[CLUE-Tech] Linux for publishing and the masses

[Michael J. Hammel]

On Tue, 2003-06-10 at 16:02, Dale K. Hawkins wrote:
> > My father's publishing (i.e., graphics-intensive) business is
> > small (maybe 12 PCs?) and has no on-site IT support. He's not
> > particularly technical, although he's an early adapter (he bought
> > a Beta Max and a KayPro CPM machine).

If he does graphic design work he can get a lot done on Linux.  The main
drawback is color gamut issues.  If he relies on checking if an image is
outside of the color gamut by using Photoshop, he won't be able to do so
under Linux (currently).  

However, he could keep one PC/Mac around to do final color management
under Photoshop and convert everything else to Linux.  

As for publishing, you can do lots of great work under Linux.  The
question to ask is "how WYSIWYG do you need it?"  There are few page
layout tools with WYSIWYG interfaces (essentially none, though a few are
in various states of development).  But you can do a ton of layout using
TeX/LaTeX.  

Its hard to say if he could do the same work on Linux he currently does
on other OS's without knowing exactly what he does.

-- 
Michael J. Hammel                               The Graphics Muse 
mjhammel at graphics-muse.org                      http://www.graphics-muse.com
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