Scribus tutorial
On the final version of your document, it is a good idea to select “None” for the compression method on the “General” tab. Here you can tune the parameters of your PDF. To open the export window, go to File > Export > Save as PDF. This allows for several adjustments so that you get the highest possible quality, without harming compatibility between different systems. If you’re willing to print your document, the best option is undoubtedly to save it as PDF. Objects like these, which intersect with the main text, are a good option for quotes or images, in order to attract the attention of the reader. The shape of the contour can also be edited freely, to match any need. Afterwards, click on the button with an arrow pointing up, meaning that the size will be increased by the given value to the right. In the window that opens, make sure to first select the option “Edit contour line”. This can be adjusted by selecting the object and, on the “Shape” tab, clicking on “Edit”. You may realize that there’s no margin between the object and the text. Select the “Use contour line” option, and the text should wrap around your object. Now, select your circle and, in the properties, go to the tab “Shape”. In the properties window you may choose the color for fill and stroke of the object. Set your circle at the top of the text (you can hold the Ctrl key for a fixed circle ratio). To start exploring this, let’s first create a simple circular object ( Insert > Shapes > Default shapes > Circle). Scribus allows us to wrap text around objects with high precision. Let’s use a top margin of 4mm, so that there’s some space between the title and the text. We can also set margins, using the Top, Bottom, Left or Right options. For example, let’s select 2 columns and a gap of 4mm between them. We can divide the text into columns by selecting the tab “Columns & Text distances” in the Properties menu. There’s a traditional latin text used for this purpose, called “Lorem Ipsum”, that can be found at the bottom of the list. After choosing the desired language and number of paragraphs, click “OK”. For this type of situations, we have something called placeholder text, which is easily obtained by right-clicking on the text box and going to Content > Sample text. Sometimes we need to start designing before we even have the actual text. Let’s create a square text box below this last one. To see how things really look like, remember to always check in preview mode, by pressing Ctrl+Alt+P.
N.B: While you are in edit mode, there’s a thin line around the text box that isn’t a real stroke. On our example we will only switch the final letters of the word “second” to superscript. This sets the text in capital letters, but with the height of the upper or lower case. This switches all the text to capital letters. Click and hold for preferences on the displacement and width of the line. The buttons at the bottom are the following. Note that this background color is customized independently from the text box color. The first option is the color of the text, followed by the color of stroke and the text background color. To center vertically, you need to go down to the “Columns & Text Distances” tab and choose “Middle” on the Vertical alignment option. You’ll notice that, if you center your text, it only centers horizontally. The common text alignment options (left, right, centered and justified) can be found by clicking on the text box and clicking on “Text” on the right bar (just below line spacing). For the rest of the tutorial, we’ll work with a simple rectangular shape, with slightly rounded corners. The first let you to set the position of the node, while the second is used to adjust the bezier curves.īy using the default square shape, you gain the option “round corners”, which lets you specify a radius for the corner, but this option isn’t available for other shapes. In the window that opens, the two main buttons to know are “Move nodes” (black square with arrows) and “Move Control Points” (white square with arrows).
Clicking on “Edit” in particular enables you to set custom positions to the vertices. The “Shape” tab enables you to customize the shape of your text box. If you want some specific color, you’ll need to add it ( Edit > Colours and Fills, check last tutorial for details)
Select your color and it should be applied to the background of the text box.
For color, select the object and then go to the tab “Colours”, on the right. It’s possible to change some properties of the text box itself. In this tutorial we will work on the main features, applied to a small text box we have created with the text “Scribus 2nd tutorial”. Several options can be applied to the standard text and the text box itself, making it very versatile.