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## Miscellaneous Questions

- Why is Scribus built with Qt and not some other toolkit?
- Where does the name "Scribus" derive from ?
- Why are there no import filters for Quark, Indesign or other commerical DTP applications?
- So, how can I work with others who might have other page layout applications?
- Is there or will there be a Microsoft Publisher importer ?

### Answers

1. When Franz Schmid launched the project, it was originally written in Python, but for performance reasons he decided to port it to C++. The toolkit with the most complete documentation at the time was Qt 2.2. The first Qt 2 release was 0.3 in 2001. Scribus was ported to Qt 3, after Scribus 0.6 was released. Back to top

2. Where does the name "Scribus" derive from ?

   When Franz Schmid launched the project, the first working name was "Open Page", but thought to be too generic. Scribus derives from the latin name of the official writers in Roman times, from which we get scribe or writer. This translates well in to many languages besides English. The German word is schrift, for example. Scribus is pronounced 'Skry-bus' long I, like sky.

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3. Why are there no import filters for Quark, Indesign or other commerical DTP applications?

   There are several reasons why there are no import filters for commercial DTP applications.

   1. DTP file formats are very complex internally - problably the most complex on a PC. Creating import/export filters is a task far more complex than importing a spreadsheet or simpler word processing file formats. An engineer familiar with the internal file format of Pagemaker compared it to a 2m x 3m flow chart diagram with 6 point type. It was not until the arrival of Indesign 2.0 that reliable Pagemaker file import was possible in another DTP application, even though Adobe had the file format specs. Note: Not even Indesign CS can save to Indesign 2.0 format.
   2. The file formats are sometimes protected by patents and are not documented publically.
   3. So, is it unethical/illegal to apply hexedit to an InDesign file to reverse engineer the file format with hexedit or others for the purpose of creating the export/import plugins for Scribus?
      Possibly not, but given its a closed format we would expect to receive a warning from Adobe, as we did from Quark when there was a Quark importer in testing. We do not have the legal resources to challenge large proprietary software companies. Only one developer has been sucessful at reverse engineering Quark's software and it took a long legal case to succeed.
   4. Developer constraints. It is the considered judgement of the development team that efforts to improve Scribus is a more valuable use of time.
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4. So, how can I work with others who might have other page layout a applications?

   Use EPS, SVG or PDF as an exchange format. Scribus created PDFs can be easily imported into a number of commerical applications. SVG import is excellent for vector artwork. Scribus can import EPS files as long as they are conformant to the specs - this includes spot colors in DCS 2.0 files. The documentation has detailed notes covering these subjects.

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5. Is there or will there be a Microsoft Publisher importer ?

   There is none and very unlikely to be provided by the Scribus Team. As with Indesign and Quark Xpress, these file formats are undocumented. They are difficult and sometimes impossible to reverse engineer. We would note that even users of different versions of Publisher have difficulties saving or opening .pub files on different versions.

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