Recommend Image file type

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Ged

I created a PNG image in CorelDraw and imported it into Scribus.  Didnt look much good.   :(

What image file type would you recommend?  Later on I hope to turn my pages into PDF's.  So Im thinking of making WMF images in my drawing program, importing them into Scribus, then exporting the finished page to PDF.

Does that sound like a plan?
My first 'puter was a 286,
My first dtp was Aldus Pagemaker,
My first printer was a Little Squirt,
My first car was a motorbike.

Nermander

Did you only look at the image in Scribus? Scribus has settings for the quality of the preview image shown when you work with the document.

Export to a PDF and check the image there.

Ged

I attempted to import a wmf image today.

   >Insert Image Frame
   >All supported formats

However, I could not find wmf.  So I clicked 'all files', selected my image, and tried to import it.  No luck.   :(

Is there something in preferences that might allow this?  Alternatively, can I export a Corel graphic to another vector format acceptable to Scribus?
My first 'puter was a 286,
My first dtp was Aldus Pagemaker,
My first printer was a Little Squirt,
My first car was a motorbike.

Ged

I found a way of doing it.   ;D

Would it be an idea if the different import-image functions were combined?
My first 'puter was a 286,
My first dtp was Aldus Pagemaker,
My first printer was a Little Squirt,
My first car was a motorbike.

GarryP

As WMF is a vector format it needs to be imported through the "Get Vector" function rather than "Get Image" which is for rasters/bitmaps.

(EPG can be imported via the "Get Image" function - for some reason - but it's not supported as well as SVG and the preview doesn't look very nice.)

I'd say that the recommended vector format is SVG; it's certainly the one that's being updated with new features more often.

I don't think it would be right to combine importing vectors and rasters into the same function as they produce different things.

Importing a raster has to be performed in a frame because the raster needs something to be displayed in and the graphic isn't copied into the document (just a link to the file).

On the other hand, importing a vector creates a new object in the SLA that can be ungrouped (etc.) so it's really a different function.

Better to keep the them separate so that the user understands that they're very different.

Ged

I see your point Garry, but put yourself in a Noobies shoes.  I get quite bewildered when I press one likely button and it tells me that I cant do something.  Then I find another button and it tells me that I can.  Desktop publishing is a big enough learning curve as it is.
My first 'puter was a 286,
My first dtp was Aldus Pagemaker,
My first printer was a Little Squirt,
My first car was a motorbike.

a.l.e

wmf files are not a good format for DTP (they tend to be of bad quality by design of the format itself)

vector drawings (like wmf, svg, eps, ...) are handled in a completely different way than bitmap images (png, jpg, tiff, eps, ...)
and, as you see in the list above, some of the formats can be both included as vector or as bitmap depending on what's the content of the image.

finally, the extension at the end of the file is not mandatory. basically, you can put anything in there and it won't change how your computer behaves (up to the binding between the extension and an application on double click or the lists of supported formats that sometimes (nowadays often) rely on the extension).
since you started a long time ago with computers, you might recall that on mac computers files used to have no extension at all, only a ressource file that was hidden to you (in most cases).

that's why scribus allows you to see files with arbitrary extensions: but if you choose to go that way, it's you that has to make sure that the software can do the right thing with the file you're passing to it...
(and scribus does not seem to (always) rely on the extension for finding out what type of file you're throwing at it)

all in all, a noobie should probably go through an introduction to dtp (with scribus) that explains the difference between raster and vector images (among other things)...
no idea if such a tutorial / book exists, though...

Ged

Quote from: a.l.e
all in all, a noobie should probably go through an introduction to dtp (with scribus) that explains the difference between raster and vector images (among other things)...
no idea if such a tutorial / book exists, though...

My brain is beyond tutorials.  It only works when something jumps up and bites me.   ::)
My first 'puter was a 286,
My first dtp was Aldus Pagemaker,
My first printer was a Little Squirt,
My first car was a motorbike.