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#1
Features / Re: Balance text
Last post by a.l.e - Today at 06:56:47 AMP.S.: sorry for the verification. It's only shown to new users. It should stop after some time.
And I guess that we cannot really know, if it helps for blocking spammers.
... we can't ask the funny guy, who just yesterday posted 15 times a lengthy list of links, if they felt any inconvenience because of the verification.
And I guess that we cannot really know, if it helps for blocking spammers.
... we can't ask the funny guy, who just yesterday posted 15 times a lengthy list of links, if they felt any inconvenience because of the verification.
#2
Features / Re: Balance text
Last post by jason_clark - August 13, 2026, 10:17:15 PMAdmFubar,
Justification isn't what I was referring to. Balnacing paragraph text has been standard in InDesign for years. It helps prevent single words left on a line at the end of a paragraph, for example. Yes, you can play with tracking, but that implemented in InDesign recomposes the whole paragraph to ensure it looks more 'balanced'. Perhaps you haven't any experience of Adobe products. Illustrator has something similar as well. I'm not sure if anything else does something similar as I have been a heavy Adobe user for decades. Thought it worth asking as it's a very nice feature to have. It's a way of avoiding hyphenation, which generally looks bad unless you have to justify text.
As a.i.e. suggests, perhaps AI can help with a potential script. Something to investigate.
Thanks.
PS. This verification before posting is a pain in the arse. I'm doing it correctly but it keeps flagging up errors. Seems unnecessary.
Justification isn't what I was referring to. Balnacing paragraph text has been standard in InDesign for years. It helps prevent single words left on a line at the end of a paragraph, for example. Yes, you can play with tracking, but that implemented in InDesign recomposes the whole paragraph to ensure it looks more 'balanced'. Perhaps you haven't any experience of Adobe products. Illustrator has something similar as well. I'm not sure if anything else does something similar as I have been a heavy Adobe user for decades. Thought it worth asking as it's a very nice feature to have. It's a way of avoiding hyphenation, which generally looks bad unless you have to justify text.
As a.i.e. suggests, perhaps AI can help with a potential script. Something to investigate.
Thanks.
PS. This verification before posting is a pain in the arse. I'm doing it correctly but it keeps flagging up errors. Seems unnecessary.
#3
Features / Re: Balance text
Last post by a.l.e - August 13, 2026, 09:44:10 AMNo, as far as I know, Scribus can't balance ragged text.
Sadly, the fact the Scribus uses XML for its .sla files is orthogonal to the ability of using CSS.
It might be possible to write a script that goes through the text and adds and removes hyphens while counting the length of the lines... but I'm not 100% sure.
(It's not trivial to create such a script, but, from what I've seen floating around, AI knows well the Scribus Scripter API : - )
Sadly, the fact the Scribus uses XML for its .sla files is orthogonal to the ability of using CSS.
It might be possible to write a script that goes through the text and adds and removes hyphens while counting the length of the lines... but I'm not 100% sure.
(It's not trivial to create such a script, but, from what I've seen floating around, AI knows well the Scribus Scripter API : - )
#4
Features / Re: Balance text
Last post by AdmFubar - August 12, 2026, 04:37:57 AMi think you are looking for justification? you will fin the options to justify text in the content properties window when you have a text frame selected.
In the text content window look for the alignment entry, click to expand if it isnt already. There are several button to select the various justification options and vertical alignment.
Hope this helps
In the text content window look for the alignment entry, click to expand if it isnt already. There are several button to select the various justification options and vertical alignment.
Hope this helps
#5
Scripts and Plugins / Script to exort all text frame...
Last post by founder - August 11, 2026, 10:10:55 PMSince I failed to integrate LanguageTool into Scribus, I now have a tool to make it at last a bit more easy.
I have unsual
Layer General
Layer English
Layer German
I advised Grok to make a script for Scribus.
It worked on my Scribus 1.6.1 on Linux Ubuntu 24.04
I have unsual
Layer General
Layer English
Layer German
I advised Grok to make a script for Scribus.
It worked on my Scribus 1.6.1 on Linux Ubuntu 24.04
#6
Features / Balance text
Last post by jason_clark - August 11, 2026, 05:26:14 PMI couldn't find any mention on here, but as a long time InDesign user looking at Scribus moving forward, a way of balancing the ragged edge of text paragraphs, like InDesign's 'Balance Ragged Lines' feature would be very welcome! It has an implementation in CSS which already works quite well (text-wrap: pretty or balance), though not yet fully supported. I'm unsure, but as XML is the Scribus format, would this be a relatively easy feature to introduce, referencing the CSS approach? Perhaps added where the optical alignment exists.
#7
General Discussion / Re: Lack of reliable IDML impo...
Last post by Aleks100 - August 08, 2026, 10:55:08 PMOn the other hand AFAIK in Scribus you can use old type1 fonts that you bought many years ago, which is impossible in most of modern applications
#8
Showcase / Creating swedish style crosswo...
Last post by a.l.e - August 08, 2026, 12:56:43 PMSomebody asked on Reddit if they can create a Swedish style crossword (that's the name Wikipedia gives to it...) with Scribus.
I gave it a try and in about half an hour I could get this result:
Here is a peek behind the scenes:
I only gave it a "fast and furious" try and achieved something Okeish in about half an hour. So, my conclusion is: yes, it's doable with Scribus.
I'm attaching my draft .sla file and here are some more hints I gave to the user:
Has anybody else already tried something like this?
Any further hints?
I gave it a try and in about half an hour I could get this result:
Here is a peek behind the scenes:
I only gave it a "fast and furious" try and achieved something Okeish in about half an hour. So, my conclusion is: yes, it's doable with Scribus.
I'm attaching my draft .sla file and here are some more hints I gave to the user:
- I've found https://dtinth.github.io/comic-mono-font/ but it does not contain any special signs for languages that are not English: you will need to search a bit further or add yourself the missing diacritics.
- Play with the size of the boxes to match the spacing and size of the font: I've first drawn the boxes, then typed the text, but it's probably wiser to do it the other way round.
- Typing the solution in a single text frame, and using a mono space font to get the spacing even seems work well (you will need to play a bit with the fixed line spacing, the size of the font, the kerning and the letters width) seems to be a good workflow.
- You will probably need 1.7 for the spacing above the paragraphs and the vertical aligning for the cues. The rest should be OK also with 1.6 (you can get a good result there, but some steps will be a bit more cumbersome)
- Working with Beziers is still not as comfortable as it should be. You will be missing the snapping for the nodes and, generally, a way to align them. But it's doable.
- There is no real control on the size of the arrow heads.
- Since you will have multiple items on top of each other, it's not always trivial to select the right element. Working with layers might make it a bit easier.
Has anybody else already tried something like this?
Any further hints?
#9
General Discussion / Re: Lack of reliable IDML impo...
Last post by ScribasTester - August 06, 2026, 09:32:24 AMFor those interested: This is what the "Myriad Variable Concept" font looks like in InkScape v1.4.4.
#10
General Discussion / Re: Lack of reliable IDML impo...
Last post by ScribasTester - August 06, 2026, 09:19:40 AMThanks for the clarification.
I'm trying to understand whether full variable‑font support needs to be implemented all at once, or whether an incremental approach might be possible.
Some applications (for example LibreOffice) currently expose the named instances of variable fonts such as "Myriad Variable Concept" as regular styles, even though they don't provide axis controls.
Inkscape appears to make use of HarfBuzz/FreeType's variable‑font APIs (e.g. hb_font_set_variations()), and since Scribus already relies on the same libraries, I wondered whether supporting named instances first could be a feasible intermediate step before adding full axis control.
Have the Scribus developers already evaluated this option?
Or are there architectural reasons why even named instances would still require the complete variable‑font infrastructure?
From what I can see, Inkscape mainly forwards the selected variation coordinates through HarfBuzz to FreeType for shaping and rendering. Because Scribus uses the same libraries, I'm curious whether the main challenges lie in the UI, the text engine, or the PDF export
I'm trying to understand whether full variable‑font support needs to be implemented all at once, or whether an incremental approach might be possible.
Some applications (for example LibreOffice) currently expose the named instances of variable fonts such as "Myriad Variable Concept" as regular styles, even though they don't provide axis controls.
Inkscape appears to make use of HarfBuzz/FreeType's variable‑font APIs (e.g. hb_font_set_variations()), and since Scribus already relies on the same libraries, I wondered whether supporting named instances first could be a feasible intermediate step before adding full axis control.
Have the Scribus developers already evaluated this option?
Or are there architectural reasons why even named instances would still require the complete variable‑font infrastructure?
From what I can see, Inkscape mainly forwards the selected variation coordinates through HarfBuzz to FreeType for shaping and rendering. Because Scribus uses the same libraries, I'm curious whether the main challenges lie in the UI, the text engine, or the PDF export