I have three books on Inkscape, the third edition of "Inkscape Guide to a Vector Drawing Program", "The Book of Inkscape" and the smaller "Inkscape for Vector Graphics". None of the three mention the Render tool "Perfect Book Template" which I am reasonably certain came in with version 47 or perhaps earlier. With version 48 the barcode generator choices include two that are useful for book covers, EAN 13 and EAN 5. With these enhancements Inkscape is not yet a complete stand alone book cover tool (no CMYK, no PDF X/1-a) but it is getting close. With a little help from other free software such as Scribus the potential is exciting.
I suggest that as these three books are republished the potential for creating book covers be acknowledged and the "Perfect Book Template" be at least mentioned. It more or less replaces my effort shown here: http://wexfordpress.net/template.html While my program only generates the dimensions and the guide positions as numeric output Inkscape actually creates a true template which can be saved as a pdf and used in other programs like Scribus (or even Gimp.)
The workload can be split between Inkscape and Scribus in various ways. At one extreme only the template is taken from Inkscape, imported into Scribus, and the external page dimensions fitted to the imported pdf or png file. At the other extreme all of the creative work can be done in Inkscape and the finished cover imported into Scribus for conversion to CMYK and saving as PDF X/1-a where that is required or desirable.
I am only beginning to experiment with these combinations. As my experience grows I'll share the results. The next edition of my e- book listed below will have both Inkscape and Scribus in the title.
Stay tuned!
On Tue, 2010-09-07 at 14:22 -0400, John Culleton wrote:
I have three books on Inkscape, the third edition of "Inkscape Guide to a Vector Drawing Program", "The Book of Inkscape" and the smaller "Inkscape for Vector Graphics". None of the three mention the Render tool "Perfect Book Template" which I am reasonably certain came in with version 47 or perhaps earlier. With version 48 the barcode generator choices include two that are useful for book covers, EAN 13 and EAN 5. With these enhancements Inkscape is not yet a complete stand alone book cover tool (no CMYK, no PDF X/1-a) but it is getting close. With a little help from other free software such as Scribus the potential is exciting.
It's called "Perfect-Bound Cover Template":
http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Extensions-Render.html#Extensio...
OK, it doesn't say a lot but it is mentioned.
EAN 13 and EAN 5 as well as the book cover template were added in 0.46.
You have failed to mention the "Printing Marks" extension which could also be useful, added in 0.47.
I suggest that as these three books are republished the potential for creating book covers be acknowledged and the "Perfect Book Template" be at least mentioned. It more or less replaces my effort shown here: http://wexfordpress.net/template.html While my program only generates the dimensions and the guide positions as numeric output Inkscape actually creates a true template which can be saved as a pdf and used in other programs like Scribus (or even Gimp.)
The workload can be split between Inkscape and Scribus in various ways. At one extreme only the template is taken from Inkscape, imported into Scribus, and the external page dimensions fitted to the imported pdf or png file. At the other extreme all of the creative work can be done in Inkscape and the finished cover imported into Scribus for conversion to CMYK and saving as PDF X/1-a where that is required or desirable.
I am only beginning to experiment with these combinations. As my experience grows I'll share the results. The next edition of my e- book listed below will have both Inkscape and Scribus in the title.
Stay tuned!
Will do.
Tav
On Tuesday 07 September 2010 14:38:43 Tavmjong Bah wrote:
On Tue, 2010-09-07 at 14:22 -0400, John Culleton wrote:
I have three books on Inkscape, the third edition of "Inkscape Guide to a Vector Drawing Program", "The Book of Inkscape" and the smaller "Inkscape for Vector Graphics". None of the three mention the Render tool "Perfect Book Template" which I am reasonably certain came in with version 47 or perhaps earlier. With version 48 the barcode generator choices include two that are useful for book covers, EAN 13 and EAN 5. With these enhancements Inkscape is not yet a complete stand alone book cover tool (no CMYK, no PDF X/1-a) but it is getting close. With a little help from other free software such as Scribus the potential is exciting.
It's called "Perfect-Bound Cover Template":
http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Extensions-Render.html #Extensions-Template-PerfectlyBoundCover
OK, it doesn't say a lot but it is mentioned.
EAN 13 and EAN 5 as well as the book cover template were added in 0.46.
You have failed to mention the "Printing Marks" extension which could also be useful, added in 0.47.
I had a request for printing marks at the spine from a user of my e- book. Neither Inkscape nor Scribus offer this refinement but they can be drawn by hand.
I traced down the Perfect Bound Cover extension in your book by looking up its immediate predecessor, the Butterfly Curve, in the index. The PB Cover didn't make it into the index. Also PB cover is mentioned in Chapter 41 of the Floss book but of course that book has no index at all and the description is totally obsolete. Tempus fugit.
If the cover template were to be exported via pdf without any content the spine guides would of course disappear. So a rectangle fitting the spine exactly would need to be fitted to the spine area. If there is a function to convert spine guides to line segments in this instance that would be a bit more accurate.
It probably makes more sense to fill the template with content in Inkscape first, and export it to Scribus just for the missing attributes mentioned before, CMYK color model and possibly PDF X/1-a PDF version.
On Tuesday 07 September 2010 14:38:43 Tavmjong Bah wrote:
On Tue, 2010-09-07 at 14:22 -0400, John Culleton wrote:
I have three books on Inkscape, the third edition of "Inkscape Guide to a Vector Drawing Program", "The Book of Inkscape" and the smaller "Inkscape for Vector Graphics". None of the three mention the Render tool "Perfect Book Template" which I am reasonably certain came in with version 47 or perhaps earlier. With version 48 the barcode generator choices include two that are useful for book covers, EAN 13 and EAN 5. With these enhancements Inkscape is not yet a complete stand alone book cover tool (no CMYK, no PDF X/1-a) but it is getting close. With a little help from other free software such as Scribus the potential is exciting.
It's called "Perfect-Bound Cover Template":
http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Extensions-Render.html #Extensions-Template-PerfectlyBoundCover
OK, it doesn't say a lot but it is mentioned.
EAN 13 and EAN 5 as well as the book cover template were added in 0.46.
You have failed to mention the "Printing Marks" extension which could also be useful, added in 0.47.
I suggest that as these three books are republished the potential for creating book covers be acknowledged and the "Perfect Book Template" be at least mentioned. It more or less replaces my effort shown here: http://wexfordpress.net/template.html While my program only generates the dimensions and the guide positions as numeric output Inkscape actually creates a true template which can be saved as a pdf and used in other programs like Scribus (or even Gimp.)
The workload can be split between Inkscape and Scribus in various ways. At one extreme only the template is taken from Inkscape, imported into Scribus, and the external page dimensions fitted to the imported pdf or png file. At the other extreme all of the creative work can be done in Inkscape and the finished cover imported into Scribus for conversion to CMYK and saving as PDF X/1-a where that is required or desirable.
I am only beginning to experiment with these combinations. As my experience grows I'll share the results. The next edition of my e- book listed below will have both Inkscape and Scribus in the title.
Stay tuned!
Will do.
Tav
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When Inkscape saves as svg that is a vector format. When Inkscape saves as e.g. eps or pdf it apparently converts to bitmap. Am I correct in this?
On 09/09/2010 06:43 PM, John Culleton wrote:
When Inkscape saves as svg that is a vector format. When Inkscape saves as e.g. eps or pdf it apparently converts to bitmap. Am I correct in this?
This is wrong, saving as eps or pdf the result is also vector. Only the features which are not supported (like filters) will be rasterized.
participants (3)
-
John Culleton -
Nicu Buculei -
Tavmjong Bah