Laidout

Laidout 0.092 Released. Woowoo!

30 December 2011

Laidout Version 0.092 is at last available, as source or an amd64 precompiled deb package, for you to experiment with.

What's not new is that there is still no native text tool. What IS new in this release:

There is now an interface for modifying page labels. See a video tutorial here.

You may now add custom printer marks, including some automatic marks if using signatures. Automarks are cut and fold lines just outside the printable area, and/or tiny dots just inside the pages. The dots are useful in case you have no inset in your signature. Work will be done hopefully soon to be able to customize various gaps, colors, and line widths of the automarks. For custom marks, future versions will also provide much more control over which printer spreads get which printer marks.

There is now a very basic path editing tool. It is somewhat new, and probably inadequate and buggy, but you can at least build paths, and change the stroke and fill color with it. You cannot currently see transparency on screen in paths, but it will export with transparency.

You can now select different units in the rulers. You can select a few common small units like inches, points, cm, mm, m, and yards. Also you can select what units should be default units from the new document creation dialog.

Scribus import has been slightly improved to handle page number labels, and master pages. Note however that the master pages are converted to actual page objects on import. This simplifies exporting back out to a Scribus document after imposing onto some bizarre layout. For the Scribus plugin, there are now a couple of Scribus based dialogs that can popup to try to get settings to simplify calling laidout when things are not where they are expected. The automatic marks are available from the Scribus plugin, but you cannot currently add your own custom ones. For that, you still have to import into a running Laidout, not from the plugin. Read more about Laidout with Scribus here.

Now uses ~/.config/laidout to store options, rather than ~/.laidout. Also there is a Laidout .desktop file provided to make it easier to access for those who don't like the command line.

Unsnarled some really convoluted behind the scenes object movement code. This finally makes moving groups of objects from one page to another (or off of pages) actually work almost like one would expect it to. Still some serious problems moving objects that are nested in groups though! A prime example of Laidout being a work in progress. I swear I'm working on it.

A few interface polishes, such as being able to click outside of a menu to make it go away, and tiny text writing in the rulers that might make them actually useable.

Development Update

30 November 2011

My goal is a new release of Laidout before January 1. Most changes are bug fixes and seemingly small interface smoothing, the actual implementation of which is taking an annoyingly long time. The last major hurdle before releasing is to fix a very mysterious paper tiling interface bug. It doesn't help that I'm not quite sure when during the last nine months it stopped working. You know you're in trouble when neither ddd nor valgrind give meaningful clues! Off to relearn svn log/diff/co/update. If you don't know what that means, suffice it to say, it's really, really tedious!

New features that are basically ready are the ability to use units other than inches, an interface to change page labels, rudimentary ability to add custom printer marks, and a more versatile Scribus importer.

New stuff and Libre Graphics Meeting recap

30 May 2011

Recent Additions
As seen in video, I've been developing a 3-d polyhedron unwrapper, and panorama projector. I'm slowly, bit by agonizing bit, making it directly available within Laidout. It is called Polyptych, and currently lives only in the Laidout svn. Once you grab the Laidout svn, go to src/impositions/polyptych, and you can build the standalone version.

Also, there does not appear to be an easy XInput2 configurator, so as to simply set up the use of more than one mouse at the same time. Such a thing is needed to play with the newest faux multi-touch capabilities of Laidout. To that end, I've created a simple drag and drop configurator. This is currently a part of the Laxkit source code. Grab the Laxkit svn, and go to the laxinput directory, and viola! Laxinput currently implements only the device hierarchy changes, so for more complicated input mapping, you will still probably need xinput, the command line utility that comes with the X window system, and perhaps xrandr. Now if only Laxinput helped map strange input devices like IR spots from wiimotes, or tuio input to something usable for applications!

Laxinput is definitely experimental software. Use at your own risk!! Both Polyptych (standalone and as a Laidout plugin), and Laxinput should be a little more stable by the next release of Laidout, whenever that is!

Libre Graphics Meeting recap
This year's Libre Graphics Meeting in Montreal was again filled with people from all over the world who make the software that I use all the time. I presented a short talk on developments in Laidout during the last year. Also, I showed how I used a combination of Laidout, Inkscape, Gimp, Blender, Polyptych, fabric and 40 iron on transfers to project a panoramic image onto a t-shirt. I'm working on a kind of tutorial of the process. People laughed, I am assuming at my jokes.

Libre Graphics Meeting

13 April 2011

Tom will be going to the Libre Graphics Meeting this year in Montreal. If you can plan to be in Montreal May 10-13, you should come too! This meeting brings together free open source graphics software makers and users, to talk about what's going on and what's to come, to collaborate and strategize. You can see the Laidout presentation from last year here.

If you want to help support such an event, and also help those who want to come but can't otherwise afford the plane ticket, you can donate to the Pledgie camipaign to raise money for it:

Laidout 0.091 Released

13 November 2010

Feast your eyes upon the latest release of Laidout! The hottest new things this time around are an on-screen folder to create signatures for imposing pages. There is a special command line flag that jumps you straight to this folding editor, which lets you do things like impose a Scribus document into a booklet, without ever leaving Scribus! There are also minor enhancements to the Spread Editor. Look for more on that front in the next release. Finally, there is a new exporter for PLAN files that podofoimpose can use to impose already existing pdf files. Yehaw!

Still coming soon...

31 October 2010

Here's a progress update. The signature editor is now in place, with fancy on screen folding. All that's left before a release is debugging the Spread editor, and ironing out a few interface and scripting annoyances.

Doing that should take about 2 weeks plus or minus a few weeks. I swear. I really mean it this time. You can trust me. Is this not a face you can trust? (Happy Halloween!)

Coming soon...

18 September 2010

Just a few notes on coming changes to Laidout. Almost done is a folding signature imposition, where you can fold the signature right on screen, and adjust trim and margin values, and which edge is supposed to be the binding edge in a final book. This allows easy creation of both calendars and books with a single interface, as well as books whose page numbers increase right to left.

Also in the works are the beginnings of multitouch capabilities. This is done with Xinput2, which lets you use multiple mice at the same time, simulating touching a screen twice to do scaling and rotation by dragging 2 points around at the same time. The next Laidout version will only have this in the object tool, but future versions will have that sort of thing more thoroughly available.

If I can stop being so lazy, the next version will come out within about a month. If I keep telling myself that, it will be true someday, right?

Laidout in Brussels

9 June 2010

The annual Libre Graphics Meeting for 2010 was held in Brussels, Belgium, and I was fortunate enough to be able to go and meet many of the makers of the software I use all the time. There were about 170 people from 47 different countries, each day was action packed with interesting talks about lots of different programs and subjects. When navigating the streets of Brussels early in the morning trying to find the conference, you simply have to throw out any preconceived ideas about urban planning, and this really puts you in a great, open frame of mind when you finally get there and listen to the talks!

I presented Laidout and my interactive polyhedron unwrapper on the second day of the conference. People seemed to enjoy it. You can watch my talk, and all the other talks online, thanks to River Valley TV. The LGM was certainly inspiration to get me to spend more time developing Laidout!

Laidout 0.09 Released

21 February 2010

Laidout 0.09 has just been released. New this time around are importers for Scribus, Svg, and Passepartout files. Also the ability to pass in rudimentary commands, letting you import, reimpose, and export all from the command line, without opening up any windows.

Laidout 0.08 Released

15 September 2007

Laidout 0.08 has just been released. New this time around are several new exporters for Pdf, Scribus, and transparent images. Also there is now a paper tiler for making large prints of a group of things using many smaller pieces of paper.

Laidout 0.06 Released

21 April 2007

Laidout 0.06 has just been released. Really not so very much is new, but there are a few notable improvements, such as the ability to import and print out EPS files. This lets you use pages made with other programs inside a Laidout document. Also new is the ability to start Laidout from a template document.

Laidout 0.05 Released

4 November 2006

Laidout 0.05 has just been released. Only one month late this time, now you can work using preview images, so that you don't run out of memory moving around hundreds of huge tiffs. Also, you can now import multiple images at once from a file list. Plus the object tool now uses a three point transform for speedy positioning. See the website for more.

Laidout 0.04 Released

4 September 2006

So just in case anyone's watching, Laidout 0.04 has just been released. The biggest news for this much delayed release is a Palette window, in which you can select a color, and have that color immediately applied to whatever you're working on. Also, Laidout now uses icons, and the splittable window system has been improved.

Making zines with open source software

9 July 2006

Laidout development will be rather slow until mid-August. The development team (consisting of a one Tom Lechner) is spending most of his time finishing a book of cartoons (which he's put off finishing for about 6 months) in time to show off at the Portland Zine Syposium August 11-13 in Portland, Oregon (http://www.pdxzines.com). At the symposium I'll also be giving a workshop on how to make zines using all open source software including Laidout, Scribus, the Gimp, Inkscape, and more.

New screenshot of a rhombic triacontahedron

18 June 2006

This screenshot shows a Net Imposition as seen in the development version. This particular net is a 30 sided Rhombic Triacontahedron layout, that one might use to make spherical panoramas..