Recent posts

#1
Features / Re: Styles, Master pages, Scra...
Last post by Lynn - January 31, 2026, 07:41:45 PM
Ah, see I interpreted this as a request for the ability to resize mostly text or image frames in order to change the page layouts. I still don't think that would be easy to implement via changes to the scrapbook - the scrapbook just creates copies of objects & there's nothing in Scribus to tell the objects that they originally came from the scrapbook.

If there's a continuous text chain, it probably could be done by deleting all but the first instance and then adding them back with the multiple duplicates function after editing? But if there's a number of different text chains in the document this would definitely break things.

A "Multiple Transform" tool that could look for objects "like" the selected item (same location on the page,  same size and/or same naming convention) and transform them all together would be extremely handy for what you're describing.

In the meantime, you could definitely do something like that with a script by either looking for:
1. the name of the object (which only works if you gave the objects unique names prior to copying them into the scrapbook; otherwise they get assigned generic names like any text box/polygon. My wishlist would be items copied from the scrapbook being flagged with the scrapbook item name)
2. objects that are the same location/size on the page
#2
Features / Re: Styles, Master pages, Scra...
Last post by joseb - January 31, 2026, 07:25:55 PM
Hello,

If I understand correctly, you would like to:
- Create an object (image, shape, or text frame, etc.) to insert it in several places in the document.
- Modify the "original" object and have it update in all the places where you have inserted it.

Instead of using Scrapbook, you can try INLINE ITEMS or SYMBOLS.

Things to keep in mind:
- Scrapbook allows you to organize your "objects" better.
- INLINE ITEMS can only be inserted within text frames, but they change everywhere you insert them.
- I like INLINE ITEMS because they resize correctly when you change the "original" and can be inserted into master pages.
- SYMBOLS are quite unstable (in my experience) and have given me some problems.
- One of the things I don't like about SYMBOLS is how they resize when you change the proportions of the "original" object.
- Other problems I've had with SYMBOLS are document display issues and the fact that some of my files don't print if I insert them into master pages.

I think the best thing to do is to try both options and see if INLINE ITEMS or SYMBOLS can help you as a complement to Scrapbook.
#3
Features / Styles, Master pages, Scrapboo...
Last post by omoro - January 31, 2026, 01:23:40 PM
Hi dear developpers.

Styles are wonderfull because you can change them anytime and the entire book is modified at once.

Unfortunately it is not the case with scrapbook. It's nice at the beginning because the same layout of frames can be used many times. BUT if you want to change the layout in the entire book, it does not seem to be possible (unless you create a python script maybe).

It would be very nice to have Styles, Master pages, Scrapbook with the same behavior. Changes should be possible anytime and the entire book would be modified.

Book => Sections => Master pages => Scrapbook (with frames) => Styles

Styles => Paragraph / Character / Table / Images / etc..

Meanwhile, you better think twice to get your MP and Scrapbook correct right from the start. It's not easy to change after creating 200 pages !

I guess that suggestion is a bit difficult to program, but it would be nice.

Anyway thanks a lot for your work. Scribus is very nice software.



#4
Beginner Talk / Re: Manage image - Multiple li...
Last post by IanicM - January 30, 2026, 01:27:42 PM
Oh, I'll try that workflow today, Lynn.

Thanks!
#5
Beginner Talk / Re: Manage image - Multiple li...
Last post by Lynn - January 29, 2026, 06:10:18 PM
Would converting the image to a symbol and using instances of the symbol, rather than copies of the image, work to reduce the filesize? Using symbols links the copies to the original object so Scribus knows they're all the same.

I did a quick test where I converted a large image to a symbol and then created a bunch of instances of that symbol and the PDF exports looked to be almost the same size with the extra copies as it did with 1 instance.

When I tried the same thing with images the document size increased with each image copy.
#6
Layout Issues / Re: Preventing single word lin...
Last post by Lynn - January 29, 2026, 05:52:31 PM
Obviously too late to help on the original problem, but I found this post while working on a script to handle runts and figured I'd reply here in case google leads anyone else to this post.

Various typography advice books advise not allowing short word "stub" or "runt" endings to paragraphs. It's mentioned on the widow/orphan wikipedia page and in Bringhurst's Elements of Typographic Style: "2.4.2: Avoid leaving the stub-end of a hyphenated word, or any word shorter than four letters, as the last line of a paragraph."

I read a decent article that recommended the minimum length word be based on the indentation width used in the work, aiming for at least twice the width of the indent. That also seems a reasonable heuristic; Bringhurst favors small indents and his advice is based on that.

The easiest and most obvious way to prevent runts is to swap the space prior to the short word with a non-breaking space. I've always done that manually; sometimes pulling the runt up to the previous line will squash the text in a way that's more annoying than the runt would be. But if anyone wants to automate this, I've written a draft script that seems to do the trick:
https://github.com/notwhelmedyet/ScribusTypesetting/blob/main/ExperimentalScripts/runts.py

It won't catch sequences of very short words together, theoretically you could add a loop to check the next rightmost space. Regex would also be a more efficient alternative.
#7
Beginner Talk / Re: Manage image - Multiple li...
Last post by IanicM - January 29, 2026, 04:57:22 PM
Thanks for the quick reply.

Just so it's clear to me:  if I have one image which is 1mb and it shows up 10 times in the image manager, this would mean it would make up 10mb of the PDF file? ( compression aside. )
#8
Beginner Talk / Re: tool bar
Last post by Olga R - January 29, 2026, 04:50:20 PM
Thanks! I changed the theme in the preferences and the tool box appeared. It was a well hidden solution!
#9
Beginner Talk / Re: Manage image - Multiple li...
Last post by a.l.e - January 29, 2026, 10:37:43 AM
Yes, Scribus adds each image individually.

This seems to be necessary for the cases where the image is not included as is (filters, ...)
#10
General Discussion / Re: Scribus at full speed !
Last post by a.l.e - January 29, 2026, 10:34:42 AM
Yes, nice to see this documented in this way.

You can probably also do the same and, instead of moving around the images, just rename the folder and add add _low or _high to the one which is currently inactive (you should probably close the document before renaming the folders)