Andy Pastuszak
Member 
Praying for my family and everyone in Ukraine.
Posts: 1,591 
What I collect: United States, Ukraine, Ireland
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Post by Andy Pastuszak on Feb 3, 2018 14:49:26 GMT
Been using Scribus for years to make album pages. I like the flexibility that a desktop publishing app gives me. But there are quite a number of features that would make my life easier that are in the development branch, the 1.5.x series. And that's been in development for years now.
Now I can't really complain. The app is free, and a bunch of open source developers work on it out of the goodness of their heart. That in itself is amazing.
That being said, LibreOffice just released version 6.0 of their Open Source office suite. I think I am gong to try to make my 2018 Ukraine supplement in LibreOffice and see how that goes.
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Andy Pastuszak
Member
Praying for my family and everyone in Ukraine.
Posts: 1,591
What I collect: United States, Ukraine, Ireland
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Post by Andy Pastuszak on Feb 3, 2018 14:55:19 GMT
And to add to things. LibreOffice 6 added the ability to open PageMaker files. So if you were lucky enough to buy the PageMaker files that Bill Steiner had available for a short time, you should be able to open them and edit them now.
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Post by PostmasterGS on Feb 3, 2018 15:16:04 GMT
If you're able to get good results, it's probably possible to automate LibreOffice in much the same manner as Scribus. Or even more so, considering LibreOffice has a database component as well -- you could have a LibreOffice database for collection inventory/management with the ability to selectively export data to build pages in LibreOffice Draw, etc.
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angore
Member
Posts: 5,709
What I collect: WW, focus on British Empire
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Post by angore on Feb 3, 2018 19:57:51 GMT
I have the Steiner page maker files...so I will try it.
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angore
Member
Posts: 5,709
What I collect: WW, focus on British Empire
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Post by angore on Feb 3, 2018 20:15:07 GMT
Woo Hoo! It works but borders did not appear but not a big deal to me. This is from the Steiner's Great Britain PageMaker files.  host gif online |
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angore
Member
Posts: 5,709
What I collect: WW, focus on British Empire
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Post by angore on Feb 4, 2018 12:27:42 GMT
Andy, I discovered that Scribus (running 1.5.3) can open PageMaker files directly using Open function. I thought I had tried a while back so there is native support. I have been using 1.5.3 and has been very stable and no real issues. Adding language support for spell check and hyphenation seem to be non-intuitive. I could not do copy / paste from Draw to Scribus (not that surprised). I used the Scribus Paste File but only copies first page of PageMaker file. Scribus can also open a converted Draw file too.  |
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KirkS
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Often wrong, but never in doubt :-)
Posts: 187
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Post by KirkS on Feb 8, 2018 16:07:30 GMT
One slightly off-topic addition/comment about LibreOffice for those of us who use macOS and Mac hardware: LibreOffice includes BASE, a relational database application for users who "outgrow" (flat) spreadsheets.
Apple's iWork Suite doesn't include a database application.
Microsoft Office for the Mac has no Mac version of Access Database.
The best known database for macOS is FileMaker (definitely not free).
So, not only does LibreOffice provide a Free Open Source (FOSS) solution, it literally provides an application not offered by Apple or Microsoft.
KirkS
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angore
Member
Posts: 5,709
What I collect: WW, focus on British Empire
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Post by angore on Apr 22, 2018 12:09:14 GMT
This was a test using LibreOffice Draw to edit Steiner PDFs. I was looking at adding catalog numbers, adding new text boxes, and adding images. The text and object added were visually centered. The Steiner page layout is a little crowded to add text below the text box. A few observations using LibreOffice. 1. Draw opens the design while retaining an accurate layout including border. The only issue is substituting the font. Draw chooses Liberation Sans. Steiner used Helvetica font but the Arial font was encoded. Liberation Sans is closer to Helvetica than Arial. The extension on the letter G is one key differences. I am still experimenting how to get Draw to default to Arial but also think kerning (spacing between characters) is looser on Steiner pages. You can see the text is tighter than the original page. 2. The text imports into editable groups except the demonination. It imports 10C and a text box with 10 and text box with C Original  After modifications  Summary - very usable to create modifications of existing pages. |
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Andy Pastuszak
Member
Praying for my family and everyone in Ukraine.
Posts: 1,591
What I collect: United States, Ukraine, Ireland
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Post by Andy Pastuszak on Jul 9, 2018 1:17:51 GMT
The only issue I've had with editing Steiner pages is the fonts. I believe tells you on his website that he uses what is a really old computer by today's standards. He probably has a seriously old version of Helvetica on his machine. It might not even be a TrueType font. So, when you load it up, it's probably going to substitute in Liberation Sans or Arial. Liberation Sans is a good font, but it's a drop in free replacement for Arial. Steiner pages use Helvetica. The open source drop in replacement for Helvetica, if you don't have it is Nimbus Sans L.
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angore
Member
Posts: 5,709
What I collect: WW, focus on British Empire
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Post by angore on Jul 9, 2018 16:33:09 GMT
Andy, I think the issue with the fonts where with Acrobat. I learned early Acrobat programs embedded common fonts for consistency on platforms. His later created pages have Helvetica substituted properly. Some of his PDF's were generated many years ago.
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Andy Pastuszak
Member
Praying for my family and everyone in Ukraine.
Posts: 1,591
What I collect: United States, Ukraine, Ireland
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Post by Andy Pastuszak on Jul 9, 2018 19:56:20 GMT
Andy, I think the issue with the fonts where with Acrobat. I learned early Acrobat programs embedded common fonts for consistency on platforms. His later created pages have Helvetica substituted properly. Some of his PDF's were generated many years ago. When I load even the newest PDF pages up in LibreOffice Draw, the fonts are all off, because I don't have Helvetica Installed. |
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angore
Member
Posts: 5,709
What I collect: WW, focus on British Empire
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Post by angore on Jul 9, 2018 20:07:45 GMT
Yes, but if you print the PDF they are correct. I have original PageMaker files (.p65) for the pages (circa 2005) and it does not include embedded fonts. They get substituted when you open the files by the authoring program (Scribus opens them too).
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Andy Pastuszak
Member
Praying for my family and everyone in Ukraine.
Posts: 1,591
What I collect: United States, Ukraine, Ireland
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Post by Andy Pastuszak on Jul 9, 2018 20:43:55 GMT
Yes, but if you print the PDF they are correct. I have original PageMaker files (.p65) for the pages (circa 2005) and it does not include embedded fonts. They get substituted when you open the files by the authoring program (Scribus opens them too). That makes sense.
I wonder if he's still using Pagemaker now to make files. I've sent him a few emails over the last couple of years and have not gotten a response. Back in 2009 when I got back into the hobby, he would frequently respond to my emails.
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angore
Member
Posts: 5,709
What I collect: WW, focus on British Empire
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Post by angore on Jul 9, 2018 23:20:16 GMT
I have had sporadic responses. When I report errors (usually box sizes not correct dimensions), I never get a response. If I ask a specific question, I do get responses.
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