an open source publishing tool, able to open PDF - then you can make all your changes, and then export to PDF.
Compression does not seems to be efficent thought, so it might be a deal breaker for you.
The closest you're going to get to halfway decent desktop publishing software with zero cost is Scribus. The closest you're going to get to handling InDesign files with it is to export them the EPS / PS first, then import them, and it's not going to be super pretty.
Otherwise...Pages (Apple) or Publisher (Microsoft) are your cheapest paid options, aside from maybe Pagestream, and none are going to be exactly what you're after.
Closest competitor, to me, is Quark xPress, and you're looking at $850 there unless you qualify for education or non-profit licensing.
What's wrong with desktop publishing software? They make it easy to create templates. You can even write right on the page around the images if you like. Last time I did that it wasn't the best way to write, but it's fine.
Of course, that's hundreds of dollars. Scribus is free and available for Linux, Mac OS and Windows. Haven't used that in a few years, and never for a major product, but there's a community around it to check out.
Someone at work made a book using Blurb's software and platform. Their stuff does templates and is hooked right into the printing and sales side of their business. There are other sites in that same space just a google away, I'm sure.
No one else has said it yet so I'll toss out Scribus. I haven't dug into deeply but its the open source version of Indesign, a layout program for publishing. I've watched a few tutorials and messed around with it a bit. There is a bit of a learning curve but it should be more that capable of doing what you want.
> Learn how to use a pdf creation program. I use Adobe InDesign. Alternatively, hire someone to do the layout for you.
Frankly, I was going to use Scriubs an Open Source DTP program. If that doesn't work, I could always write it in LaTeX. In any event, I had no intention of exporting an WordPress document to PDF without proper typesetting. Thanks for the tips on page layout though, that's invaluable!
Basically, for my Fantasy RPG stuff I intended to emulate the late 70's early 80's look and feel of RPG supplements, but up the quality several notches. So, very good B&W artwork with nice tables and a few "handouts" pages. That will probably be OSRIC stuff, maybe Pathfinder too.
I also want to do some hard SF, probably in FATE Core and Accelerated both. For that, I'll probably emulate supplements from the prior edition of GURPS in terms of layout and design. Still B&W, two column not three column (like the current edition of GURPS, who's idea was that?!)
> Make sure to have good quality and legible maps. Bonus points if they can be used on a VTT.
I don't know what this means, what's a VTT? Lord Google is failing me. I was thinking of using Inkscape for this purpose.
> Make sure you have the rights and license for all artwork and fonts going into your product.
On that point, where do you suggest I go to get artwork commissioned? I have a fear that if I outsource it that things will go badly either from a quality perspective or from an IP perspective which would be worse!
> My cost per page to create is about $20, and I charge around 10 cents per page... I see a return on a project in under 6 weeks.
Those numbers are invaluable to me, thanks!
Similar thread here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/photography/comments/5yzaic/photo_book_software_like_mypublisher/
My answer (edited):
Blurb.com has its own software called "BookSmart" and also "BookWright". I haven't used BookWright, but BookSmart is pretty good if you want to create many pages that all work off a few templates. It's not great if you have a long project and each page is unique.
Frankly, being tied into a proprietary software is risky, as you have found out with MyPublisher. If the maker goes out of business, you cannot edit your old work anymore.
I have switched my workflow to Scribus. Scibus is sort of an open source InDesign. It's not the best software in the world, and not as easy to use as BookSmart, but at least you will be able to open your files presumably forever.
The way the workflow goes, you build your document in Scribus and export as PDF; upload the PDF to blurb.com.
Personally, I'd do the booklet by orienting the page with one half rightside-up in Scribus, and the other half upside-down. Do both halves in your display's native upright direction, and then flip the one half before printing. Rotate using the dialog box under Item -> Transform...
I don't know of a way to enable non-destructive rotation in Scribus, sorry. If you're feeling adventurous, you can try out the 1.5.x release candidates ( https://www.scribus.net/downloads/unstable-branch/ ), but the release candidate installation seemed to ruin the config file for my 1.4.x install, so I'm waiting for a stable 1.6.x release.
Is it a single page? Or a book? For desktop publishing check Scribus.
You normally work in some other program, then you export the results to PDF. And as far as PDF editing goes, nothing can replace Adobe tools on linux.