2 problems for newbie, color selection, patterns

[mamboze]

Hi all,

This is my first post to the forum. I'm a scribus newbie. I've just installed 1.4.0 on ubuntu 11.10. And I'm finding scribus really great to use, mostly pretty intuitive. This is probably helped by my background with GIMP. But I do have a couple of queries that forum members maybe able to help me with.

1. selecting colors for fonts (for example) has me confused. How do you access the range of colors available in a palette like in GIMP. I realize that scribus has cmyk functionality, which I'm not really familiar with. I checked out the color wheel, but I don't know this relates to the color choice for fonts.
2. how do you set up a default set of patterns. I downloaded a GIMP set and some others, but they were available only for the current session. If I quit scribus and then restart, the pattern dialog window is empty, requiring reloading of the sets. I've look around in preferences but couldn't see any path setup page (or tab).

Any help would be very welcome

Moderator, if you're unhappy with more than one query per topic, I'll repost.

[mamboze]

OK, I've worked out how to access the various color palettes. Before, I had a file open which seems to restrict the color set range.

[Meho R.]

Colors (a little bit more than you asked, but might be useful for others with the same or similar question)

1. As you noticed, to change color sets (swatches, palettes) in Scribus, all you need to do is to run Scribus, but do not create or open any document. After that, choose a color set in Edit > Colors, and that color set will be default for all newly created documents. However, already created documents will retain their respective default color sets. But, since you can import colors via Edit > Colors, all you need to do is the following:
a) set a new default color set,
b) create a new document and save it,
c) import colors from this new document to your other document(s).

2. The easiest way to add color sets to Scribus from GIMP, Photoshop, or to even add Pantone colors, is by using SwatchBooker. After installation, you'll notice two application entries: SwatchBooker Editor and SwatchBooker Batch Converter. Start the latter.

3. Usage of SwatchBooker Batch Converter is simple:
a) press "Add Files" to find GIMP palettes (.gpl) you downloaded and convert them to format readable by Scribus (.xml)
b) set output directory of your liking
c) in "Format" drop-down list at the bottom of the window choose "Scribus Swatch (*.xml)" and press "Convert"
d) move the newly created .xml file(s) to ~/.scribus/swatches
e) start Scribus, press "Cancel" at the "New Document" dialog, so that Scribus is running without any document open
f) follow Step 1.

Patterns

Unlike for color sets, I'm not sure if there's an automated way to have patterns loaded at startup. According to Scribus Wiki, you can store patterns you'd like to reuse in a new Scrapbook and load them using Edit > Patterns. But, of course, you can always create a new document template, put into it all elements you want to be loaded when creating a new document from it, save it in ~/.scribus/templates and use "New from Template" instead of "New (Document)" dialog.

[mamboze]

Hi Meho R,

Thank you for a very helpful orientation. I wasn't aware of SwatchBooker, I'll certainly give it a try.

I worked out, more or less, that the patterns are linked to specific documents but again, I wasn't aware of the Scrapbook option. 

I'm pleased to be working with Scribus, a learning curve, for sure, but nothing insurmountable.

best regards