Passepartout: Release 0.3

The source code for Passepartout release 0.3 is now availiable for download.

Passepartout is an Open Source Desktop Publishing application for the X Windows environment. The goal of this project is to create a system capable of producing pre-press material of professional quality, but also to be a useful tool for any enthusiast with access to a printer.

Changes since 0.2

Here's a list of the major changes since the previous release.

• The name of the Passepartout executable is now passepartout.
• The recommended filename suffix is now .pp instead of .ppt.
• Support for multiple views of the same document.
• XSLT Parameter handling: Automatically get a set of valid parameters from the XSLT stylesheet and let the user change them in the streams dialog.
• If a text stream is truncated, i.e. it won't fit into the frames assigned to it, then this will be indicated by a red marker at the bottom of the last frame.
• Improved support for copy/paste.
• Added a dialog for selecting/creating streams when creating text frames.
• A new preferences dialog (Sergej Gratchev).
• Make text images twice as big, then scale them down to normal size, creating a poor man's antialiasing effect.
• A preview function in the import image dialog.
• Allow renaming of frames (finally).
• Printing is faster.
• Stylesheet files are also watched for changes.
• Support the DESTDIR feature in automake properly (Gaudenz Steinlin).

Known problems

The major version number is still 0, here's some of the main reasons for that:

• Text frames are not always updated properly.
• Objects other than raster images are not rotated in the gui, although it works when they are printed.
• If an object that text should flow around covers an entire text frame, passepartout will hang.
• The fake transparency may not be completely reliable on all systems, but it can be turned off by setting FakeTransparency to false in ~/.pptout
• Resizing is broken for groups. Don't try to use it.