Recent posts

#41
Installation and Setup / Re: Corrupted Copy
Last post by utnik - January 01, 2026, 09:26:40 AM
hi sheba2

you'll find the scribus preferences on mac os in /users/(your user name)/library/preferences/scribus. i would rename this folder (when scribus isn't running...) to something like 'scribus_old'. at the next launch scribus will create a new folder with the standard preferences.

utnik
#42
Linux / Re: Book creation with scribus
Last post by kroben - December 31, 2025, 03:19:46 PM
I barely had time to start documenting my projects when problems arose with scribusbook, so I had to cancel and update.
Slightly different text content than before meant that text frames on master pages became too small. This could be fixed with a scribus script, which places and sizes text frames. This is now included in Automation -> Update masterpages. The size and placement of text frames on the master pages are hardcoded in the scribus script "book_masterpages_update_pscript.py", but you can modify the data at your own risk...

Then I wanted to include a listing of references to external sources. This is also introduced in Automation via a new button function "Update book References". Here the problem arose that a new paragraph style had to be introduced, "Referance_mark", and this will now be missing from previously produced books in the bookshelf. Inserted text with the paragraph style "Referance_mark" ends up in the file "Chapter_ZZ/Chapter_ZZ_7_References.sla" together with page numbers. Now you can't hide that you stole all the content in the book from external sources!
But to solve the problem of fixing previous books, there is an update package to download, which via bash and scribus script reads all scribus documents in the selected book, and adds the paragraph style for references, and the reference file in the chapter Chapter_ZZ.
This update package also updates tools in your previously installed scribusbook version 251201.

Observed problems with scribus scripter:

* Importing a paragraph style cannot be done via scribus scripts in a clean way. My method is to add a page from a prepared scribus file, which only has this paragraph defined. Then the document is saved, and the document is closed, and then immediately reopened and the added page is removed, and the document is saved. What remains after this detour is the new paragraph style.
It is possible to create paragraph styles in scribus scripts, but not with all the parameters I want.

* Importing paragraph styles from another document does not have the "replace existing" parameter, which seems to create a new version of duplicates.

* Importing master pages from another document does not have the "replace existing" parameter, which seems to create a new version of duplicates.

I will continue my interrupted project documentation until new problems with scribusbook arise.

Updated manual, project archive, and update archive can be found at the link:
https://privat.bahnhof.se/wb187803/hygget251231/eng/scribusbook/

/kroben
#43
Raster and Vector Graphics / Re: JPEG Export blurry-ish
Last post by AdmFubar - December 31, 2025, 04:50:16 AM
You may want to check ImageMagick, a command line tool for image conversion.


https://imagemagick.org
#44
Beginner Talk / Re: Grid
Last post by a.l.e - December 30, 2025, 07:37:25 PM
As said, depending on the jobs you have been doing with InDesign, and you plan to do in the future, you might be better served by Inkscape.
The fact that you are used to working with the grid hints to it. But it's just a hint, not (at all!) a certitude.
Then you would even have rectangular, axonometric, and isometric grids... as far as I know even compose your own...

One things is for sure: you will have a hard time doing typical Photoshop tasks with Scribus.
#45
Raster and Vector Graphics / Re: JPEG Export blurry-ish
Last post by OccasionalUser - December 30, 2025, 06:15:26 PM
Quote from: a.l.e on December 30, 2025, 04:36:28 PMThe export from Scribus as an image is meant for creating previews, not production ready images.

Your best bet is to export to PDF and then use a different tool for converting each page of the PDF to a PNG.

Ouch, I see...

Thanks for the reply, I'll try as you suggest!

Edit: I tried, and while the results are better (no compression in images etc.), the best results so far are exporting to image 4x the size and then resizing and compressing in PS. This can also automated as a batch, so I think I'll do that going forward.
#46
Beginner Talk / Re: Grid
Last post by Colin Hughes - December 30, 2025, 05:57:00 PM
Thanks A

I've been using indesign and photoshop for over 10 years jut got used to snapping my objects to a grid.
#47
Raster and Vector Graphics / Re: JPEG Export blurry-ish
Last post by a.l.e - December 30, 2025, 04:36:28 PM
The export from Scribus as an image is meant for creating previews, not production ready images.

Your best bet is to export to PDF and then use a different tool for converting each page of the PDF to a PNG.
#48
Beginner Talk / Re: Grid
Last post by a.l.e - December 30, 2025, 04:33:30 PM
If you're a beginner with Scribus, you probably do not need the grid.

You are probably better off with snapping to items or guides... or with a vector drawing tool like Inkscape.

Anyway, in Scribus you can only define the grid for the whole document.
#49
Installation and Setup / Re: Corrupted Copy
Last post by Sheba2 - December 30, 2025, 03:55:27 PM
Tahoe 26.1 and I believe it is ssd. This might sound silly, but how do I rename the preferences for scribus with it running--I do not understand that since I think it has to be open to rename the preferences. Which preferences are you referring to? Thanks for your help--I will not uninstall until hearing back.
#50
Raster and Vector Graphics / JPEG Export blurry-ish
Last post by OccasionalUser - December 30, 2025, 03:52:24 PM
Hi,
I've set up a template with a grid of image boxes, "adapt to frame" checked, "proportional" unchecked (I'm translating on the fly from another language in the GUI so apologies if some things are not 100%) but proportionality is seldom a factor, if not for a pixel or two.

I'm dragging and dropping some image files, either in JPEG or PNG format, of a different - bigger - size (thus some resizing always occurs, but there's more data than needed for the output resolution) and then exporting the whole document as an image in JPEG format, 100% quality.

I've done the same thing in Photoshop, except it's a lot more cumbersome because I have to manually transform and align the pictures.

Now the issue: the output for Photoshop noticeably crispier than Scribus' (the output files are the same dimensions in pixels thus resolution is not a factor, both JPEG max quality, and file size is almost the same - same ballpark anyhow).

I have all previews at High in Scribus, and I also tried exporting as SVG and exporting from Inkscape (same blurry-ish result... I know my problems are with raster images, but wanted to see if e.g. JPEG compression was different).

Quality when previewing the result in the Scribus software at 100% magnification is far higher than the output.

I'm fairly certain it's either a resizing issue (maybe the algorithm is bad for resizing to a lower resolution i.e. bicubic smoother vs bicubic sharper in PS) or an encoding issue (JPEG compression).

Batch-resizing images is unfortunately not an option due to the fact that it would slow down the workflow and require additional space - and I think it would be useless anyway because the preview displays better than the export.

Thoughts? TiA

Edit: tried exporting 400% size then resizing 25% in PS and saving JPG (clunky, I know), baseline optimized, max quality and the blurriness is no longer there... so yeah... either resizing algo or jpg compression "issue".

Edit 2: tried exporting as TIFF and it's still blurry, so I guess I narrowed it down to the resizing algo. Can it be tweaked in the preferences?