Getting started with Scribus

12     The Story Editor
The Story Editor is a word processor that’s built into Scribus. To use it, select some text and then go to Edit>Edit Text in the menu. You should see a dialog box like the one here pop up, with the text you want to edit sitting in it. The Story Editor allows you more options to format and edit your text than the Properties dialog box. Once you are done formatting your text, click on the File>Update Text Frame and Exit option in the Story Editor menu.

13     Scribus templates
One of the great things about an open source project is the community that forms around the project which shares ideas, designs and a whole lot more. Such a community has formed around Scribus as well. This is quite well demonstrated in the numerous Scribus templates available on the web. Using Scribus templates, you can create a magazine or newspaper-style document quickly. You can also create and share your own Scribus templates. You can download some community-generated templates here. Once you have them installed, you can access them by going to File>New from Template.

14     Create your own templates
Once you get the hang of Scribus, you should consider creating your own templates and sharing them with the community. To do so, open the document you are working with, finish formatting and designing it, replace all the text with random text, then go to File>Save as Template in the menu. Pick the location where you want the template saved.

15     Exporting from Scribus
Once you are done designing your document, you need to export it before you can share it with the world. Scribus supports a number of formats in which you can export your newsletter or magazine. You can export it as an image, as a Scalable Vector Graphic (SVG), or as a PDF document. Let’s look at how each of these export features works.

16     Exporting as an Image
Exporting a newsletter or a magazine as an image may not be the best way to share it, but it is often a quick and safe way, especially during the preparatory stages of the document. Scribus supports a number of image formats such as PNG and BMP. To export your document as an image, click on the File option in the menu then go to Export>Save as Image. In the dialog box that pops up, you can choose the image format in which you want to export your document, the resolution of the image, and which pages you want to export. Hit OK when you want to begin the export.

17     Export as SVG
Exporting your document as an SVG, or Scalable Vector Graphic, allows you to then import the document into vector graphics software such as Adobe Illustrator, Sodipodi or Sketch. Once you import the document into one of these tools, you can edit and export it as an SVG again. Then you can import the new document into Scribus and continue editing it along with the new change. To export a document as an SVG, go to File>Export>Save as SVG.

18  Export as PDF
Exporting a document as a PDF is the most advanced export option in Scribus. It also has the largest number of options that come with it. To do this, go to File>Export>Save as PDF. Among the many options you will see in the dialog box that pops up there are some that you should definitely look at. The compression quality and the resolution of the printing are two important items to look at, particularly if you want to share the document via email.

19    Protect your PDF documents
The Scribus PDF export dialog box has some professional-grade features. Among the many options you can find is a tab titled Security. Under this tab you can set a password for the owner of the document, and one for people to view it. Once you set a password here and hit Save, the exported PDF files will be encrypted. A great use for this feature is during the development of a magazine issue.
All in all, Scribus is a great software package for individuals’ desktop publishing needs. The speed with which new features are being added makes this open source project one to look out for, especially if you are a software company selling a similar solution for tons of money. As with any open source project, Scribus is dependent on the community that supports it with code, ideas, money, documentation and so on. So we urge you to use Scribus and contribute to this wonderful project in your own way.

This article originally appeared in issue 81 of Linux User & Developer. Click here for more tutorials from the magazine.