DTP Features
Here is a brief comparison between a few closed and open source vector graphics programs. It is a
list of features that are not so much a roadmap as things that any
self respecting desktop publishing software should have. You will note that hardly
any of this is currently implemented in Laidout.
THIS TABLE IS FAR FROM COMPLETE! Please send me updates, or post on the Laidout mailing list
if you see something that is not correct. You might also check out
this comparison
over on the Scribus site about import and export capabilities of Scribus, OpenOffice.org, Inkscape, GIMP, and Krita. Also
this page about vector graphics editors in Wikipedia.
Really someone more industrious then myself should probably transplant something like this chart to Wikipedia. I couldn't find a DTP software comparison there,
only this plain list of such software.
Please note that I have no access to InDesign or Illustrator, so the estimation of the capabilities of those programs might be totally wrong.
They are based mostly on browsing video tutorials for them.
Hover the mouse over a block to see what version the feature first appears in, if known, plus other relevant notes.
"partial" means the feature exists, but leaves much to be desired
"planned" means actual coding has begun on it, but it is not yet functional
| Infrastructure Features | Laidout | Scribus | InDesign | Inkscape | Xara | Illustrator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Impositioning. By the way, see Easypose for a promising, rapidly growing imposition utility. | Yes | planned | Yes | |||
| Mobius strip Impositioning | planned | Not Yet | No | No | No | No |
| Impositioning involving non-rectangular pages | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
| Spreading page contents over several pieces of paper (posterizing) | Yes | partial | partial | |||
| Fore-edge printing. See here. Also Easypose might include it!! | ||||||
| Aligning points, text, and/or objects to paths | ||||||
| Math calculations in input boxes | planned | Yes | Yes | |||
| Plugins or scripting | planned | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Beginning/end/middle arrows and such | Yes | Yes | ||||
| Edge feathering (as seen in Xara), or equivalent blurring | Yes | Yes | ||||
| Metafont-y erase brush, aka a knockout "color" or knockout groups | ||||||
| Fill applied to stroke | Yes | |||||
| Use Stroke/fill as mask | ||||||
| Color separations | Yes | |||||
| RGB/CMYK/CIELab/Grayscale/BW/DeviceN????: Color specifications with arbitrary primaries | ||||||
| ICC color profiles | Yes | Yes | ||||
| Autotrace images | Yes | |||||
| Spread editor | Yes | partial | partial | |||
| overprinting/trapping on per object basis | ||||||
| UCR, BG | ||||||
| Rotate whole page view on screen by arbitrary degrees, not just portrait/landscape | Yes | No | No | Planned | No | No |
| Preflight verifier | planned | Yes | ||||
| Collect for out | planned | Yes | ||||
| Record macros, like Pagestream, Vim, or Openoffice! | planned | |||||
| Non-destructive Bezier patch transforms on any object | ||||||
| Arbitrary f(s,t) transforms, and f(s) or f(t) transforms for paths | ||||||
| Guides that are arbitrary paths, not just vertical and horizontal lines. | planned | No | No | No | No | No |
| Tablet pressure support, stylus, eraser, mouse allowed different functions | partial | |||||
| Ability to use odd control surfaces like midi controllers, a la the Gimp | planned | |||||
| Multi-contact touch pad support, or support for the poor man's version using 2 mice | ||||||
| | ||||||
| Non-text Tool Features | Laidout | Scribus | InDesign | Inkscape | Xara | Illustrator |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Linear, and circle color gradients | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| On canvas gradient color spot editing | Yes | No | Yes | |||
| Patch gradients (aka mesh gradients) | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Image Patch distortions | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
| Lines/polygons with various methods of shifting edges | planned | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Ellipses, arcs, chords | planned | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Paths composed of different types, such as a circular arc to a bezier segment to a straight segment | planned | |||||
| Repeater tool along path | ||||||
| | ||||||
| Text Features | Laidout | Scribus | InDesign | Inkscape | Xara | Illustrator |
| Story Editor | Yes | |||||
| Tabstops that lie on arbitrary paths, not just vertical and horizontal lines. Gone are the days of rigidly defined and poorly accessed tabstops! | planned | No | No | No | No | No |
| Text on a line | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Convert Text to bezier path | Yes | |||||
| Editable clip and textwrap mask | Yes | |||||
| Tables | planned | |||||
| Spiffy Hyphenation and justification | Yes | |||||
| Insert sample gibberish text!! Yeah! | Yes | |||||
| | ||||||
| Exporting | Laidout | Scribus | InDesign | Inkscape | Xara | Illustrator |
| To image | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
| EPS/Postscript | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
| Html | ||||||
| Passepartout | partial | |||||
| mostly | Yes | |||||
| Scribus | partial | Yes | ||||
| SVG/Inkscape | partial | Yes | Yes | |||
| OpenOffice.org Draw | ||||||
| TeX/LaTeX | ||||||
| | ||||||
| Importing | Laidout | Scribus | InDesign | Inkscape | Xara | Illustrator |
| EPS | Yes | Yes | ||||
| Html | ||||||
| Multiple images at the same time | Yes | plugin | Yes | partial | No | No |
| Passepartout | planned | No | ||||
| Scribus | Yes | |||||
| Svg | partial | Yes | ||||
| OpenOffice.org Draw | Yes | |||||
| TeX | ||||||
other kind of neat ideas from other programs, namely Scribus 1.3 roadmap and map suggestions:
| Auto sync keyboard shortcuts with inkscape/gimp/whatever! |
| support for TeX, LaTeX, MathML, lilypond, such as by passing some text block to those programs, then importing their output |
| Openclipart integration/scrapbook |
| cntl-+/- zooms around object, neat! |
| Color selector previews different shades of color with black and white text on it!!! Fab! |
| The scribus color wheel is very clever. |
| be able to swap any two items, or do same as spreadeditor be able to swap and roll and eject |
Notes
Spreading page contents over several pieces of paper (posterizing):
Scribus -- partial
Scribus is set up to handle several papers right next to each other. In the file, there are PageSet sections, which
are very suggestive, but I'm not sure how to use them, or if any but the defaults are recognized.
Illustrator -- partial
Papers can be laid down in a grid, but the edges can only touch the other edges. If your printer cannot print across
the entire paper all the way to the edges, you are out of luck!