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, Quark, 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.
* If a spot is blank, its status is either not known, or the devs might be vaguely thinking about implementing it some day.
"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.
"plugin" means that you can do it in the program, but you need an extra plugin.

Notes

[1] Infrastructure Features: Impositioning:
  Scribus --  No 
A plugin was being developed during Google Summer of Code 2007, but it seems to have never been completed. Other relevant links include making booklets from Scribus, and the imposition bug report, in which there is much discussion. Other info here and here.

[2] Infrastructure Features: Spreading page contents over several pieces of paper, so you can print out a really big layout from your small printer:
  Scribus --  partial 
Scribus is set up to handle several papers right next to each other in a grid. In the file, there are PageSet sections. You can copy that and insert new PageSets. This allows spreading objects across many papers, but suffers the same limitation as Illustrator, since the papers have to be touching each other exactly, which leaves you with gaps if your printer cannot print to the edge of the paper. As of 1.3.5svn, There does not appear to be a way to edit these page sets in the gui. You have to edit the file manually.

[3] Infrastructure Features: Spreading page contents over several pieces of paper, so you can print out a really big layout from your small printer:
  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!

[4] Text Features: Math equations support:
  Scribus --  partial 
As of 1.3.5 anyway, you can render formulas in Scribus Render Frames, then copy the frame, then paste the frame while inside a text stream, from within a text frame. Pasting while in story editor will paste a bunch of xml data that is used as text rather than as an image. Suffice it to say inline graphics needs a bit of work.

[5] Importing: Multiple images at the same time:
  Scribus --  plugin 
These plugins allows you do dump in images potentially to multiple pages, but you are restricted to a grid of 4, 6, or 12 images per page. If python programming doesn't scare you off, you could modify it to be more adaptible.

[6] Importing: Html:
  Scribus --  partial 
Using the "Get Text" option in a text frame. CSS not supported yet. Text is pulled from the body element, and you can use these tags: div, a, p, br, h1, h2, h3, h4, ol, ul, li, pre, code, b, u, i, em, strong, sub, sup, del, u.

[7] Importing: Scribus:
  Laidout --  partial 
Scribus import works in .09 only with a couple large deficiencies. Master pages are ignored, and passed through on export. Linked text frames seem to break. Page data and other incidental data are imported as Mystery Data, which can be exported back out into a scribus document. Images whose frames do not match exactly with their image boundaries are not handled correctly unless you import all data as mystery objects. Importing images as images and keeping their clipping and contour paths as well as other data preserving work is planned for version .091.

[8] Importing: TeX/LaTeX:
  Scribus --  partial 
Scribus render frames, in addition to TeX/LaTeX, also allow importing many other formats, like gnuplot, lilypond, mathml, as long as you have a renderer installed somewhere that can convert those things to an image format or PDF that Scribus can import. You can edit the source text within Scribus, then have the render frame re-render. The TeX input has a fancy symbol selector, which is convenient.