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#1

Showcase / Creating swedish style crosswo...

Last post by a.l.e - Today at 12:56:43 PM

Somebody 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:

• 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?

#2

General Discussion / Re: Lack of reliable IDML impo...

Last post by ScribasTester - August 06, 2026, 09:32:24 AM

For those interested: This is what the "Myriad Variable Concept" font looks like in InkScape v1.4.4.

[hb_font_set_variations()]

#3

General Discussion / Re: Lack of reliable IDML impo...

Last post by ScribasTester - August 06, 2026, 09:19:40 AM

Thanks 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

#4

General Discussion / Re: Lack of reliable IDML impo...

Last post by MrB - August 05, 2026, 09:17:16 PM

Scribus does not support variable fonts yet. One day. That, however, is only a reflection of that difference.

#5

General Discussion / Re: Lack of reliable IDML impo...

Last post by ScribasTester - August 05, 2026, 09:40:06 AM

LibreOffice provides these 11 Fonts (as an example in 24 pt)

if you can provide a solution to render them while working and to convert them to static fonts in the export process

Unfortunately, I can't do that, and my original post clearly explains why I can't recommend the current version of Scribus to people looking to switch from InDesign.

does libreoffice support just them or the full variability of the font? (wich would include 49282 variants...)

I never asked for "49'282 variants" - I just (wrongly) expected the 11 basic "Myriad Variable Concept" fonts to be supported by Scribus and not only an "Italic" or "Roman" version of it.

BTW
Windows 11 itself shows 40 fonts:

like these

#6

Text and Typography / Re: The italic font is not sho...

Last post by AdmFubar - August 04, 2026, 09:28:48 PM

One thing the Story Editor does well is just show the column and frame breaks, and no other "invisibles". Good for showing those from imported texts.

#7

Text and Typography / Re: The italic font is not sho...

Last post by Aleks100 - August 04, 2026, 08:00:45 PM

So, you can use Story Editor if you have no need for some useful modern features. Fine.

#8

Text and Typography / Re: The italic font is not sho...

Last post by a.l.e - August 04, 2026, 06:19:34 PM

First, there was some text after that:

> if you don't really really really need it for the specific task.

Second: it's old crap and many modern useful fearures are not there and can't really be added to it.

#9

Text and Typography / Re: The italic font is not sho...

Last post by Aleks100 - August 04, 2026, 05:24:04 PM

why?

The first rule of Scribus is not to use the Story Editor

#10

General Discussion / Re: Lack of reliable IDML impo...

Last post by utnik - August 04, 2026, 02:13:07 PM

hi scribastester

afaik variable fonts are not supported in scribus (so far...)
there are old feature requests like this one. if you can provide a solution to render them while working and to convert them to static fonts in the export process, there might be a good chance to make them work.
your screenshot from libreoffice shows the predefined styles. does libreoffice support just them or the full variability of the font? (wich would include 49282 variants...)

utnik