Scribus - Open Polygraphy

Not so long ago, I was friendly asked to print one small book for printing, I gladly agreed, glad of the passing opportunity to study the appropriate software. Thus, I met Scribus, which will be discussed today.


Scribus is a desktop publishing software (DTP), or in other words: a program for visual layout of printed documents (newspapers, magazines, brochures, literature, etc.). OpenSource analogue AdobeInDesign or QuarkXPress.


Unlike many open source applications created by enthusiastic students, Scribus was originally developed by typography and typing professionals, and therefore has quite a wide range of professional layout and preprocessing text.
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The program itself is written in C ++ using the Qt interface library (which is a bit unusual, since most open applications of this kind — gtk) , and starting from version 1.3 — is available to users of all popular operating systems.



So, what can Scribus:

Page layout:

• Fields
  
• Multiple preset profiles for one-, two- and multi-sided arches
  
• All sorts of paper sizes and sizes
  
• Introduce your own guides for easy markup
  
• Separation of pages into right and left for book type publications
• Creating Master Pages — Templates that apply simultaneously to multiple pages.
  

Work with graphics:
Vector :

• Bezier curves
  
• Primitives
  
• Free drawing
  

For fans of more advanced vector drawing - the ability to import and export to svg.
Raster :

• Insert images
  
• Scaling
  
• Basic transformations
  
• Gamma and color correction
  

the ability to edit in an external program (GIMP), without departing from the cash register, and much more.


Work with text:

All that is possible!

• Full unicode support with all special characters, changed text direction and even Arabic script
  
• Insert text blocks of various shapes, rounding corners, rotation and transformation
• Wrapping other objects
  
• Link individual blocks to move text between them
  

Work with text styles:

• Anything: Fonts, kernings, pins, spacing in all directions, non-standard font proportions
  
• The ability to create pre-made styles with all possible parameters, and apply them with one click to selected areas of the text.

It is better to work with the text in the built-in external editor, which helps to concentrate separately on the text and the placement of paragraph styles.


File Formats and PDF Goodies:

• EPS, PSD, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, XPM, ODT, SVG and many other obscure abbreviations
  
• Almost full compatibility with PDF 1.4
• Interactive elements, forms, etc.
  
• Javascript scripts
• CMYK and RGB color profile support
  
• Embedding fonts (with the possibility of turning them into vector outlines, without losing editableness)
  
• Full compatibility with PDF / X-3 - ISO standard for PDF for printed publication
• PostScript Level 2 and 3 support
  

Interface and other: The interface is normal, but does not cause any complaints. All in their places. Although, some features (for example, automatic insertion of the page number) are available only with the help of hotkeys. And they are sometimes such that fingers can be broken (for the page number - ctrl + shift + alt + p). Even the developers recommend reconfiguring them for their own needs.
A nice tool is a draft - something like an extended clipboard in MS Office.


A couple of screenshots:

Main window


Built-in text editor


There are also such goodies as powerful Api, with the resulting ample opportunities for writing custom scripts on python, automatic document validator, and much more, a description of which would make this note long and uninteresting.

Thus, Scribus is a fairly powerful tool for the prepress preparation of the text, and its capabilities with the head are enough for amateur and semi-professional layout of printed products. At the same time, you do not need to pay a penny for it :)