Magazine article template

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ruperty

Hello,

I'm, just getting started with Scribus in order to write a science magazine article. Are there any templates or examples (Scribus files) available for magazine articles that I could use as a starting point? There is one in the installation but am keen to look at other options. The sort of thing I am looking for is the style of New Scientist articles.

Any help appreciated.

Regards,
Rupert

GarryP

Welcome to the forum Rupert.

There are some "templates" around for Scribus but they're not - what I would call - "real" templates as they have no more functionality that any normal document has. Scribus templates are, essentially, just Scribus documents that have a different file type. Most templates that are available aren't very good. For the few that are good, most of them are for very specific things so you're unlikely to find something that's good for what you want.

Also, there are so many different types of articles in New Scientist. Do you want something simple like these: http://cargocollective.com/justtomtom/New-Scientist-Illustrations or something more creative like these: http://mwmgraphics.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/new-scientist-cover-feature-art.html

There is no such thing as a "standard" magazine article, even within the same magazine. If there was, the magazine would be a very boring read.

Your best bet is to do it yourself from scratch. I realise that might seem like a tall order but it's the best way to learn and it's not that difficult to get something basic but usable.

You could start by finding an article you like and then roughly drawing the different parts of the page in Scribus. For example, draw text frames where there is some text and draw image frames where there are images. They don't need to be exact, just get them roughly in the right place. Don't worry about text columns just yet.

Then you can look at where frames might line up. Create guides where you think they should line up and drag/resize the frames to match the guides. You can always move the guides and re-align the frames later if you want to.

Then you can start to add sample text to the text frames and random/dummy images into the image frames.

Then you can look at text columns. Find a text frame and change the number of columns until it looks about right. Then change the font and size to roughly match the original example.

Once you've got to this point you've made a big start on designing your own article.

Now you can start to think about adding other "furniture" to the page such as page numbers and other graphical devices.

Once you start learning how to use Scribus properly - rather than just inserting images and text into other people's templates - it will allow you to create anything you want.

I hope this helps.

ruperty

Quote from: GarryP on May 10, 2017, 01:57:32 PM
Welcome to the forum Rupert.

Thanks.

Quote
There are some "templates" around for Scribus but they're not - what I would call - "real" templates as they have no more functionality that any normal document has. Scribus templates are, essentially, just Scribus documents that have a different file type. Most templates that are available aren't very good. For the few that are good, most of them are for very specific things so you're unlikely to find something that's good for what you want.

Well, just an existing document with an existing layout would be useful where I can then replace the text and images. I did download this "tutorial", but it didn't seem possible to edit anything.

Quote
Also, there are so many different types of articles in New Scientist. Do you want something simple like these: http://cargocollective.com/justtomtom/New-Scientist-Illustrations or something more creative like these: http://mwmgraphics.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/new-scientist-cover-feature-art.html

Something like the latter, the cover feature, is what I am after.

Quote
Your best bet is to do it yourself from scratch. ...

I hope this helps.

Thanks, I'll give it a go, though if I could get hold of existing documents that I could modify it would be a great help with a tight deadline.

utnik

hi rupert
Quote from: ruperty on May 10, 2017, 03:38:25 PMI did download this "tutorial", but it didn't seem possible to edit anything.

when you open the .sla-file from this tutorial, you can edit everything. but parts of the layout are on master pages and the rest is spread between different layers. in order to edit an element you need to activate the respective layer...

utnik

GarryP

You're welcome.

I haven't tried the tutorial you mentioned but I just downloaded the related files - from Scribus 1.2! - and both the SLAs are totally editable as far as I can see. The problem you're probably having is that you are currently on a different layer to the objects you are trying to edit. Open the Layers Palette (F6) and try changing layers (as utnik said above; I wrote most of this before his reply). This is one of the problems with using other people's stuff: you don't know how they made it.

(From the look of the magazine SLA I would recommend NOT using it to base your own stuff on. It's not a good layout, it's been created in a weird way - the guides are all over the place - and the colours aren't very nice. If I was you I would leave it alone.)

Another problem with using someone else's document is that it will either be so specific to what they did that it will probably be unusable for what you want, or it will be so bland and general that people won't want to read it. There may be some examples/templates out there that you can use but you could waste more time looking for them and trying to modify them to how you want than just making your own. A pertinent question is: If you don't know how to make your own stuff, how do you expect to be able to modify other people's documents?

The latter type of magazine article is probably okay for a beginner to try but it's a lot more complicated than I would recommend (especially if you want all of the graphics too). The layout isn't particularly complex - most of the heavy lifting is done by the graphics - but I think you'll have problems trying to re-create it. I'm guessing that there isn't a template out there that looks anything like it either. I'd be happy to be proved wrong but I wouldn't keep your hopes up. I would suggest starting with something simpler.

I realise that you are under some time pressure but this is "Open Source Land" where you often have to just do it yourself. Having said that, I'm sure there will be various people on the forum that will be glad to help with specific issues you have along the road.

This probably isn't what you want to hear but maybe someone else can help you more.

ruperty

Quote from: utnik on May 10, 2017, 05:01:17 PM
when you open the .sla-file from this tutorial, you can edit everything. but parts of the layout are on master pages and the rest is spread between different layers. in order to edit an element you need to activate the respective layer...

Hi utnik,

Thanks. After a bit of poking about I was able to edit the text, though, rather confusingly, you had to select the layer called 'big photo'.


ruperty

Quote from: GarryP on May 10, 2017, 05:04:41 PM
A pertinent question is: If you don't know how to make your own stuff, how do you expect to be able to modify other people's documents?

I realise that you are under some time pressure but this is "Open Source Land" where you often have to just do it yourself. Having said that, I'm sure there will be various people on the forum that will be glad to help with specific issues you have along the road.

This probably isn't what you want to hear but maybe someone else can help you more.

Yep, realise I'm getting ahead of myself, was hoping it would be as intuitive as picking up LibreOffice. I'll go through the quickstart quide and see how it goes from there.

ruperty

Btw, do you know what font is used in the New Scientist cover article?

a.l.e

well, scribus is rather intuitive to pick up, if you have done some layout in the past...
(but some features are really well hidden...)

steven8

Quote from: ruperty on May 11, 2017, 02:28:38 PM
Btw, do you know what font is used in the New Scientist cover article?

There are freeware programs which can help you identify a font:

http://www.winsite.com/ocr/ocr+font+recognition/freeware/
Scribus 1.6.0 Stable
Windows 11

utnik

hi steven

your link leads to ocr software (text recognition from pixel files...)
for font recognition, i recommend sites like WhatTheFont or whatfontis...

utnik