Why is there no import filters for Quark, Indesign or other commerical DTP applications ?
Answer: 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 pluginsfor 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.
So, how can I work with others who might have other DTP applications ?
Answer:
Use EPS, SVG or PDF as an exchange format. Scribus created PDF's 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. You can also improve EPS import by ensuring you have the newest Ghostscript installed.
et ca devrait fonctionner (enfin c'est ecrit sur leur site 
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