File formats that should be supported by Scribus (wish list)

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Revision as of 01:57, 21 May 2009 by Dboddie (talk | contribs) (Added a link to code for reading Impression files.)
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Below is a list of file formats users think should be supported by Scribus. This doesn't mean that they will be actually supported, but the list will save numerous bug reports/RFEs. Feel free to add your suggestions. Please also see the Scribus FAQ on propietary imports

Note: Some of these formats may impossible to support for patent (in the U.S) and/or other practical reasons. Notably, no public documentation or mis-matches where a program X has a feature or vice versa. I have added some comments with * to indicate status or existing request --mrdocs 00:24, 17 March 2007 (CET)

Import

DTP

Text

Bitmap

  • Corel Photopaint – CPT files are based on TIFF, so that an import filter shouldn't be hard to write, according to Boudewijn Rempt.
  • GIMP - The GIMP developers have specifically recommended against using XCF as an interchange or import as some of the format relies on GIMP internals. Export TIFF or PNG.
  • IMG/IMG GEM (still used by Corel Ventura Publisher)
  • Kodak Photo CD See here.
  • Krita: According to Boudewijn Rempt from Krita, "the pixel data is 64x64 blocks of as many bytes as needed for a pixel, and the rest is xml and self-explanatory."
  • Mac Pict PICT tech doc from Apple. XaraLX has a PICT import filter.
  • PaintBrush Image (PCX) (See: http://www.qzx.com/pc-gpe/pcx.txt)
  • PaintShop Pro (GIMP has an import filter), See here, here and here.
  • Photoline
  • Picture Publisher
  • Sun Rasterfile File Format Doc ImageMagick can convert it
  • Truevision Targa (TGA/VDA/ICB/VST) – TGA v1 specification, TGA v2 specification
  • Windows Bitmap (BMP, RLE)

Vector

A closer look at ai2svg, an Illustrator to SVG converter written in Python might be useful. Moreover, skencil and sK1 have native ai support.

Other

  • Acorn !Impression (Cf. http://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=115).
    • A spec (sort of) can be found here.
    • Code to read files can be found here.
  • OpenOffice.org Presentation
  • OpenDocument Presentation
  • PowerPoint 95
  • PowerPoint 97-2003
  • StarOffice Impress 3x-5x

The difficulty with presentation file formats is they often have embedded objects beyond the native graphics.

Export

  • PDF/X-1a
  • PDF/X-4
  • XPS