Live DTP CD

THIS ARTICLE IS OUTDATED
Reason:	This draft has been replaced by a new Live CD draft for the Google Summer of Code 2007.
Working until:	October 2005

Introduction to Linux DTP Live CD

Please add to the list of applications that you would like to see included into this live CD. It will be based on Knoppix, so you can choose from what is available in Debian archives. See http://www.debian.org/distrib/packages where there are lists and search pages. Or you could write up your choices and I will see if they are available. I think that we should keep the CD as small as possible to be able to make those mini-CDs (200Mb or so) often.

Knoppix allows you to use one special advanced startup option: If you have 828 Mb or more of RAM, you can copy the Knoppix CD image to RAM. After an initial wait, you get dramatically improved performance, and the Knoppix CD is not needed. You need 828 Mb of RAM because the first 700 Mb is used for the CD image. The remaining 128 Mb is used for the system and applications.

At the boot prompt, enter this command:

knoppix toram

Knoppix will start from CD, transfer the CD image to RAM, and continue loading. Once transfer to RAM has completed, you can take the Knoppix CD out of the drive and use the device for burning or mounting data medias.

Programs proposed for inclusion

3-D software

• blender
• Art of Illusion requires Java
• planetGenesis

Clipart

• OpenClipArt (maybe OOo and/or scribus 1.4 can be shipped with OpenClipArt integration)
• collection of maps for OOo from http://ooo.hg.free.fr/
• Even more clipart (and OOo templates) from http://www.stud.uni-goettingen.de/~openoff/proooboxorg/cdinhalt/html/artwork.html
• The GIMP user group provides a collection of images produced with GIMP. Maybe they are worth being included, in case the copyrights allow for that (pls. check with the creators before using).

Desktop environment(s)

• Fluxbox or XFCE4 or twm or fvwm95 or icewm (last two can be made to look like Windows)
  • Note: icewm, fvwm* are REALLY ancient and rather clunky. They may have problems with modern window manager hints that cause odd app behaviour.
• KDE base
  • I strongly recommend KDE as default. We can show off drag and drop.--Mrdocs 22:27, 2 May 2005 (UTC)
  • It might be useful to include the KDE Baghira theme for MacOS X users. A little script that changes the desktop to Baghira could be useful too, together with a short description ("If you want your desktop to resemble MacOS X, open Konsole and type ./macosxlook.sh, then hit "Enter", or something like that).

Documentation

• grab all documentation available under a free license and make it easily accessible in a uniform layout (html, pdf)
• introduction which autmatically shows up after "login" (similar to the current introduction to Knoppix)

Email clients

Needed for collaboration on the projects

• Mozilla Thunderbird
• Kmail or Kontact

Fonts

• A collection of high quality fonts (type 1, ttf, otf) available for free distribution
  • (Be careful with distribution provisions in license when it comes to fonts)
  • Remove crummy fonts so they can't accidentally be used for production

• Install this collection of well designed free fonts for Central Europe, provided by Polish TeX User Group:

ftp://ftp.gust.org.pl/pub/GUST/contrib/fonts/ 
Description and links to font packages (pl)

• See also fonts listed in Right font 4 right purpose

Font utilities

• Fontforge http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/
• Fontlinge

• pfaedit, old version of Fontforge. Why? -> Can import glyphs from SVG files!

HTML editors

• Quanta+ http://quanta.kdewebdev.org/
• NVU http://www.nvu.com
• vim
  • intruducing vim as a HTML editor (or even as a general text editor) might not be a good idea. The Live CD -- as far as I understand the idea -- is to be presented to people who are used to working visually (Mac OS, Windows). It would be better to point at Kate or nedit for general text editing and to NVU or Quanta for HTML. Starting with vim is the safest way to make the intended audience turn their backs on FOSS. --C schaefer 21:23, 5 May 2005 (UTC)

Image viewers

• Gqview http://gqview.sourceforge.net
• Xnview http://www.xnview.com
• xv http://www.trilon.com/xv
• gwenview http://gwenview.sourceforge.net
• pixieplus (probably no good idea, since development stopped with pixie 0.54 and the license seems to be incompatible with the GPL)
• Digikam - photo management tool (with libgphoto2 support --Subik 16:29, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC))
• f-spot is a great photo collections manager, though maybe an overkill for a live cd... http://www.gnome.org/projects/f-spot/

Layout

• Scribus stable — currently 1.2.x series
• Scribus 1.2.x cvs snapshot — installed as an addition to the stable version, for those wanting to use latest improvements
• Scribus unstable snapshot — — currently 1.3.x, installed as an addition to the abovementioned versions, could be very handy for involving DTP guys who don't use Linux into the testing workflow
  • <security_nightmare>It might be a good idea to build (scripted?) deb packages of daily CVS snapshots and make them available from a special repository (e.g on scribus.net). Users interested in testing the latest developments would be able to update their versions from the K-Menu (requires sudo). This option could also be made available for inkscape and GIMP/GIMPshop.</security_nightmare>

Misc Utils/Apps

• kde-extras Kcolor, Kruler
• kde-graphics-scan (kooka + x-sane)
• Dia http://gnome.org/projects/dia
• xsane http://www.xsane.org/
• lcms
• lcms profilers (We have the source, Luke..)
• Superkaramba and kxdocker - to make MacOS X users feel more "at home" with Linux
• k3b - DTP files can become huge, so it's a good idea to have a cd burner handy.
• kxmleditor - A fine editor for xml files, can be handy to repair damaged files.

Postscript and pdf instruments

• gs-afpl >= 8.50
• Gsview
• Pstoedit
• Xpdf
• Adobe Reader (Check license for distribution rules - may not be OK)
  • As it seems, one has to ask Adobe for approval. I tried to find a way through Adobe's legal labyrinth, AKA distribution license, but couldn't make much sense of it. Probably it needs review by a lawyer first, or a written (on paper, signed etc.) statement from Adobe. --C schaefer 01:23, 7 May 2005 (UTC)
• kpdf 3.4
• pdftohtml http://pdftohtml.sourceforge.net/
• ExtendedPDF (OpenOffice.org plugin) http://www.jdisoftware.co.uk/pages/epdf-home.php - This will not be usefull if using a 2.x (including current 1.9.xxx builds) of OpenOffice.org, since the work done by ExtendedPDF is at my knowledge fully native in those versions. --Krap 11:29, 13 May 2005 (UTC)
• Multivalent Java Tools - http://multivalent.sourceforge.net/
• pdftk - the pdf toolkit - http://www.accesspdf.com/pdftk/ (or are we typically avoiding commandline tools ?)

Raster graphics

• The GIMP or GIMPshop (including "separate"-plugin!)
  • Make sure all available plug-ins are included
• ImageMagick http://www.imagemagick.org/
• KSnapshot
• Cinepaint see: http://www.behrmann.name/
• Krita in koffice 1.4beta1 has integrated color management
• ExifTool (extracts EXIF, ICC, and many other informations from pictures) http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/
• Hugin, PTStitcher, PTOptimizer, Nona, Autopano-sift, Panorama-tools, Enblend, ptfilter, ... : tools to create panoramas from set of photos (lots of links from http://bugbear.blackfish.org.uk/~bruno/panorama-tools/ )- Many tutorials on the web that could be a great added value, if their respective authors allow us to distribute them (http://hugin.sourceforge.net/tutorials/, http://www.philohome.com/barrelpers/barrelpers2.htm, http://rbpark.ath.cx/tutorials.html, many others). Some tools / plugins for Gimp an also be found for correction of such pictures (barrel distortion, ...) (PTLens, clens, for example). Sorry, no time to do further searches... Just a few ideas for now.

System software

• Networking tools to enable establishing working network connection
• Tools for installation of the Live system to HDD if necessary
• CUPS
• Apache (for CUPS and Batik) Apache not needed to run Batik, only compile
• gutenprint (gimp-print 5.0)
• JVM 1.4.2+ for running Batik and/or delineate

Trace tools

• Autotrace http://autotrace.sourceforge.net/
• Frontline - GUI front end to autotrace http://autotrace.sourceforge.net/frontline/
• Potrace http://potrace.sourceforge.net/
• pstoedit http://www.pstoedit.net/pstoedit
• potracegui http://potracegui.sourceforge.net/
• delineate - Java based GUI to autotrace and potrace http://delineate.sourceforge.net/

Typesetting

• teTeX http://www.tug.org/teTeX/
• LyX http://www.lyx.org/
• Kile http://kile.sourceforge.net/
• Texmaker http://www.xm1math.net/texmaker/
• pdflatex http://www.tug.org/applications/pdftex/
• Calc2LaTeX: OOo macro for converting OOo Calc files to LaTeX tables http://web.hc.keio.ac.jp/~mr041754/calc2latex/
• Writer2LaTeX: OOo macro for converting OOo Writer files to LaTeX files http://www.hj-gym.dk/~hj/writer2latex/
• wyneken for easy production of “office” documents like letters or presentations with LaTeX

Vector graphics

• Inkscape
• Batik - a collection of Apache XML modules for on the fly export/conversion of SVG http://xml.apache.org/batik/
• Skencil - has the best SVG+EPS capabilities. Requires python-imaging http://www.skencil.org/
• Karbon14 - A vector drawing application.
• xfig - really ugly and unpleasant GUI, but still quite powerful.
• SVG importer for OpenOffice.org 2 (requires Java RE 1.5)

Web browsers

Needed for looking up materials and for collaboration over the web (include a bunch of DTP bookmarks)

• Konqueror
• Mozilla Firefox (with svg plugin...)

Word processor(s)

Required to edit large amounts of text easier than in scribus

• OpenOffice.org
• KWord (can be used for basic PDF editing)

Proposed names

• Scribux (too similar to Scribus?)
• Publix (there may be trademark issues with this one since it is the name of a U.S. supermarket chain
• scribOS - Linux DTP CD
• FOPUX (Free and Open Publishing Linux)
• OpenCanvas (another name with trademark issues, since there already exists a drawing software called OpenCanvas)
• OpenPage
• OpenPub
• OpenDTP
• Design on Disc (from bug #1763)
• Artix or Artux (combining Latin ars (art) with the almost obligatory *ix/*ux)

Other Linux Live Distributions with Scribus onboard

• Puppy Linux 1.01 - boots from CD and USB, ca. 60 MB, contains Scribus 1.2.1

• Knoppix

• Kanotix 2005-02 contains Scribus 1.2.1

• PCLinuxOS: P.81 contains Scribus 1.2.1

• Galantine is a dtp aimed live cd

Development team

• Currently unmaintained

Releases

• October 19, 2005: First and last preview release, currently unmaintained, see RFE 2724 for more