Scribus Forums

Development => Features => Topic started by: a.l.e on November 06, 2025, 09:45:46 AM

Title: Some interesting features from a dead Layout software
Post by: a.l.e on November 06, 2025, 09:45:46 AM
A couple of weeks, a user that is also active in this forum, asked on Reddit about letting Scribus automatically detecting the contour of an image.
(Edit: Ok, I checked and they asked here too; but the discussion went a bit further on Reddit... https://forums.scribus.net/index.php/topic,6512)

Interesting challenge: I'm working on a Python script that should be able to do it!
The work is progressing slowly but nicely.

This morning, I was curious about the reference they gave for the feature: PagePlus.

It's a software that has been discontinued ten years ago and is / was Windows only (probably the main reason why it never showed up on my radar...).

I was curious to see what it looked like and during my exploration trip, I've found a few features that could be interesting for Scribus, too (and might not require huge changes to Scribus):


What do you think about it?

There are few low hanging fruits, if somebody who knows a bit of C++ wants to give it a try, just raise your hand : - )
Title: Re: Some interesting features from a dead Layout software
Post by: joseb on January 13, 2026, 02:24:22 PM
Quote from: a.l.e on November 06, 2025, 09:45:46 AMApplying multiple (background) master pages to the same page (layered on top of each other)

I think the function of applying several master pages to the same normal page can be very useful.

In other software, I think you can create a new master page and use the "Based on Master" function to link two master pages (or have one master nested within another master).

Options:

- Be able to apply two master pages (A and B) to the same page. This way, that "normal" page will have the background of A+B. If I change something in master page A, it will be reflected in the normal pages that only have master page A applied and in the normal pages that have master pages A+B applied (the change will not be reflected in pages that only have B applied).

- Apply master page A over master page B. Then apply master page B over a "normal" page. The preview will show that master page B is applied, but you will also be able to see the background of master page A. If I change something on master page A, it will be reflected on the normal pages that have only master page A applied and on the normal pages that have master page B applied.