Recent posts

#11
Features / Some interesting features from...
Last post by a.l.e - November 06, 2025, 09:45:46 AM
A couple of weeks, a user that is also active in this forum, asked on Reddit about letting Scribus automatically detecting the contour of an image.
(Edit: Ok, I checked and they asked here too; but the discussion went a bit further on Reddit... https://forums.scribus.net/index.php/topic,6512)

Interesting challenge: I'm working on a Python script that should be able to do it!
The work is progressing slowly but nicely.

This morning, I was curious about the reference they gave for the feature: PagePlus.

It's a software that has been discontinued ten years ago and is / was Windows only (probably the main reason why it never showed up on my radar...).

I was curious to see what it looked like and during my exploration trip, I've found a few features that could be interesting for Scribus, too (and might not require huge changes to Scribus):

  • Applying multiple (background) master pages to the same page (layered on top of each other)
  • (This is not a feature but I was inspired by an ambiguous sentence in the docs) Allow the editing of master page items from the page where they are applied (some sort of master page mode, that is only active for the specific element; we would need a key modifier to select master page items and a small toolbar would be shown attached to the item to start / finish the special edit mode)
  • (Again a feature that does not exist, just inspiration) In a group, mark one item as being the editable one: double clicking the item, would start the edit mode for that item, the content palette would (also?) show the sections for that type, the context menu would (also?) show the entries for that that type...
  • Rename the Scrapbook to Assets.
  • Add "fit", "auto fit", "auto shrink" actions / options in the content panel for text frames that modifies the text size to fit the content in the frame (shrink would only resize if the size is smaller than what defined in the styles). To be used for titles and similar short content. The preflight verifier could optionally warn about automatically resized text.
  • Create a context aware "Content toolbar" with the most basic features for each item type. It can be placed as all the other toolbars or attached to one side of the current item (for text it would only have P-style and C-styles (in one drop down), Font family (but not style), Font size, Bold, Italic, Left-center-right-justified alignement, load text, and not much more)
  • Add more flow around options: horizontal block (the text will not flow on the sides of the item; the sides being defined by the guides or margins), flow on left, right or largest side (again defined by guides or margins)
  • Create a Python script creating tables based on tabbed text (or csv text...)
  • Create a Python script that generates / updates charts based on text input (table content or a non printable frame)
  • Create a Python script that generates a list of events / a calendar based on a ics file or link
  • Create a Python script that crops the images to their visible part (keeping the original link in the attributes for updates / restoring the original image for further editing; but this might also be added as a Scribus feature, with some simple options for resolving the cases where the same image is used multiple times)
  • Create a Python script for doing imposition or find / create a tool that is free, produces good PDF, is easy enough to use (for simple use cases)
  • Exporting to Epub (that's already in the pipeline...)
  • Create a nice manual that explains the basics in about 100 pages (also in the working... based on Cédric Gémy's "Intitiation à Scribus")

What do you think about it?

There are few low hanging fruits, if somebody who knows a bit of C++ wants to give it a try, just raise your hand : - )
#12
General Discussion / Re: (Auto) Font-Size to match ...
Last post by a.l.e - November 06, 2025, 07:54:17 AM
Sorry, you're in the wrong forum.

Here you will be told, that (automatically) scaling the font to fit some text is not a good idea. : - )

More seriously, Scribus (probably rightly) does not offer this option, but it would not be hard to write a Script that processes all the text frames to frames to make their text fit.

In my workflows, the preferred ways to make text fit in the available space are

  • hyphenation
  • slightly reduce the tracking (on single words?)
  • slightly tweak the extension of the glyphs
  • if the above is not enough, reduce the length of the text, reset all tracking and extension and restart from point 1.

Of course, you I do it manually, for each text frame, but it might also be possible to automate that (up to the "reduce the length of the text"... but we have AI now that can also be integrated... never mind.).
It's a bit harder to implement, it won't fix all the cases, but I can thinking of giving it a try, if anybody thinks it can be useful...
#13
General Discussion / (Auto) Font-Size to match text...
Last post by Lukibuk99 - November 06, 2025, 04:05:57 AM
Hey, guys ;D
I'm fairly new to Scribus, so please tell me when I'm in the wrong forum. :)

I want to create A6-Spellcards for my "Dungeons and Dragons"-Character by mail-merging a layout in Scribus and my CSV-File and ScribusGenerator.
After a few trials, I noticed that my cards look fairly empty and sad most of the times, because most spell descriptions are pretty short.

In case though there is a spell with a huge description, I wanted to be prepared, so that I don't have to adjust the font size all the time.


TL;DR
But now that my cards look so empty, I wanted to ask you guys, if there is a way to avoid this problem. Is there maybe even the possibilit to let your font autoscale to a certain degree to match the text frame and the space available?


Thanks for reading!


Kind regards

Lukibuk99
#14
Beginner Talk / Re: Windows Cannot Access Spec...
Last post by a.l.e - November 05, 2025, 09:31:53 PM
I think that your IT captain is not lying : - )

Basically, Windows is telling you that the path you're trying to run cannot be accessed.
Since you're not telling us what the path is and we don't see which path your using and which ones are available on your computer, it's hard to say where exactly the problem lies.

What you can try:
find out which path your trying to start, and copy paste it into the file manager to check if the folder is accessible to you...

And, otherwise, get your captain to have a look at your computer and help you start Scribus : - )
#15
Beginner Talk / Windows Cannot Access Specifie...
Last post by Tami Wells - November 05, 2025, 07:18:22 PM
When I try to run Scribus, I get a box saying "Windows cannot access the specified device, path or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item."

The path on my shortcut points to the correct place. When I try running directly from the executable I get the same message.

Ghostscript is installed but I don't know how to verify if it is where Scribus expects it to be.

I have checked with our IT captain and he says I have the necessary permissions to run Scribus.

Thank you.
#16
General Discussion / Re: Tables
Last post by a.l.e - November 05, 2025, 06:17:54 PM
While writing the script, I've reported an issue with the tabs' unit:

https://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=17676

The bug has been fixed and, now, the tab values are defined in the document's unit.
I've patched the script and it does not convert anymore the values into points, if the version of Scribus is 1.7.1 or higher.

So, if you're using the current 1.7.1svn (as of the time of writing), you will need to get the fresh version of the script from the Github repository (linked above).
(If you're using an older 1.7.1svn you must stick to the older version of the script; if you're using 1.7.0 or 1.6.x you can use any version of the script... it's simple, isn't it? : - ).
#17
General Discussion / Re: Tables
Last post by PastaShock - November 05, 2025, 01:12:57 AM
I think you just made my life easier. Thank you!
#18
Linux / Re: Latest SVN for Ubunru?
Last post by a.l.e - November 04, 2025, 07:25:42 PM
Hi Dave,

The simplest way to get the development version of Scribus is to get the Appimage.

There is an official Appimage for 1.7.0 linked from the Scribus site:

https://www.scribus.net/downloads/

The file is hosted on Sourceforge.

On Sourceforge you can also find a very recent Flatpak in the 1.7.1.svn folder:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/scribus/files/scribus-svn/1.7.1.svn/

Finally, on Gitlab, I maintain a "nightly" Appimage that is regularly produced by the CI, each time the community managed Gitlab repository is synced with the official SVN server:

https://gitlab.com/scribus/scribus/-/jobs/artifacts/master/raw/Scribus-nightly-x86_64.AppImage?job=appimage%3Alinux

In the past, we had a Debian/Ubuntu wonderful maintainer that was very active and was creating the PPAs. But I think that they are orphaned now.
#19
Code / New .sla format tags question
Last post by Aleks100 - November 04, 2025, 02:40:39 PM
<StoryText>
                <DefaultStyle/>
What DefaultStyle is this about?
& at the end
        <trail Parent="text"/>
</StoryText>
What is the meaning of "trail Parent"?
#20
Linux / Latest SVN for Ubunru?
Last post by mw0dcm - November 03, 2025, 11:57:41 PM
Hi There,
I've been using Scribus now for around 14 years, and I'm still enjoying using it, especially now as I'm about to create a mini magazine for the Sight Impaired Charity I am volunteering for.
What I would like to know is where can I download the latest svn or beta version of Scribus for Ubuntu 24.04LTS? I've searched the PPA, that hasn't been updated for a few years, Flatpak only has 1.6.4 which I have currently got installed and SNAP only has 1.6.1.

I would love to use the latest versions of Scribus and test it, especially as I beta test a few other applications on both Linux and Android.
If a flatpak version can be pushed out, or a SNAP that would be great, but I don't mind building it from source if I have to.

I am also registered severley sight impaired/blind, but this doesn't stop me using Scribus or any other software/application.

Cheers in advance for any information or help on this....

Dave