Change typeface without losing formatting (e.g. italic)

[jordangoff]

I hope this isn't answered elsewhere, but I haven't been able to find a good solution to my problem:

If I have text that includes the use of italics or bold (in Georgia, say) and I want to change the typeface (to Times New Roman, for instance), I use the Properties dialogue and select the text and choose Times New Roman from the dropdown menu. But all the text I had set to Georgia Italic now becomes TNR Regular. Am I missing a way to change to the new font and retain the portions in italics in the new typeface? Is using styles for all my text and then editing the styles the only solution? If so, I'd suggest this as a feature request, because it would save me a lot of time and headaches.

NOTE: I'm not asking for false bold or italic. I understand and agree with the decision not to do that (http://wiki.scribus.net/canvas/False_bold). This is just a case where I'm moving from one typeface that offers an italic to another that offers it.

Thanks for any suggestions.

[GarryP]

I'm sure one or more of the more experienced Scribus people will probably have a good solution for you but if I can add something from my own experience...

When I first started using Scribus I didn't use the Styles because I thought they were a bit too long-winded to set-up (for the simple stuff I was doing then anyway).

Then I started doing more complicated things and decided to take the jump into getting to know more about Styles and I'm really glad that I did. (Even if I'm in no way any kind of expert with them yet.)

Once I got over my initial reluctance to use them, because they looked too complicated for what I was doing at the time, I came to realise quite quickly how powerful they were.

For instance I could totally change the look of a whole document by simply making a small change in one place; a massive time saving when trying different "looks" out. (In your example you'd only have to change three styles once each to make the change you're after; one paragraph style and two character styles if I've understood you properly. A few button clicks and it's done; make Scribus do all of the repetitive hum-drum work for you.)

Also, I could control my use of fonts by knowing which fonts were used by which styles. Sometimes I'd use some similar fonts when "playing around" and forget that I'd used them, then later they'd be embedded in my PDFs, unnecessarily adding to the file sizes. For instance, I regularly use a font with "Regular" and "Medium" and "Book" weights that are very similar when viewed on the screen and each one added to the size of the PDF (10-100K each if I remember right). It doesn't sound like much but it can add up, for example, server-throughput-wise if you've got something that's downloaded many times.

Anyway, to cut a long story even longer!, I'd really advise using Styles as much as you can right from the start of a document. It will be a big time-saver in the long run and could save a lot of headaches. (Even if you never change the style from start to finish it's something you'd only need to set-up once.)

Even if this doesn't help your current situation I hope it will help someone browsing this forum for similar help in the future.

Garry.

[jordangoff]

Garry,

Thanks so much for the reply. It's helpful to know that I'm just not missing something obvious. I'll plan on using styles more often, but there are still issues for me. I like to do most writing in text files (using the Markdown syntax) and then import that into Scribus. The html importer is helpful and creates new styles for headings, lists, etc. but not for italics. So if I do any editing in Scribus and then decide to change typefaces, I'm going to have to re-import from the original file and lose all the editing I might have done in Scribus.

Thanks again for the reply, though.

--Jordan

[GarryP]

Hi Jordan.

It's good to know that my reply was at least a little bit useful, but it's a shame it doesn't really apply to what you want.

I hadn't heard of Markdown until you mentioned it but after a quick read about it I might give it a go with some of my projects. Even if I don't use it soon it's good to know that such a thing exists for possible future stuff.

On your particular issue, I hope someone comes up with something you can use. It's my experience that the people who look after Scribus are really on the ball and, if what you want to do isn't possible now, it wouldn't surprise me if it becomes possible real soon.

Cheers, Garry.