Version 1.5.8 beta or stable?

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StephanP

Reading the Release announcement at scribus.net I get the impression that version 1.5.8 is stable. Downloading this version I am warned it is a development version. This is rather confusing for a newcomer such as me.
Generally not afraid of minor hiccups I decided to start working with the latest version and ran into some issues that got me to install 1.4.8 as well. Now it turns our that version 1.4.8 cannot read files generated by 1.5.8.
Is there a way to force version 1.5.8 to save backward compatible files?

utnik

hi stephan

Quote from: StephanP on February 17, 2022, 07:13:10 AM...ran into some issues that got me to install 1.4.8 as well...

could you tell more about the issues? someone might be able to fix them...

Quote...1.4.8 cannot read files generated by 1.5.8.
Is there a way to force version 1.5.8 to save backward compatible files?

no. but a german scribus user wrote this script.
if you run it in scribus 1.4, it might (or might not – depending on the complexity of your files) be a solution for you.
even if it works you have to inspect the converted files carefully!

utnik

StephanP

Thanks for the prompt reply, utnik.

First off; is v1.5.8 stable or development (beta)?

I am (frantically) switching from MS Publisher because of its horrific sluggyness. I do not want to move that image frame to have it snap to the guides.
We're creating a High School Yearbook. Deadline to printer: 1st of June.
I managed to recreate my Yearbook template document, including master pages in Scribus 1.8.5.
The test PDF I produced with 1.8.5 was well accepted by the printer.

The issues I ran into as a first user:

  • I had prepared image frames with dimensions 30x40mm. When I use Acquire image to insert a photo which has 9:16 ratio, I end up with the photo fitting the height of the frame. I could not find a way to to have the image size to the width of the frame and thus cropping some of its height. Hopefully this is a no-brainer.
  • In my template document I had prepared paragraph styles for standard, some headings and title. I was not able to give the heading styles a different font color than black. Possibly a no-brainer too

I probably need to further watch some instruction videos. Which would you advize?

utnik

#3
hi stephan

Quote from: StephanP on February 17, 2022, 12:06:46 PM
First off; is v1.5.8 stable or development (beta)?

i wouldn't call it 'beta', but it is a development version.
as i can't use 1.4.x on a recent macOS, i'm on 1.5.x for some time now; actually 1.5.8. it's pretty much stable.

Quote

  • I had prepared image frames with dimensions 30x40mm. When I use Acquire image to insert a photo which has 9:16 ratio, I end up with the photo fitting the height of the frame. I could not find a way to to have the image size to the width of the frame and thus cropping some of its height. Hopefully this is a no-brainer.

unfortunately there is no automatic cropping to fill the frame. in 'document setup' → 'item tools' you can select between 'scaled to fit the frame' (uncropped) or a 'scaling factor'.
depending on your images  an automatic crop function would crop the wrong part of the image anyway. if you always need the full width of the image, you could make your image frames too high by default and place a guide where the final frame hight should be. with this setting, the image would be scaled to the width. you could then select 'free scale' in the 'image properties' and adjust the hight manually.
if all your images have the same resolution, it would be easier to set a fixed scale factor in 'document setup' → 'item tools' in the first place.

Quote

  • In my template document I had prepared paragraph styles for standard, some headings and title. I was not able to give the heading styles a different font color than black. Possibly a no-brainer too

you'll find the color selector in the style manager ('f3' in scribus 1.4, 'f4' in 1.5) at the bottom of the 'character style' tab.

Quote
I probably need to further watch some instruction videos. Which would you advize?

i don't know any scribus video tutorials.
but take a look at this manual...

utnik

StephanP

Re. paragraph style font color
I'd have thought to be able to set the font color at the pace as you describe, but I can't get any further than the choice between Black, White and some fague Registration color that i don't understand. See screenshot attached (I can't find how to insert the screenshot within this message)

[attachment deleted by admin]

StephanP

So, where this instruction video is offering a reange of colors, in my situation I'm stuck with only four:
None, Black, Registration color (??) and White.

Is something off with my Scribus installation, global settings or document settings?

utnik

bi stephan

by default scribus offers more than fifty different color sets. i think the preselected set (as long as you don't change anything) is 'scribus basic' with the primary colors of the rgb and cmyk systems, white and some different blacks.
you can select one of those sets under 'edit' → 'colors and fills'. with the 'add' button you create an own color. if you do this without an open document, the changes are for documents you create later. if a document is open, the change will affect only this document.
with 'extras' → 'color wheel' you create (more or less) harmonic color sets.
all those colors are available in your whole document. if you are limited to 'black', 'white' and 'registration', you most probably clicked 'remove unused'.
btw. you should never use 'registration' for a layout item. this is a technical color for things like registration marks.

utnik

StephanP

Thanks @utnik,
I can't remember ever having touched the option Remove unused colors.
(Could it be a bad default value in v1.5.8? After all, I've been using Scribus just one week.)

Anyroad, I understand now where I can edit the color palette for my document.
(I'd been looking for this in the Document settings)
Another step further.

I will raise any new questions in separate posts