About Scribus
The professional Page Layout program.
Scribus – the final touch
What is Scribus?
This is where you design your brochure, flyer, business card, catalogue or lay out your photo book. It is not meant for text-based books which should be left to the excellent OpenOffice or LibreOffice Writer which I can support with templates, advise and mini-tutorials – all without charge.
Scribus is equivalent to Adobe In-Design and Affinity Publisher. You do all the creative, arty stuff, logo etc. in Inkscape, fix or enhance your photos using GIMP, write lengthy text in OpenOffice and then bring all these elements into your Scribus page(s).
From here, you can move the various elements around, re-shape or resize them, flow the text around image frames (which can be of any shape), insert some text within some fancy shaped frames and much much more.
For your newsletter, you can set up various master pages to individually stylise different sections to easily produce a consistent look issue after issue.
I must say, the learning curve is a bit steep but it is worth the effort and perseverance.
Download Scribus.
Select the download link for your particular computer.
Lessons coming soon
Of our design tool trio, this one is the least glamorous and the most difficult to get a handle on.
It is the working end of the design/layout process.
The main reason many find it difficult is due to unfamiliarity with what a desk top publishing software (DTP) is all about.
In terms of operation, it is practically the opposite to word processors like Microsoft Word and OpenOffice Writer.
You cannot just sit down and smash away at the keyboard your sudden brainwave. Everything sits in blocks and text doesn’t automatically flow to the next page which is actually part of the plan and a clear advantage as it allows you to position the following text in its panel even a few pages down as often happens for brochures.
However, the massive, massive advantage of the blocks concept is the flexibility you get. You can place any element – text, diagrams, illustrations, call-out notes or photos literally anywhere on the page.
You can re-size them, reshape them re-position them and they simply stay put where you place them.
Yes, the biggest obstacle for newcomers to DTP is the re-thinking involved.
A design project should really involve the 3 designers’ programs plus a word processor. You will then end up with a better product in a shorter time.