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Post by benziger on Jun 30, 2020 13:29:24 GMT
To create high quality print products like flyers, brochures or magazines, you also need professional desktop publishing software (DTP). However, if Adobe InDesign and QuarkXPress are beyond your budget, or you don't want to take advantage of the industry giant's Creative Cloud subscription, then you're lucky to have a free yet powerful alternative. Scribus has been growing in popularity as an open source version for many years and I would like to use this Scribus guide to give you a detailed introduction to the program. Using the example of a beverage list, I will create professional print data with you.   Scribus is a free DTP program that allows you to create professional looking printed materials. If you are already used to working with InDesign, I was told you will need to make some changes. Scribus has almost exactly the same features, but it seams that they are not always on the same place. If you never used InDesign or QuarkXPress, just start with Scribus. To help you find your way around this page layout program more quickly, I will show you the most important functions and features with a simple example in this Scribus tutorial. |
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Post by benziger on Jun 30, 2020 13:34:08 GMT
Introduction to ScribusScribus works with a frame concept, meaning everything is wrapped in a frame, whether it is text or an object. To control these frames and their contents, the two window properties and the story editor are most important. You can control the position, size, fill and line color, all important text properties and much more. As you can see when you open the window for the first time, you won't find a well-designed program that marketing strategists will enjoy, but rather a developer-oriented design that focuses on functionality and clarity. Everything looks a bit like Windows 95, but is clearly and simply structured in menu and toolbar. I am using the new version of Scribus 1.5.1 for this tutorial, which is absolutely stable and runs without problems. The program in version 1.5.1 can open PDF and IDML files. So you have the choice of how to load our artwork into this software. The latest version 1.5.5 has only a few changes and actually all under the hood. In addition to the actual program, you will also need to download and install Ghostcript to create PDFs.
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Post by benziger on Jun 30, 2020 13:36:07 GMT
The frame conceptWhether you have chosen to print the 2 page flyer in DIN long format for a PDF or the InDesign file type, opening it in Scribus is as simple as usual with File / Open or alternatively with the shortcut Ctrl+O. I chose the IDML template file in this case because it opens the two layers Template and My Layer. You can find them under Window / Layers. The individual pages can be found under Window / Arrange pages.
As explained above, this open source software also works with the framework concept. So you first have to draw a rectangular frame with the Form tool (S). The same default settings as in InDesign apply here: black outline and no fill color. Make sure that you are working in the My layer. In order to select the layer, the checkmark in Select Objects on Layers must be set in the layer window. In the Properties window you can now set the position and size of the frame.
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Post by benziger on Jun 30, 2020 13:39:15 GMT
Set and organise coloursWith Edit / Colours and Fillings you now have access to the color fields. By clicking on Remove unused, you can delete all colours that are not currently used in the document and thus bring some order into the colour fields. To add a new colour, simply select any colour and click the Add button. There you can assign a CMYK composition and a name to the new colour. You also have the possibility to use other colour models. If you want to make it easy, Scribus allows you to import colour swatches as Adobe Swatch Exchange (.ase) files. So, if you already have a finished ASE file for this Scribus Flyer, simply click on the Import button to load it from location. You can also choose from a variety of pre-built color palettes under Merge Palettes. Once you have chosen a new color (in this case C=0 / M=80 / Y= 60 / K=0), you can assign it to your object. To do this, select the rectangle with the Select Object tool (C) and go to the Colour tab in the Properties window. There you select the new fill colour and click on None for Line.
There is also a second way to easily set new colours for your Scribus document. You can do this by going to Extras / Colour Circle. There, you can choose monochromatic colours or various complementary colours. You can also enter a hexadecimal colour code here. By clicking on Add, these colours will be added to your colour palette and can be used from there.
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Post by benziger on Jun 30, 2020 13:40:43 GMT
Insert and edit imagesTo add an image to your flyer created with Scribus, all you need to do is draw a picture frame (I). The photos used for this project are both from the great site Foodshot.co. For the sake of order, we recommend that you create a new layer for each object by clicking the plus button in the layer window. Double-click on the new layer to change its name. With a right click on the new image frame you can then go to Load Image (Ctrl+I) and call up your image from the location where you saved it. In the properties window go to the tab Image and check the boxes Proportional and On Frame Size. Alternatively you can right-click on the image and select Fit image to frame. Now select Free Scale in the properties window and adjust the image size exactly to the frame. Make sure that the chain symbol is closed so that your image is scaled proportionally.  Scribus only stores the images as links and then accesses the original file through them. So if you delete them or pass the file on without the linked images, they will not be displayed. The way out is to right click on the image and select Save Image File in Document.
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Post by benziger on Jun 30, 2020 13:42:45 GMT
Working with textNow the text comes into play in a new level. To do this, draw a frame with the text frame tool (T). If you want to center this text frame, you can center it vertically on the page using the Align and Distribute window, just like in InDesign. You will quickly notice that you cannot simply add text as usual. The secret lies in the Story Editor, which you can access via Edit / Edit Text (Ctrl+T). The secret lies in the Story Editor, which you can access via Edit / Edit Text (Ctrl+T), where you need to enter the text you want to edit and then select it to make the changes. Then you can change the font, font size, alignment and much more. You can also edit the font colour. However, you will need to set the font colour again using Edit / Colour and Fillings.  You also have the ability to set character and paragraph styles in Scribus. This is possible under Edit / Styles (F2). Here you can set all kinds of text properties. You can set all sorts of text properties, then go back to the Story Editor, highlight the text and then go to the top right paragraph styles.  Just as with InDesign, open source software also offers the possibility of linking text frames and thus allowing the text to flow between two frames. This doesn't make much sense in this example of this Scribus tutorial, but I will show you how to use this important feature. You select the first text box with the Select Object tool (C), click on the Link Text Frames button at the top of the toolbar (N), then click in the second text box. Now the text from the first text field is continued in the second text field. 
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Post by benziger on Jun 30, 2020 13:43:07 GMT
You can easily unlink the text frames by selecting the left frame and clicking on the second frame after pressing the Split Chained Text Frame button (U). To make sure that everything fits in this particular case, make sure that both text frames have the same height and that the text inside has the same paragraph style with a defined line spacing.
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Post by benziger on Jun 30, 2020 13:45:30 GMT
Working on several pagesWhen you are finished with the first page, you can use the Arrange Pages window to move to the next page. There you can create more objects in a new layer. However, if, as in this case, you want to have most of the objects from page 1 on page 2, there is a more precise and elegant solution, which I will explain in my Scribus tutorial. To do this, hold down the Shift key and use the Select Object tool (C) to select all the objects you want to include on the second page. Then go to Object / Add to / Library / Main Window and enter a meaningful name in the new window that opens. From the Arrange Pages window, go to page 2 of the Scribus flyer, right click on the page in the Library window and select Insert on Page. This has the advantage that all objects are inserted exactly where they are on page 1, so you don't have to reposition everything.
 In order to create some order, you can now add three new levels on page 2, as you did on page 1, by clicking on the plus symbol in the Layers window. Rename these three layers, then select objects on page 2 with the Select Object tool (C), right-click on them and move them to another layer.  With the story editor (Ctrl+T) you only have to edit the text. Then select the image frame below and drag a new image into this frame using the Ctrl+I shortcut. Now you only have to scale it back to the desired size. With the X- and Y-position in the tab Image in the window Properties you can change the position of the image within the frame.
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Post by benziger on Jun 30, 2020 13:46:48 GMT
Review and savingIf you find during the review of the project that you would like to make changes to one of the images, you can right-click on the image frame and go to Edit Image. Provided you have selected GIMP or Photoshop in File / General Settings / External Tools, you can now edit the image for your Scribus flyer in the open source GIMP or Photoshop. Once edited, simply save the image again and it will be automatically updated in Scribus. If this is not the case, simply right click on the image again and select Update Image. It is also recommended that you save the unedited original file of this image as a backup.  With a click on the button Save as PDF (Ctrl+Shift+P) you can now save your finished file for printing at SAXOPRINT as PDF 1.3. Since this does not always work without problems, I will show you here on the SAXOPRINT blog in a later article how your project can be exported as a printable PDF file without any problems. In order to save a project file and all associated images, it is recommended to go to File / Collect for output. There you can specify the name and location for the new folder in which all files belonging to the project will be collected for a smooth distribution to your customers.
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Post by benziger on Jun 30, 2020 13:52:02 GMT
Final result
Please note: This tutorial was created using a German language version of Scribus. It is possible that a particular menu may have the same meaning in English, but a slightly different name. It is also possible that a shortcut may be different in one place. If you prefer to read German, you can read the original version which I have translated. |
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