Modernity and Its Discontents - Scribus

Intro to Scribus

Scribus is a cross-platform Open Source desktop publishing program for professional page layout such as combining text and images in preparation for print.

File Management

• Save files to local computer (and use a different source for backup)
• Create a project folder
• Create subfolders for text and graphics and copy/store files to be used in the project into these subfolders

Prepare Your Document Layout

1. Launch Scribus. To create a new document, go to File > New which opens a New Document window.
2. From the New Document window make the selections needed for your project, such as:
   • Document Layout
   • Orientation: Portrait or Landscape
   • Number of desired pages
   • Width and Height of the pages
   • Number of columns, if needed
   • Margin guides
3. When you are finished, click OK to save your selections.

Setting Preferences

• Under Scribus, go to Preferences to select settings that may be applied throughout your project.

Margins and Guides

• Note the margins of your document - keep your text and artwork within this boundary.
• For guides to help with placement and alignment of objects in the document, go to View and click on selections to make them visible.

Adding Text: Using the Properties Box and the Story Editor

1. Click on the Insert Text Frame icon in the top task bar. On the page, click and drag diagonally to create a frame.
2. To open the Story Editor: right-click inside the text frame and select Edit Text. Type inside this box and/or Copy and Paste text from other documents.
3. For more styling options, right-click inside the text frame and select Properties at bottom. Can also use to assign a name to particular sections of text.
4. To resize the frame, use the black arrow tool and select a corner or side of the bounding box.

Text Flow

1. Text boxes that are too small to contain all of the text will have a red + box in the lower right corner.
2. To flow text between multiple text boxes, select the text frames and click on the Link Text Frames icon in the top task bar.

Format Text

1. Select the text you want to format. (Command A to "Select All" is a useful shortcut here.)
2. Change your type using the character and paragraph options in the Story Editor and/or text Properties window.

Add an Image

Note: use 72 dpi resolution for web and at least 200 dpi for print

1. Click on the Insert Image Frame icon in the top task bar. On the page, click and drag diagonally to create a frame.
2. Click on the frame to select it, right-click inside the frame and click Get Image or double-click to fill the frame.
3. To fit the image to the frame, go to its Properties window, click on the Image tab and click on Scale to Frame Size

Text Wrap Around an Image

1. From the image's Properties window, click on the Shape tab bar, and click to select an option beneath Text Flow Around Frame

Additional Resources

Scribus Wiki