Recent posts

#1
Scripts and Plugins / Utility script for book typese...
Last post by Lynn - February 15, 2026, 09:18:25 PM
There's been a few requests scattered throughout the forum from folks looking for ways to implement certain book typesetting norms:
  • The last word of a paragraph should never be hyphenated
  • According to some sources, the penultimate line of the paragraph shouldn't be hyphenated
  • If the last word of a paragraph breaks to its own line, it should be longer than a certain minimum length. Short last lines are called "stubs" or "runts"
  • Words that are already hyphenated, like "pell-mell" shouldn't be given additionally hyphenated by the software
  • Chapters generally begin after a frame break

I implemented all that in one script, plus an extra feature to apply a character style the first X characters/words or up to a delimiter at the beginning of a selected paragraph style (handy for when you want each chapter to start with a few words in small caps, though I suspect I'd probably end up manually adjusting them).

https://github.com/notwhelmedyet/ScribusTypesetting/blob/main/runtsAndStuff.py

Since there's no way to mark in a Scribus XML file (yet, waiting on Ale's patch to get accepted) that a word shouldn't be hyphenated, the script needs to be run after the whole document has hyphenation applied. It will selectively go through and remove the unwanted hyphens.

There's also no "frame break right" option in Scribus so the script only inserts one frame break. If you needed each chapter to start on the right, you'd still need to add an extra break as needed while cleaning up your file. The script assumes you've already applied the style for chapter titles because I always import my text with that pre-styled; if you have a different workflow you could just toggle that option off and do your frame breaks later.

It saves a copy of the file so there's no worries about it corrupting anything & has variant code so it works in 1.7.1+ and 1.5-1.6 versions of Scribus.

As is my typical style, the script opens a series of menus where you can pick the operations it will run; if you hate menus you could save a copy where you remove those dialogs and hard code the settings.
#2
User Interface / Re: Automatic Fraction Generat...
Last post by a.l.e - February 15, 2026, 08:23:59 PM
  • That type of fraction only works when the font does support it. You see it in the "Open Type Features" section of the content palette.
  • Concerning the palettes: the current implementation will be replaced "soon" by a different implementation
    https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=17432
#3
User Interface / Automatic Fraction Generation ...
Last post by Portreve - February 15, 2026, 06:48:30 PM
Using: Scribus 1.7.2 Flatpak, openSUSE Tumbleweed / Gnome 49

Scribus has a capability for turning a pair of numbers into a superscript/subscript formatted fraction. For example, you can type in a 1, then a 2, click in between, and then insert the "Solidus" character (a solidus is basically a specific type of slash also known as a fraction bar).

What should happen is that the first number (using the example above, the "1") should be superscripted, and the second number should be subscripted, and one should have a proper-looking fraction.

What actually does happen is that you have to change fonts to something else after doing it, and some fonts don't do anything at all.

For example, if I switch to Tekton Pro, it will automatically make it a fraction. If I switch to Helvetica LT, nothing happens.

I don't believe this is a font feature issue because it doesn't replace the 1, the solidus, and the 2 with a single fraction character, though maybe it is and I'm wrong.

The other issue is when you start moving Pallets around, they become unwieldy. They will shift around, or they will completely undock, and sometimes when they undock they lose their title bar so suddenly they cannot be moved at all.

EDIT: One other thing, related to fractions, and this is something I've experienced across multiple versions of Scribus (1.4, 1.5, 1.6, and 1.7) is that when you set all your superscript and subscript settings, if you manually make a fraction, the numerator will not appear at the correct height, but if you take the document and export it (as a PDF, for example) it shows correctly there.
#4
Announcements and Forum Rules / Re: Scribus 1.7.2 released
Last post by Lynn - February 15, 2026, 03:22:25 PM
I did eventually figure out the answer to my question - the release information isn't kept in the bug tracker long-term; old release information is on the wiki at https://wiki.scribus.net/canvas/ChangeLog
#5
Text and Typography / Re: Prevent linebreaks and hyp...
Last post by a.l.e - February 15, 2026, 11:40:20 AM
No idea why the very simple patch I've proposed many moons ago has not been reviewed...
#6
Text and Typography / Re: Prevent linebreaks and hyp...
Last post by Lynn - February 14, 2026, 08:53:46 PM
I was just trying to figure out a script to prevent hyphenation of the last word in each paragraph of a document, which is currently one of my biggest clean-up tasks when typesetting in Scribus. My original thought was inserting soft hyphens before the last word of each paragraph.

I see that soft hyphens don't currently work to mark a word so it doesn't get hyphenated, definitely seconding that this would be a very useful feature.

I suppose an alternate route would be to hyphenate the whole text and then have my script remove the soft hyphens in positions where they aren't wanted by opening the XML file and doing regex replacements on the last word of each paragraph.
#7
Features / Re: Native Text Hyperlink Supp...
Last post by a.l.e - February 14, 2026, 05:11:34 PM
Would you mind, asking your AI to convert that pseudo code in a patch we can apply to Scribus?
#8
General Discussion / Re: A discussion about the typ...
Last post by Lynn - February 14, 2026, 03:48:48 PM
It's only light thread necromancy this time, so I feel like I'm in the clear. The reason I use Scribus is that it is the only desktop publishing program which is officially supported on Linux; I use it for typesetting novels for hobby bookbinding. For non-Linux hobbyists, the alternate choice is usually Affinity Studio now that it's available for free.

My needs overlap somewhat with professional book typesetters, but not completely (since it's a hobby, I'm willing to put a lot more time into any given project; since I am self-printing only a few books a year I make designs much more complex and image-rich than a typical paperback).

Two of the things discussed above would be enormously helpful to me: Contextual paragraph and character styles, additional hyphenation rules to prevent hyphenating the last word of a paragraph.

Most people in my bookbinding club use Affinity Publisher for typesetting. We were talking over the various features that Scribus and Affinity have and there are a few that Scribus has that are actually big plusses over Affinity for books.
  • The ability to unlink frames/cut text is great for splitting documents per chapter without needing to import chapters separately.
  • The ability to use fonts that aren't installed is amazing for testing designs.
  • User scripts are big for me - affinity still doesn't support macros.
  • And somehow it doesn't let the user provide a list of hyphenation exceptions for proper nouns!

A lot of the Affinity features I think are unecessary if you typeset "traditionally" (making a design first, editing your text before importing and then applying the design to the finalized text as the last step). But there's also some features that they have that sound really convenient:
  • "Next Paragraph" setting in the paragraph style definition allows you to set that the ChapterOpener will always follow the ChapterTitle
  • "First Characters" setting in the paragraph style applies a character style for a set number of characters, words or up till a delimiter - that allows you to set the first few words of a chapter in small caps. In typesetting plays, it would let you set the speaker in a custom style.
  • "Start Paragraph On" setting allows you to automatically insert a page break (or two, if you want all your chapters to start on the right) before chapter titles, which would be a big time-saver
  • Regex searching
  • And paragraph decorations (either fill behind a paragraph, next to it, an outline box etc) is actually used heavily for typesetting modern era stories that include a lot of text messages. Being able to make a rounded-corner box beneath a paragraph automatically makes that easy in Affinity.
  • (oh I forgot - automatic running headers based on styles. I have a script that makes these so I forgot Scribus doesn't do it natively)

Most of the features Affinity has would be a pain to implement, but I figured people might find the perspective from my hobby interesting. I attached some slides I made for a group presentation I was giving with pros for each
#9
Features / Native Text Hyperlink Support ...
Last post by Pexim SLani - February 13, 2026, 10:36:25 PM
Integrating Native Hyperlink Support into Scribus Text Engine
(Right-Click → Insert Hyperlink)


1. Problem Statement

Currently in Scribus, hyperlinks in PDF documents are implemented as separate PDF Annotation objects that are manually positioned over text frames.

This creates several workflow limitations:

  • Hyperlinks are not part of the text model.
  • If text reflows, annotations must be manually repositioned.
  • No "Insert Hyperlink" option exists in the text context menu.
  • Managing many links (e.g., TOC, references, external URLs) is inefficient.
  • Hyperlink styling cannot be directly tied to character styles.

In professional DTP workflows (books, magazines, technical documentation, hybrid print/digital PDFs), hyperlink support is expected to be integrated into the text engine, similar to:

  • Adobe InDesign
  • Affinity Publisher
  • LibreOffice Draw/Writer

This proposal outlines a possible architectural approach to implement native hyperlink support in Scribus.


2. Architectural Overview
Current Model (Simplified)

Scribus currently separates:

  • Text Engine (StoryText / text frames)
  • PDF Annotation System
  • PDF Export Layer

Hyperlinks exist only at the annotation level, not within text attributes.


3. Proposed Architectural Enhancement
Goal:

Add hyperlink as a character-level text attribute, similar to:

  • font
  • size
  • style
  • color


4. Core Implementation Layers
4.1 Text Engine Layer

Add a new character attribute:

struct HyperlinkAttribute {
    enum LinkType {
        ExternalURI,
        InternalPage,
        NamedDestination,
        Email
    };

    LinkType type;
    QString target;
};


This attribute should:

  • Attach to character ranges
  • Be stored inside StoryText
  • Move and reflow with text
  • Be serializable in the .sla format

4.2 UI Layer
Context Menu

When text is selected:

  • Right Click → Insert Hyperlink

If selection already contains hyperlink:

  • Edit Hyperlink
  • Remove Hyperlink


4.3 Hyperlink Dialog

Minimal dialog structure:

Fields:

Link Type:

External URL

Page

Named Destination

Email

Target (dynamic input depending on type)

Optional:

Checkbox: Apply "Hyperlink" character style



4.4 Styling System Integration

Hyperlinks should:

  • Be compatible with Character Styles
  • Allow a default "Hyperlink" style
  • Not hard-code visual formatting
  • Rendering should visually indicate hyperlink if styled accordingly.


4.5 PDF Export Layer

During PDF export:

For each text frame:

  • Iterate through character runs
  • Detect HyperlinkAttribute ranges
  • Compute bounding boxes for those ranges
  • Automatically generate corresponding PDF Annotation objects

QuotePseudo-code:

for each textFrame in document:
    for each textRun in textFrame:
        if textRun.hasHyperlink():
            rect = layoutEngine.calculateBoundingBox(textRun)
            pdfExporter.createLinkAnnotation(rect, textRun.hyperlinkTarget)

Important:

  • Must handle multi-line hyperlink ranges.
  • Must handle text across frames (linked frames).
  • Must respect rotated frames.


5. Backward Compatibility

  • Existing annotation workflow must remain functional.
  • Old documents must load without change.
  • New hyperlink attributes must not break SLA compatibility.


6. Optional Phase 2 Enhancements

  • Auto-detect URLs in pasted text.
  • Automatic TOC hyperlink generation.
  • Hyperlink panel (list all hyperlinks in document).
  • Convert annotation → text hyperlink tool.
  • Named destination manager.



Benefits

  • Professional digital publishing workflow
  • Reliable interactive PDFs
  • Easier TOC and cross-reference creation
  • Alignment with industry-standard DTP tools
  • Stronger adoption for hybrid print/digital projects


Conclusion

Native hyperlink support inside the text engine would significantly modernize Scribus' PDF workflow.

Even a minimal implementation (character attribute + export mapping) would dramatically improve usability and reduce manual annotation management.

This feature would elevate Scribus from "print-focused DTP with annotation workaround" to a fully capable hybrid publishing tool.
#10
Features / Re: Styles, Master pages, Scra...
Last post by Lynn - February 13, 2026, 07:40:16 PM
Using loops it is possible to iterate through the page and apply operations (whether finding or resizing/relocating items) to only the items on the page.

I don't really see an advantage to trying to do an operation to all the items simultaneously over iterating through the pages and doing it once per page - the script should take the same amount of time regardless.

Personally I would look for a match that's the same size and the same location, but you could have a variable that controlled whether it looked for one or both of those.