shadows with picture frame

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wodga

my feature suggestion is to add shadows on picture frames
scribus/unstable uptodate 1.4.2.dfsg+r18267-1

GarryP

I'd agree that Scribus could benefit from extra frame decoration options, such as shadows as suggested by wodga.

Just to get slightly off-topic for a tiny bit, but hopefully to explain what other decorations might be useful, they could be:
* To be able to specify which parts of a frame outline have the line colour/style attached. (Obviously not easy for circles and such but useful for rectangles.)
* For the edge of the image to fade to a given colour over a given distance. So it looks like it's melting into the background, if you get what I mean.

I'll admit that they're probably not very useful for people doing professional and serious work but for the sort of stuff I do it would be ideal to have some extra "jazz" for not much extra work on my part.

Anyway, back to the shadows.

I've tried to create shadows for frames using other Scribus things, such as gradient-filled polygons, but the results have not been very successful/pretty.

I've also looked at using the techniques shown in http://wiki.scribus.net/canvas/Shadows_around/behind_images but it can be a bit time consuming to process this for multiple images.

I hope that something like this is added soon, although I can't see anything about it in the Wiki roadmap for 1.5.x. Fingers crossed for 1.6!

In the meantime, for Mac owners, you might want to have a look at "Thumbscrew" (http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/16312/thumbscrew). It's a great little free application where you can just drop an image file onto its window and it'll make a thumbnail copy of the image with a shadow on it automatically. It can also handle batch processing on whole folders of images and it's got various options for image size, rotations, shadow size, etc. It's small, quick and really simple to use.

I don't know if an equivalent exists for Windows/Linux etc. but maybe someone can post a suggestion here.

Arran

Make the Pic in the correct size incl your shadow in Gimp and then import it.

I think the developpers have more important features to develop, instead of something witch another programm can do better.

And in any case, you should write a «Feature Request» on the appropriate Site: http://bugs.scribus.net/main_page.php

Good luck.
Have you first consulted the Manual? You can probably find the solution there.

Happy Greetings from Scotland's nicest Holiday Island

loggerjack

I accidentally found a very quick and easy way to make a drop shadow round a Scribus image frame. It is only suitable for rectangular images. I've attached a screenshot of an example.
All you do is .....

(1) Create an empty Image Frame exactly the same size as the frame containing the image which you want to attach a shadow to. (you can get the frame size from the X,Y,Z section of the properties palette)
(2) Click on the empty frame, select 'Colour' in the Properties palette, and fill with a medium grey colour.
(3) Position your image on top of the grey frame, but slightly offset to the side and the top.
(4) Group both frames.
(5) Voila! http://forums.scribus.net/Smileys/SoLoSMiLeYS1/smiley.gif



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utnik

Quote from: loggerjack on March 07, 2014, 10:07:23 PM...It is only suitable for rectangular images.

why should this only work for ractangles? – just duplicate your frame...

utnik

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loggerjack

Yes, good point, Utnik. I didn't think it through. Any frame can be shadowed, which makes it quite versatile. Here's some more examples.

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loggerjack

....and once you start thinking about it, why stop at frames? Here's some text.

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GarryP

Don't forget that Scribus already has an in-built function for putting drop shadows on text. It's in the Text section of the Properties dialog.

loggerjack

Ahhhhhhhh ..... I had forgotten. Thanks. I really should think before I write.
However, ignoring my own advice, can Scribus text drop shadow do this?
[see attached pic]
Then to answer my own question, "Yes, Scribus DID do that". I created black text with red shadow, copied it then changed the colours to orange text with yellow shadow, etc, etc, and offset them on top of each other.
........
.............
.......  OK, I'll get my coat.

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GarryP

Or... you could create the initial text in one frame, then use "Item -> Multiple Duplicate" to create many copies of the frame with a small vertical and horizontal offset, then colour the text in each frame differently. But your way is perfectly valid and uses fewer text frames. Horses for courses.

loggerjack

"........ then use "Item -> Multiple Duplicate" to create many copies of the frame with a small vertical and horizontal offset ......"

I've been using Scribus for a few years now, but I've never got round to trying out the 'Multiple Duplicate' function. I can see it will get a lot of use in the future. Thank you for that, GarryP.

And while I'm at it, thank you to everybody else who has made and contributed to Scribus. It is a wonderful programme and I don't know what I'd do without it. I had hundreds of layouts created by the (now obsolete) PageMaker which were being rendered unusable  by a never-ending cascade of new Windows operating systems. Finally, I saw the light, switched to Linux, and found open source replacements for all my programmes. Now every new version of an application or operating system is a pleasure instead of a head-ache. Scribus and Gimp are the jewels in the open source crown.

And with that, I really MUST  get back to work. Here's the test-piece I made while I explored the 'Multiple Duplicate' function.

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