Color of guides and snapping the center of a frame?

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kenerling

Hello to all!

I'm learning the ropes for Scribus and so far having great fun doing so.

I do have two questions (Windows 10 Home, Scribus 1.6.2):

1) At File>Preferences>Guides>Color, you can set any color for the Guides (Select color > Click OK to close the dialog box > Click OK again to close the Preferences dialog), and in theory, the chosen color should become the default guides color for all documents.

As long as I don't close Scribus, this works just fine, but when I do close the program, when I reopen it, the guides color is reset to its default color.

Is there something I'm missing, or is this a bug?

2) Is there not a way to snap the center of a frame?

When snapping is turned on (Page > Snap to Grids/Guides/Items), the edges and corners of frames snap as expected, but the frame's center point does not snap anywhere, with one exception: When "Snap to Items" is activated, the center of a frame can be snapped to the corner or center of another frame, but that's all. A frame's center won't snap to a guides intersection either.

Being able to snap the center of a frame would be extremely useful for, e.g., centering it on a page, or between the margins without having to go through the up-to five clicks needed via the Align and Distribute window.

Thanks in advance for any clarifications or advice you may have!

a.l.e

for centering, you can use the "align and distribute" tool...

you can even align the center to a guide : - )
or to the page...

not as "intuitive" as centering by snapping...
... but, on the other side, too much snapping makes it also harder to correctly place the items...

kenerling

Thanks a.l.e for your reply.

Yes, I'm familiar with the align and distribute window, which certainly does the job, but as I mentioned in my post, it can sometimes be quite a few clicks:

Change to select A&D tab: 1 click
Change "Relative To" to (e.g.) "Margins": 2 clicks
Change "Align Sides By" to "Move": 3 clicks
Click "Center on vertical axis": 4 clicks
Click "Center on horizontal axis": 5 clicks

[wipes sweat from brow]

There are all sorts of workarounds, of course, so it's no big deal. For example, if the frame is the same on each page, the user can do it once then multiple duplicate the page as many times as needed; idem with an empty frame to serve as a center snap reference for the frame to be actually used, etc.

Still, I do feel that being able to snap the center of a frame is as basic as being able to snap its edge or its corner...

Anyhoo, thanks again!

Nermander

Remember that numbers in Scribus can be written as formulas.

So, you can probably do like this:

1. Snap left edge to the guide.
2. Copy the number from the frame width.
3. The in the box for position, after the current number, append "-(the copied number)/2".

That will (hopefully) move the frame to the left with half the width of the frame.

a.l.e

@ nermander:

good hint, but point 2. is not needed : - )

1. snap the left edge to the guide
2. in the x field of the pp append "-width/2"

... and now kerneling will start counting the key that need to be pressed : - )

a.l.e

#5
btw, concerning the usage of the align and distribute tool, i've opened a ticket:

0017393: Make the Align and distribute tool more comfortable to use
https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=17393

personally, i'm not sure if adding more snapping points would really be a win for scribus.
i already regularly have to fight the snapping heuristic, to get it to snap to the right element / guide.

i must admit that my only experience with "complex" snapping points is in inkscape.
it has way more snapping points then one can wish.
they work better than in scribus.
and "each" can be enabled or disabled.
but having the right one activated when you need it, feels overwhelming to me.
(sadly, i don't use inkscape very often, and i mostly only use basic feature, so i might be representative there...).

personally, my wish would be to make the center element snapping optional (with a preference/setup switch).
so: as you might have guessed, less centering is fine to me : - )

Nermander

Quote from: a.l.e on January 29, 2025, 11:05:32 PM2. in the x field of the pp append "-width/2"

I wasn't sure if the width variable was for the object width or the page width. But it is the object then?

I think I have placed guides in the middle of the page using "width/2".

Nermander

I recall some program (probably CAD) where when snapping you kind of got a tool where you moved the mouse in circles around the position to select what to snap to... It may have been AutoCAD 35 years ago :)

a.l.e

page width is... pagewidth : - )

ah, btw, iirc there was a bug with the colors of the guides, but should be fixed in the latest releases...

kenerling

#9
Quote from: a.l.e on January 29, 2025, 11:05:32 PM... and now kerneling will start counting the key that need to be pressed : - )
Hold on! I'm still winded from the last demonstration!  ;)


Quote from: a.l.e on January 30, 2025, 09:16:35 AMbtw, concerning the usage of the align and distribute tool, i've opened a ticket
Cool! Thanks!


Quote from: a.l.e on January 30, 2025, 09:16:35 AMi already regularly have to fight the snapping heuristic
Yes, in just my month or so with Scribus, I've already noticed that snapping can be a battle, especially when "Snap to grid" is activated.


Quote from: a.l.e on January 30, 2025, 09:16:35 AMpersonally, my wish would be to make the center element snapping optional (with a preference/setup switch)
That is exactly what I was thinking, to make snapping more manageable when there's lots of snapping interference. However, I would take it a step further, and make all of the snap points optional. So, with any frame, the user could indicate to snap with only the upper-left corner, or only the upper-right-corner, or only the left edge, etc.. Even better would be the possibility of combining them, e.g., activate snapping with the upper-left corner and the frame center, but none of the other frame corners or edges would snap.

That ability, to snap using only X part of the frame, in combination with the choices at Page > Snap to (...), would give, I think, great flexibility to snapping.

I would also suggest (I know this isn't the place, but while we're discussing things) making the page edge and margins separate from the guides. And one other big one that I saw and agree with elsewhere, is the ability to snap to the bleed edge. So, imagine at Page > Snap to (...):

Snap to grid
Snap to bleed edge
Snap to page edge
Snap to margins
Snap to guides
Snap to items

All that said, I do want to add that as I'm wrapping my head around the program, I'm finding it to be a very satisfying piece of programming.

Cheers to all!