Apps and Suggestions for Press Quality Projects

Because of my background with computers, my current employer decided to throw me into a project, designing some advertisements and pages in our store's catalog. This was my first time doing anything like this. So they gave me QuarkXpress and I learned as I went.

Since I use Linux, I would much rather use Linux to do this type of work in the future. I have downloaded Scribus and ICC profiles. The press we used (and from what I've read all presses) uses CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow & Black) for primary colors.

Is there anyone who has done professional printing or design that went to press in CMYK (or anything) that has suggestions for doing this type of work in Linux?

You might want to check this plugin for Gimp;

Separate+

Not sure how well it works.

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Originally Posted by TaZMAniac

You might want to check this plugin for Gimp;

Separate+

Not sure how well it works.

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Not great. It creates a faux CMYK, using RGB. When RGB goes to press in CMYK, it doesn't come out quite right. Black could look green or blue... it's like a painter mixing paint with Red, Blue and Green... then trying to make the same colors using Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. It will not turn out just right. Some colors look okay but others look way off.

I converted a bunch of images from RGB to CMYK using imagemagick. But I only got that to work once. For some reason it won't work again. Not sure what I did right, the first time.

Anyway, thanks for the suggestion. The reason I went on like that is for anyone who might stumble upon this thread.

On another note, I did find an app that looks like it will be pretty good. I haven't installed it yet but am going to soon. It is: sK1 Project.

You may want to check out one or two of these, esp Scribus (?).
Ten free open source tools that aren't OpenOffice - ComputerworldUK.com
artistX has many tools incorporated, as well.