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Good vector-based tools available

Scribus also includes vector drawing tools, and allows features such as setting type on a curve. Other open source vector drawing apps include Sketch, Karbon14, part of KOffice, Sodipodi, and OpenOffice.org's Draw, which allow users to create illustrations in vector format. Vector formats use resolution-independent mathematical descriptions of curves, lines gradients, et al., and allow a drawing to be output as a native vector file (like SVG) or a bitmap rasterized for a target resolution like 72 dpi for the Web and 300 or 1200 dpi for print documents. Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia Freehand are two well-known proprietary vector drawing apps.

Down the publishing scale a notch, a huge number of corporate and other publications are created in Microsoft Word -- everything from newsletters to training and HR manuals. StarOffice 7 is not only compatible with MS file formats, but it has built-in PDF and HTML creation, reducing the number of steps required to create a print and screen version of a document that can easily be distributed to both print and online readers.

Improvements in the Linux kernel have also made life easier for those who input images from film and print scanners and digital cameras, thanks to better support for technologies such as USB and FireWire. Open source applications that include SANE (and the SANE plug-in for GIMP) and the commercial VueScan make it easy to capture images from just about any hard-copy medium into a Linux machine. VueScan is a welcome addition because it is a workhorse app that is also widely used on both Mac and Windows. VueScan scans made on Linux, in my experience, reliably match scans made on other OSes with similar equipment, and VueScan supports an almost unbelievable array of SCSI, USB, and FireWire scanners.

Full workstation for under $1,000?

Indeed, it is a marvel that publishers, a notoriously thrifty set who may comprise the only industry that has cut its way to greatness, have not rushed to embrace Linux. You can assemble a very powerful Linux graphics workstation for well under $1,000 (possibly under $500), which would seem very attractive versus an $1,800 Power Mac that also requires some $2,000 worth of proprietary software to function.

When I pinged colleagues for examples of publications using open source apps, all replied that they, too, were amazed that open source wasn't being used more widely on print publication desktops (although Linux is being widely used as a server OS in publishing). The culprit is almost certainly the status quo -- and experience and skill sets -- that are tied to other platforms, primarily the Mac for high-end print graphics work.

The ongoing cost of payroll for skilled print production workers makes the cost of a computer seem small by comparison. However, publishers do regard productivity as key to profitability, and the Mac has long withstood the advance of Windows on the grounds that Mac workers are more productive in the well-developed, easy-to-use Mac environment. Mac OS X uses PDF as its native imaging format, for example.

But can publishers resist open source for long? One daily newspaper publisher rigged a Linotype machine -- a mechanical typesetter that first appeared in 1886 -- with a QWERTY-style keyboard so he wouldn't have to pay both reporters and typesetters. In a business where cheap is king, publishers who are willing to try will likely find that the Linux desktop has matured into an inexpensive and productive tool both for Web, and, increasingly, print publishing.

Chris Gulker, a Silicon Valley-based freelance technology writer, has authored more than 130 articles and columns since 1998. He shares an office with 7 computers that mostly work, an Australian Shepherd, and a small gray cat with an attitude.

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