creating visiting-card

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Eos

Hi people,
i'm new with Scribus. Totally new, so have mercy  ;D
I tried to create on an A4 format 12 visiting-cards and made in Tables 4 rows and 3 columns (12).
In the first rectangle (above, left) i made with frames a layout with text and image and so far so good.
Then i tried to copy that rectangle (first activated) and wanted it to paste in the next rectangle but it didn;t work.
Probably it's not the way to do it.
Can someone help me and explane me which is the best way to do it?
Thanks in advance
Eos.


RobSay

First off - welcome to the club.

The answer to your question depends on how your visiting cards are getting printed.

... And the first thing to get out there is what Scribus is intended for - its primary purpose is the generation of print ready PDFs .. for a print shop. Print shops have big machines that do cutting and trimming.

If you're getting the cards printed - just create a document with a page at the size of your card. Export as PDF with trim and bleed marks and let the print shop go from there ...

On the the other hand if you're printing (and trimming) from home then you have two options:

  • Create the card as tho for the print shop, duplicate the page 12 times and use your printer settings to print multiple pages to a sheet.
  • Create an A4 sheet and copy frames to create a '12 to a sheet' layout

From your description you've already gone with option 2 - which is perfectly doable (although requires some maths for margins) ... in which case:

  • I would start with a blank document and add 4 horizontal and 2 vertical guides to the page to create a 3 by 4 grid ... and the 4th horizontal guide is for your printers bottom margin. You don't actually need these but it helps visualise the page.
  • Create text frames as needed in the top left corner taking care to think about *margins* and white space around this 'card'
  • Once you're happy and assuming you have multiple frames in your design .. 'Ctrl+A' (select all), 'Ctrl+G' (group), Ctrl+C (copy), Ctrl+V (paste)
  • Align & Distribute options - align the newly pasted group horizontally to the centre
  • Paste again - align and distribute this object to the right of the page
  • You should now have a row of three cards across the top of the page distributed evenly
  • Select all (three items), Group, Copy, Paste - align to bottom of the page ... but move up to cater for any print margins
  • You should now have two rows at top and bottom of the page
  • Paste two more rows, then select all (four rows) and use Distribute to create equal space between them
  • Export as PDF, print and guillotine as needed

Note that at no point in the above did I mention tables - they are, IMHO, not your friend in this scenario.

RodneyLee

Don't use frames, just draw your layout with non printing lines, group your items to be cut and pasted then cut and paste, I think you might find it easier.

RobSay

Quote from: RodneyLee on August 25, 2021, 03:44:42 PM
Don't use frames, ...

?

This statement is confusing, everything on the page is a frame. If you want text: Insert > Text Frame

RodneyLee

I was thinking Tables, sorry about that

RobSay

In which case we're in total agreement!

RodneyLee

so did you get it to work yet?, if not can you share the .sla

Eos

Thanks Rob, i'm going to work it out this weekend.

Eos

Thanks Rodney as well (i think our last messages crossed). I hope to get it clear this weekend.

Eos

Hi Rodney (and maybe also Rob)
Probably i don't understand the basic working of Scribus. Before i created visitingcards with Open Office but the lay-out was quite primitive), so i found Scribus.
I red the detailed manual of Rob but sorry for a part i couldn't understand.

My purpose is to create a visiting card 90-55 mm (i only need 50-60 cards). To lower the costs i want to cut it myself.
The idea was to create a 3x3 table (4x3 doesn't fit) on a A4, to create in the first table cell (first row, first column and so i did) a lay-out with frames etc and to copy it to the other cells. Than export to pdf > printshop (240 gr paper). Voila. But no, i couldn't copy and paste the first cell to the other cells  ::). It worked in O.O. But i realize Scribus has a totaly other concept.

So i send you the .sla and i hope you can explain me how to do it. Probably it helps me also to understand Scribus a bit more.
Kind regards Eos

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RobSay

You're on the right track ..

1. Just delete the 3x3 table - it's really not needed (or helpful!)
2. Select All (the content you already have) either with Ctrl+A or select with mouse area
3. Group the items to create one object: Ctrl+G or Item > Grouping > Group
4. Copy and Paste the Group
5. Align and Distribute (under Windows menu in Scribus), select align to Margins and align right
6. Paste Again and align to margins centre - you now have three cards in a row evenly distributed

Paste another six copes and align each using the different margin alignments.

You don't need to this but ff you want to see the layout use Page > Guides and add horizontal and vertical guides to create the grid you want (guides don't print but they are useful for alignment and visualising the layout).



utnik

...or even better:
after deleting the table and selecting the whole content go to 'item' → 'duplicate/transform' → 'multiple duplicate' → 'by rows and columns'
here you specify your three rows and three columns (and a gap – if needed...)

utnik

Eos

Thank you all.
I see for working with Scribus i need to think in an other way i'm used. Will take some time and al lot of experiment.
But i think Scribus is a nice program.
Eos.