On 06-Jul-06, at 6:29 PM, Dinesh Joshi wrote:
thing missing. (I have run a printing press for several years, so i know what i am talking about)
I agree with you but partially. Blind hero-worship is not going to get FOSS anywhere. BUT, I think you're mistaken. You run a printing press, thats cool but Dr.Nagarjuna's PhD student (forgot her name) gave an excellent presentation on LaTeX. It'll beat the crap out of any software.
print is about colour. A press prints in 4 colours (sometimes 5 or 6, but that is another matter), so the page has to be separated into the 4 basic colours - cyan, magenta, yellow and black and these four colours are printed one on top of another to get the output. For professional work, rudimentary wont cut it. Similarly layout requires the utmost of precision and effects - what looks ok on screen may look horrible on paper - again rudimentary wont cut it. Incidently, one foss tool, blender, beats all its proprietory rivals. And, incidently, latex rocks, but there are very few phd students in the print world ;-)