Recent posts

#21
Raster and Vector Graphics / Re: How to convert RGB to CMYK...
Last post by utnik - January 04, 2026, 03:47:31 PM
hi cathyzora

wat are your export settings?
when i export normal black text to a cmyk file, my text is in 100% black and if i export it as a .pdf/x-1a, the images are converted to cmyk.
for the file size you may play with the resolution and compression settings – and clip the images if you only need a part of them. (scribus keeps the full image in the file even if the bigger part of it is outside of the frame...)
but scribus is known to generate rather big files.

untik
#22
Raster and Vector Graphics / How to convert RGB to CMYK ima...
Last post by CathyZora - January 04, 2026, 12:04:45 PM
Hello,

I've been using / trying to use Scribus for two months now. I'm trying to make a 'newspaper' for our village; it's a printed paper of about 36-40 pages, with lots of images.
I've been mailing back and forth with our publisher, but there are some things I can't fix.
1) The publisher tells me to convert all text to 'black' color, so that it's not printed in 4 colors but as only 'black'. I managed to change the text to 'black' color, but had to do this manually for all text-blocks.
-> Is there a quicker way to do this?

2) The publisher tells me to convert all images to CMYK. I have been searching how to do this, but I didn't succeed in changing the images to CMYK while uploaded in Scribus. (I get around 80 images in different formats; JPEG, JPG, PNG, ...)
-> Do I have to (manually?!) convert all images to CMYK before uploading them into Scribus? I've tried some online tools, but the image size increases. Or is there a possibility to convert RMBto CMYK in Scribus.

3) The publisher says that the document sent to him in PDF is way too big; it should be around 30MB for 36 pages, whilst my test-version of 8 pages is already 44MB. I already limited the images to 300dpi, but what else can I do?
-> How to create a PDF which isn't this big?
#23
Installation and Setup / Re: Corrupted Copy
Last post by Sheba2 - January 02, 2026, 07:09:27 PM
Thank you. I will try it next week when I get back into learning it.
#24
PDF Generation / PDF Tools Bar and clickable fo...
Last post by dragonfly - January 02, 2026, 06:35:23 PM
I have not played with Scribus for a very long time.  My interest in returning is to build clickable form elements. But I can't seem to find a newbie interactive PDF tutorial for Scribus 1.6.8 on Ubuntu 22.04. Moreover they must be custom forms and I know how to use Scribus Generator to customise. Under Windows, PDF Tools is enabled. But where is the "PDF Toolbar" explained in tutorials?
I am considering doing this in two stages if I can't figure it out. First stage customised but static Scribus PDF. Pass to MasterPDFEditor or perhaps Adobe to overlay clickable elements. Is that the way to proceed?
#25
General Discussion / Re: A discussion about the typ...
Last post by a.l.e - January 02, 2026, 09:35:34 AM
Nitramr, very interesting summary.

If I understand the text correctly, there are a few things that are already in the pipeline (customizable toolbar, epub export), others that indeed are low hanging fruits (icons, dark mode, UI snapshots), and some that seem wrong to me (the story editor is not put forward by Scribus nor opens on double click, welding has little to do with vector editing, drag and drop does work, one can create snippets that can be reused).

But there is one thing that makes me feel a bit uncomfortable: the reports suggest that Scribus should make big improvements for both professionals and for novices.
My fear, is that following this advice will result in new cool features being added to Scribus without really making the users happier.
Personally, I'd prefer a slightly a different approach that has -- in my eyes -- more chances to make Scribus make noticeable progress for its users:
defining target usages that we want to support and make us the best software in the field.

From what I read from the different Scribus forums, here are some of the common usages of Scribus where we have a chance to be very good:

  • Creation of song books (mostly for churches).
  • Support of RTL languages for individuals and businesses with limited budget.
  • Layout of comics books.
  • Creation of calendars.

Of course, my goal is not to transform Scribus to a software that only targets one or more of these specific fields.
I'd rather like to use our limited resources to make some of our users really happy, while improving the software for everybody.
And once we've made Scribus good for some users, we can look for further goals.
#26
Installation and Setup / Re: Corrupted Copy
Last post by AdmFubar - January 02, 2026, 02:19:48 AM
Quote from: Sheba2 on December 30, 2025, 03:55:27 PMTahoe 26.1 and I believe it is ssd. This might sound silly, but how do I rename the preferences for scribus with it running--I do not understand that since I think it has to be open to rename the preferences. Which preferences are you referring to? Thanks for your help--I will not uninstall until hearing back.
whoops.. missed a "not" in that instruction..
#27
Free discussion / Introduction
Last post by TheTolkienist - January 01, 2026, 05:55:52 PM
As there is no on-going introduction thread I obviously have to say hi the old-fashioned way - in this post!

Thanks for having me, I have been looking to get back into editing 'zines and finding out whether open source applications can be a viable option for said ventures. Given the fact that proprietary software is sucking more every single day (besides the element of pricing) I have always appreciated the community spirit.

I did quite a bit of work on QuarkExpress back in the day and a bit on Framemaker and want to get back into the swing of things. Will probably have to ask a gazillion of questions and will be looking for inspiration in the forums as well.

Again, thanks for having me, happy new year, and let's see what 2026 may bring!
#28
Beginner Talk / Cannot 'find image'
Last post by DennyTR4 - January 01, 2026, 05:25:33 PM
I am new to Scribus [1.6.5], just learning after 10+ years with Microsoft Publisher. I am using Windows 365.
    When I click on an Image box to 'find Image,' my choices are very limited. I cannot even find the Desktop.
#29
Installation and Setup / Re: Corrupted Copy
Last post by utnik - January 01, 2026, 09:26:40 AM
hi sheba2

you'll find the scribus preferences on mac os in /users/(your user name)/library/preferences/scribus. i would rename this folder (when scribus isn't running...) to something like 'scribus_old'. at the next launch scribus will create a new folder with the standard preferences.

utnik
#30
Linux / Re: Book creation with scribus
Last post by kroben - December 31, 2025, 03:19:46 PM
I barely had time to start documenting my projects when problems arose with scribusbook, so I had to cancel and update.
Slightly different text content than before meant that text frames on master pages became too small. This could be fixed with a scribus script, which places and sizes text frames. This is now included in Automation -> Update masterpages. The size and placement of text frames on the master pages are hardcoded in the scribus script "book_masterpages_update_pscript.py", but you can modify the data at your own risk...

Then I wanted to include a listing of references to external sources. This is also introduced in Automation via a new button function "Update book References". Here the problem arose that a new paragraph style had to be introduced, "Referance_mark", and this will now be missing from previously produced books in the bookshelf. Inserted text with the paragraph style "Referance_mark" ends up in the file "Chapter_ZZ/Chapter_ZZ_7_References.sla" together with page numbers. Now you can't hide that you stole all the content in the book from external sources!
But to solve the problem of fixing previous books, there is an update package to download, which via bash and scribus script reads all scribus documents in the selected book, and adds the paragraph style for references, and the reference file in the chapter Chapter_ZZ.
This update package also updates tools in your previously installed scribusbook version 251201.

Observed problems with scribus scripter:

* Importing a paragraph style cannot be done via scribus scripts in a clean way. My method is to add a page from a prepared scribus file, which only has this paragraph defined. Then the document is saved, and the document is closed, and then immediately reopened and the added page is removed, and the document is saved. What remains after this detour is the new paragraph style.
It is possible to create paragraph styles in scribus scripts, but not with all the parameters I want.

* Importing paragraph styles from another document does not have the "replace existing" parameter, which seems to create a new version of duplicates.

* Importing master pages from another document does not have the "replace existing" parameter, which seems to create a new version of duplicates.

I will continue my interrupted project documentation until new problems with scribusbook arise.

Updated manual, project archive, and update archive can be found at the link:
https://privat.bahnhof.se/wb187803/hygget251231/eng/scribusbook/

/kroben