Actually I do desktop publishing on Linux on a routine
basis. I publish a monthly newsletter and a number
of small circulation publications, flyers, etc.
What I use is a combination of programs. The most
important are LaTeX and Sketch
(see http://sketch.sourceforge.net). IMHO, Sketch
is destined to become one of the main "category killer"
applications on Linux, because it is a very capable
vector-graphics application as packaged, and it
is very easy to script, being written entirely in
Python. (Basically this is the same formula that
made Emacs so popular as an editor -- except that,
IMHO, Python is a much more intuitive language than
Lisp!) Thus, there is a very healthy community of
people working on extending Sketch to do whatever it
is that it isn't doing for you already.
As for desktop-publishing, Sketch does have limits:
it doesn't work on multi-page documents (you have
to have a separate document for each page), and it
doesn't allow you to flow text from one block into
another the way you could with PC desktop publishing
programs.
However, you can embed LaTeX-generated EPSs into the
file, and there is a nice script available to
automatically generate these with LaTeX from within
Sketch.
If you really want a "genuine" desktop-publishing
environment for Linux, I think you should consider
starting from Sketch and adding the desired features
with additional Python scripting (there are actually
a number of people on the Sketch mailing list who
are interested in extending Sketch's text-objects,
which ought to fit right into your needs).
My own personal interest is in extending Sketch's
CAD capabilities -- basically, adding smarter
input methods.
I use "LyX" (which is basically a word processor
that uses LaTeX as a backend) to prepare articles
for inclusion into a LaTeX-based newsletter,
but I usually "hand-edit" the LaTeX for the final
version.
My total turn-around for producing a four-page
newsletter has shrunk to about 4-hrs since I started
using LaTeX -- and most of that time is spent
proof-reading, which is what an editor ought to be
spending their time on. This is after spending
several days setting up a template, of course.
But it compares very favorably to my previous
3-day turnaround using Word Perfect 8 for the
same task.
My main complaint with LaTeX (probably more properly
with "dvips") is that graphics-choices are very
limited -- it can really only handle EPS files, so
everything has to be converted to that format.
Fortunately, there are a number of programs that
can do that for you, including "ImageMagick", which
is another work-horse program for me. It's not so
feature-rich or capable as Gimp, but it loads fast,
is easy to use, and gets the job done. If you
just need to clean-up and re-crop a photo, ImageMagick
is your friend. If you want special-effects,
cutouts, need to airbrush out the background or
some other complicated business, you'll need Gimp.
My work usually resolves into one of two-categories:
image-rich, free-form layouts with relatively little
text, or text-rich newsletter or research-paper type
works with a few illustrations. For the former, I
use Sketch as the master document format with embedded
TeX text (you can also use Sketch-native text for
labels and titles). For the latter, I use LyX/LaTeX
as the master document and just import Sketch
illustrations as needed.
--
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Terry Hancock
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Anansi Spaceworks
http://www.anansispaceworks.com
P.O. Box 60583
Pasadena, CA 91116-6583
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