Recent posts

#91
User Interface / Re: Issues with the v1.7.1.svn...
Last post by a.l.e - October 18, 2025, 06:19:10 PM
Wayland?

P.S.: If it's the case you might need to run Scribus with XWayland...
#92
Features / Re: Adding a floating context ...
Last post by a.l.e - October 18, 2025, 06:18:35 PM
At the beginning of this year, I've added tickets for two related proposals that Martin did:

Create a context aware toolbar
https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=17365

Create a customizable toolbar
https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=17366

I guess that they go in the same direction as the Quick Access bar
#93
User Interface / Issues with the v1.7.1.svn UI
Last post by amair - October 18, 2025, 05:42:02 PM
Hi!

I have been "forced" ;) to use v1.7.x as Gentoo dropped the latest 1.6 from the repository and made 1.7.1.svn (dated 20250929) the only Scribus release in their repository. I hope it's stable enough for my upcoming project starting next week ...

While I'm quite pleased by the new UI there are some issues I consider a bug or need some improvement.

A) scribus-sidebar-missing-background.jpg
The new non-permanent sidebars have no background color set.

B) scribus-sidebar-usability.jpg
1+2) Drop-down if the foreground or background color is clicked. It's *very* hard to recognize that drop-down (1: no border or alternate background color) and its close button (2: x).
3+4) The minimum width isn't set wide enough. Button is cut (3) and there's a scrollbar at the bottom (4).

Regards,
Andreas
#94
Showcase / Re: Our New Comic 175 pages St...
Last post by AdmFubar - October 18, 2025, 04:36:06 PM
have you looked at openclipart.org? not sure if they have an api to use. You might be able to prod them to add one.
#95
Features / Adding a floating context awar...
Last post by Solara Maris - October 18, 2025, 03:50:33 PM
[This post has been split in here from Our New Comic 175 pages Strip Book created in Scribus!]

Firstly, why I believe QuarkXPress was an amazing software.


Many years ago (years 2000) I was an enthusiastic professional workin in deluxe printing industry. We were using now defunct QuarkXpress (QXP) before we reluctantly migrated to Adobe Indesign due to cost issues.

Back in those days QuarkXPress was the big giant in DTP industry with closer to none competitors. They failed due to their imense arrogance towards users.

Features I loved immensely at QXP (which to me is the King of Ergonomics) were

(1) the bare bone robust stability and maturity (which I love at Scribus as well), (2) ergonomics, formidable straighforward easy working with (3) advanced printing concepts as trapping, overpprinting and knockout.

See this picture to understand knockout and overprinting

trapping-knockout-overprint.jpg
trapping-knockout-overprint.png



Other solid rock features: (4)duplicate tool, (5)precise XYZ move with exact shifts. It allowed me to build complicated DTP templates in a fraction of time compared with packed featured softwares like CorelDraw, Adobe Illustrator or InDesign.

(6) QXP was able to handle and leverage huge projects or many meters in size with the computing power of the year 2000. The 300dpi rule for bitmap was still a must back those days.


Therefore I am detailing below two of the ergonomics feature I would love to see in Scribus:

Quick Access bar (In-Context bar), watch the 1 min video below

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_BEAsfz--Q


I have other great ideas I could input if someone is interested in understanding implementing them.


Just let me know




#96
Showcase / Re: Our New Comic 175 pages St...
Last post by Solara Maris - October 18, 2025, 03:29:07 PM
Quote from: a.l.e on October 18, 2025, 02:47:39 PMLet's start from the end: I will try to create a script for getting images from Wikimedia.

Wonderful. Sadly I was not able to find a free clipart store with an API available and with free content  (it is understandable since there are no incentives).

Quote from: a.l.e on October 18, 2025, 02:47:39 PMSecond: I plan to work on extending the Style search to also be a tool for applying typographic formatting.
The current idea is that typing one of the keys used for the typographic shortcuts (the arrows, <, >, ...) will start applying that formatting (no more applying of styles until the next time the shift-esc is pressed. Typing any other key will start searching for styles (and no access anymore to the typographic formatting).
By doing this, we could use all the best keys for applying the formatting, without having to fear about the shortcuts being already used for other things.


Here is the ticket for it: https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=17634


The explanation and the ticket both looks like a great plan. To me one of the most useful Scribus features for editors. I only partially can parse it (since never used Style Search yet) but I am willingly ready to be a early tester. I will start practicing it. We moved to Scribus 1.7 since yesterday.

Quote from: a.l.e on October 18, 2025, 02:47:39 PMFinally (for now), concerning the wrapping, on top of the work Martin already did, which is still in "review" (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=1096), I guess that you could also go "the other way round":
you can create a clip path in Gimp (or any other image editor of your choice), use an image format that supports it, and let Scribus use it (it's the last button in the text flow options).
Would that work for you?
Here is the ticket for it: https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=17634

It sounds great, I know the trick from using Adobe Suite in the past. However unless you are working for professional magazines this feature is used lesser in books and comic strips. I would lower the priority for this feature and raise the ergonomics and focus on main features as I will describe in the next comment.

So far. So good!


#97
Showcase / Re: Our New Comic 175 pages St...
Last post by a.l.e - October 18, 2025, 02:47:39 PM
Let's start from the end: I will try to create a script for getting images from Wikimedia.

I'm not sure that I personally want to do the work for non free collections, but once the script is there, other can for sure extend it for other sources (or the tool could be flexible enough to be able to use them, after some config).

Second: I plan to work on extending the Style search to also be a tool for applying typographic formatting.
The current idea is that typing one of the keys used for the typographic shortcuts (the arrows, <, >, ...) will start applying that formatting (no more applying of styles until the next time the shift-esc is pressed. Typing any other key will start searching for styles (and no access anymore to the typographic formatting).
By doing this, we could use all the best keys for applying the formatting, without having to fear about the shortcuts being already used for other things.

Here is the ticket for it: https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=17634

Feedback on this plan is welcome (from you or other readers of this forum).

Finally (for now), concerning the wrapping, on top of the work Martin already did, which is still in "review" (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=1096), I guess that you could also go "the other way round":
you can create a clip path in Gimp (or any other image editor of your choice), use an image format that supports it, and let Scribus use it (it's the last button in the text flow options).
Would that work for you?
#98
Linux / Book creation with scribus
Last post by kroben - October 17, 2025, 07:07:29 PM
I have developed a toolkit, designed to be usable by everyone at a low cost, and therefore the target computer was chosen to be Raspberry Pi, used against an already existing TV. This means that the tool is currently only usable in a Linux environment.
I use it to write user manuals using scribus, for documentation of my projects, which are mainly in the "Home Automation" field. I use Raspberry pi as a control computer in various automation projects.

I have called the tool scibusbook, and it works well, but, it requires at least scribus version 1.6.x, for scribus scripts to work! The tool is built around scripts, and is therefore naturally open source, and works as a wrapper for scribus, to compile an e-book from the components of a book, produced in scribus. Some parts are completely automated, such as generating tables of contents for headings, images and tables, and also generating indexes from inserted index marks in the different chapters. There is also a function to generate a list of inserted TBD marks (To Be Determined), which, however, are not included in the final book.

The tool is a prototype, or "proof of design", to see if it is possible to imitate my previously used "Framemaker-bookfiles", which are far too expensive for private individuals. But before the final scribusbook a cleaning job is needed. For now, the design of templates is done in A4 page format, which requires some change of layout if another page format is chosen.

This all sounds great, but there is one ugly spot.
Generating tables only works partially from scribus scripts.
When the table is generated, from a text frame with inserted text in cvs format, generated from a spreadsheet, with ';' as a separator, all text gets the paragraph style "Default". There doesn't seem to be any way to access the text frame in a table cell from scripter. If the file is opened directly in scribus, after a little fiddling with a pointing device, you can select a cell and open it in "Story Editor", and there the style for the paragraph can be changed, so there is demonstrably a text frame in the cell. My current method is to run an OS command from a script, which, using the stream editor sed, changes the XML code of the sla file directly, which is not an acceptable solution.

If anyone has an idea for a solution to the problem, or just wants to try scribusbook, the manual and tar file for scribusbook can be downloaded from the website:

https://privat.bahnhof.se/wb187803/hygget251001/eng/scribusbook/scribusbook.html

/kroben
#99
Showcase / Re: Our New Comic 175 pages St...
Last post by Solara Maris - October 17, 2025, 12:50:34 PM
Here's a curated list of free and paid clipart libraries that could be integrated with Scribus, especially if the developers were to consider adding native support or integration features.

These services offer professional-grade assets and APIs that could be integrated into Scribus:


Adobe Stock

Format: SVG, EPS, AI, JPG
License: Paid (subscription or per asset)
Integration Potential: High (via API)
Notes: Already integrated with Adobe tools like InDesign



Shutterstock

Format: EPS, JPG, PNG
License: Paid
Integration Potential: High (API available)
Notes: Extensive library, used in many publishing tools.



Freepik

Format: SVG, EPS, AI
License: Free with attribution / Paid for no attribution
Integration Potential: Medium (API available for developers).



Vecteezy

Format: SVG, EPS
License: Free and paid tiers
Integration Potential: Medium
Notes: Offers an API for developers.




Integration Considerations for Scribus Developers

If Scribus developers were to integrate a clipart library, they should consider:

SVG support (already strong in Scribus)
Licensing clarity (preferably public domain or CC0)
API availability (for dynamic search/import)
Offline access or caching (for portability)
User interface for browsing assets (like a plugin or sidebar)
#100
Showcase / Re: Our New Comic 175 pages St...
Last post by Solara Maris - October 17, 2025, 12:42:48 PM
Thank you for priceless tips. Since yesterday we are more skillful.

Firstly If any of our work fits scribus showcase gallery we are happy to send you samples from our books.


Here is our input on your questions

MISSING missing a proper styles properties clone formatting tool: Do you mean that one should be able to copy the formatting of a text snippet and apply it to a different text snippet? A fast way to create a style based on the current text selection would also do?

Yes, similar to MS Word format cloner tool.

We also found a big blocker on our comic strip book as we inserted a soft enter (not full enter) to split the dialogue texts in speech bubbles. While aligning left|center|right seems impossible. It makes sense as it only works on paragraphs.




See the context:





POOR it needs a restyle of text properties: e.g. kerning tool it should be obvious simple.: Is there more to be done, than having shortcuts for kerning?

We have numerous size edits in the bubble speech dialogues. A shortcut like Ctrl+Up/Down/LArrow/RArrow for tasks like font increase, letter tracking/kerning would be a hand wrist paracetamol.
I think this is the feature where QuarkXPress was at its best in the back gold times.


I don't see challenging from developping point of view in term of costs adding these non expensive features.




BUG - applying guidelines in a master will multiple overlap the existing ones: is it this one? https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=7764

Yes!


POOR - wrap editor: What is the wrap editor? Text flow around the contour line? If it's the case, there is a patch hanging for defining a wrapping area around "simple" shapes (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=1096). Is there more that is urgently needed?

I appologize. The text wrapping works fine (see the screenshot above). It is just that it does not have automatic shape detection and it needs a manual bezier path editing around the figures in a bitmap picture. Here AI could bring power.

VERY POOR - handling of copy paste non european alphabet glyphs etc hebrew letter with niqqud or arabic: none of the developer speaks any non european languages... we need specific examples here...

I work now at a hebrew/greek/arabic alphabet workbook and i have vowel particles (niqqud) in the consonants. I had to copy paste or import hebrew words from word into scribus as typing in scribus with niqqud didn't worked. If need more details then I can try to record to prepare a more complex demo scenario


Better keyboard shortcuts integration: Have you tried the "Action search"? Personally, it covers most of my needs for shortcuts (for commands that I can't or don't want to specify in the shortcuts list)
A dingbats, clipart platform integration (open for contributors paid or free): Do you have an example of such a platform that could be integrated into Scribus?



Action Search is very useful. The same History Tool




I could come with more input if needed.