SCRIBUS
Sharpen your desktop publishing skills
Aspiring media mogul Nick Peers reveals how to design newsletters, flyers and more with Scribus, the powerful open-source DTP tool.
Credit: www.scribus.net
W ord processors like LibreOffice Writer can do a great job of sprucing up documents, but if you’re serious about page design, you can’t beat a dedicated desktop publishing tool. Scribus is capable of producing anything from brochures and flyers to full-blown newsletters, which you can print or share digitally via PDF as you see fit.
It’s packed with powerful tools and options, but in this tutorial we’ll introduce you to the fundamentals of using Scribus: from changing existing content to designing your own documents from scratch. It can be installed or run several different ways: via AppImage, using its own dedicated PPA, or through Flatpak. While the stable version (1.4.x) is listed as ‘recommended’, it’s been effectively abandoned because the current development version (1.5.7) is on the cusp of replacing it, so we’ll be focusing on that version in this tutorial.
The PPA version is best for those running the non- LTS version of Ubuntu, currently 21.04:
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:scribus/ppa
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt install scribus-ng
If you’re on the LTS release cycle (Ubuntu 20.04) install Scribus through Flatpak if you have that installed, or use the portable AppImage if not (https:// sourceforge.net/projects/scribus/files/scribusdevel/1.5.7). If you’re using Flatpak:
$ flatpak install flathub net.scribus.Scribus
Once installed, Scribus can be launched via the Show Applications button. It’ll be described as Scribus (Beta), but don’t worry – it’s as close to stable as you can get.
TAKE THE SCRIBUS TOUR
1
Arrange Pages
Use this box to manage the structure of your document – view, add and remove pages as needed.
2
Frame Properties
This box enables you to define the frame’s properties. Use the Shape section to flow other objects around it.
3
Item Properties
Press F3 to tweak the properties of a selected frame’s contents rather than the frame itself.
4
Page Preview
Click the eye icon shown to show the page without any invisible elements, such as grids and frames.
5
Context-sensitive controls
Right-click an object for more options, including moving it above or below other elements on the page.
6
Navigation and view controls
Use these controls to zoom into and out of the page, as well as move between pages (and layers within a page).
First steps
On first launch, you’ll be taken to the New Document window where you have a choice of four options: New Document, New from Template, Open Existing Document, and Open Recent Document. The New Document option enables you to create a single blank page or ‘facing pages’ (a ‘spread’, in publishing parlance).