For several months now, I've not posted any notes about the advances in the Scribus development.
While preparing the slides for the State of Libre Graphics (https://libregraphicsmeeting.org/2026/program/state_of_libre_graphics/) (Yes, Scribus then the slides
got lost and was not presented.), I thought that it might be a good idea to get back to regularly post my notes on the progress Scribus is doing.
Text Search & Replace in the full documentsearch-and-replace.gif
This removes the previous limitation where text could only be searched inside of the "story" (a.k.a chain of text frames).
(I've opened a ticket for the issue about the selection not being cleared when leaving a text chain: https://bugs.scribus.net/bug_report_page.php)
Remove unused stylesstyle-remove-unused.gif
Loading formatted documents in text frames and merging Scribus document might add styles that are not actually in use: it's now possible to remove them in one go.
Live Spell Checkercanvas-spell-check.gif
Scribus now has an on canvas spell checker highlighting misspelled words and providing a context menu for fixing them.
On canvas node editing of Bezier curvescanvas-spell-check.gif
It's now possible to move, add and delete nodes without the need to first activate the specific tools in the Nodes palette.
Search topics in the preferencespreferences-search.gif
The Preferences and Document Setup dialogs have much grown over the years. It's now possible to filter the settings by typing a search term.
A logging system in the UIA new window for logging has been introduced: it will allow inspecting issues with Scribus and the layout without having to rely on the output in the terminal.
Further features and fixes- Major update of the barcode generator (the value can now be edited, more features are accessible, and it also be used from the scripter).
- Text frame chaining arrows have been redesigned to be more visually pleasing.
- A command to change the case of text.
- You can now pick dark or light mode, regardless the OS / WM setting.
It already happened since the last post:
Open tickets with pending patches:
- apply masterpage: change the range fields to one field where user defined pages can be entered (like 1-4,7,9) (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=2341)
- Preflight verifier: check for trailing spaces (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=17558)
- Automatic detection of page size format (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=17476)
- Scripter: GetItem(name) should look inside of groups (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=17490)
- Export to PDF/X-1a:2003 (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=17422)
- Freehand tool: always smooth the line (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=12438)x
- Picture frame padding (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=1096)
- Export selection to SVG (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=17438)
- Change from Conical gradient to mesh Gradient generate new color names (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=17332)
- Limit the width of the tooltips (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=17438)
- 'snap to guides' should be enabled by default (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=14956)
- disabling hyphenation for word by inserting softhyphen before it (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=10517)
- it should not be possible to insert multiple soft hyphens one after the other (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=15600)
- Search & replace all text frames (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=14567)
- WIP PATCH: Import pages with linked text frames breaks the links (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=8056)
- Warn when a hyphenation dictionary is missing (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=15584)
- Image compression in PDF (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=2277)
- Support automatic line spacing in gettext plugins (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=11063)
- Scribuses working in parallel overwrite each others temp files (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=17319)
- ctrl: move image orthogonally inside of the image frame (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=17144)
- fill a frame with the image (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=15560)
- Modify the behavior of scripter's getSelectedTextRange() (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=17618)
- Bleed should override page margins when using the Shift shortcut for creating frames (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=14606)
- Adjust frame height to text fails if frame is not tall enough to display text. (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=14668)
- Persist "Save as"'s format and add "Save a copy" to a different format (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=17625)
- Add button group ui widget (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=17571)
- Align and distribute - Making gaps between equal needs multiple clicks (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=17623)
- Add variable for document directory to render-frame processing (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=14723)
- scripter: add isexportable command (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=15171)
- Fix tabstops in tabpdfoptions.ui + a small UI change (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=13306)
Tickets with "simple" tasks:
- cannot search and replace by / with character styles (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=16691)
- duplicate on layer (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=3556)
- A way to manage stylesheets when inserting a page from another document (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=1710)
- Implicit right tab on right hand margin (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=2709)
- svg plug-in doesn't import text as (editable) text (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=9841)
- Expand item to the next guide (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=17525)
- Add an option to export a PDF file containing all data relevant for production (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=3951)
- shift-drag to create items fitting multiple areas (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=17526)
- PDF export directory presets (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=12219)
- Select all frames in a chain (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=1815)
- button to convert column and rows guides to "real" guides (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=10114)
- selecting multiple items at once should happen in ltr/rtl order (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=17385)
- Add an option to list used fonts first (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=8435) (also see the related tickets)
- Use Same folder for other missing images" isnt used for other frames using same image (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=17563)
- Scripter: moveObject() only moves one of several selected objects (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=5875)
- more units to edit an image's size (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=6229)
- font family/style separation in quick character palette (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=6686)
- when creating an image frame a click should create it at the image size (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=10906)
- Modernize "Multiple duplicate" (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=17620)
- Persist the basepoint (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=17693)
- Remember the less / more state in the Search / Replace dialog (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=17800)
Scripts to be created
- Split frame by paragraphs (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=8635)
- Split the frame in columns (https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=8276)