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 Scribus under Linux Mint |
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| Developed by | The Scribus Team |
|---|---|
| Initial release | June 26, 2003 |
| Latest release | 1.3.3.12 / 23 June 2008 |
| Preview release | 1.3.4 / 30 May 2007 |
| Written in | C++ |
| OS | Cross-platform |
| Available in | Multilingual |
| Development status | Active |
| Type | Desktop publishing |
| License | GPL |
| Website | www.scribus.net |
Scribus is a desktop publishing (DTP) application. Native versions are available for Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, OS/2, and Microsoft Windows. It is known for its broad feature set of page layout features comparable to leading commercial applications such as Adobe PageMaker, QuarkXPress and Adobe InDesign.
Scribus is designed for flexible layout and typesetting, and the ability to prepare files for professional quality image setting equipment. It can also create animated and interactive PDF presentations and forms. Example uses include writing small newspapers, brochures, newsletters, posters and books.
Released under the GNU General Public License, Scribus is free software.
An official Scribus manual is due to be published on 19th December, and is presently available for discounted pre-order on the publisher's website.
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Capabilities
Scribus supports most major graphic formats in addition to SVG. Professional type/image setting features include CMYK colors and ICC color management. Although written in C++, it has built-in scripting using Python. It is available in more than 24 languages.
Printing is achieved via its own internal level 3 PostScript driver, including support for font embedding and sub-setting with TrueType, Type 1 and OpenType fonts. The internal driver fully supports Level 2 PostScript constructs and a large subset of Level 3 constructs.
PDF support includes transparency, encryption and a large set of the PDF 1.4 spec as well as PDF/X3, including interactive PDFs form fields, annotations and bookmarks. However, although PDF export is very good, it is not currently able to import/edit PDF files, and PDFs exported from Scribus are not searchable in Acrobat Reader if the document contains proportional fonts.[1][2]
The file format, called SLA, is based on XML and is fully documented. Text can be imported from OpenDocument text documents, as well as RTF, Microsoft Word .doc, and HTML formats (although limitations apply).
Scribus cannot read or write the native file formats of commercial programs like QuarkXPress, Microsoft Publisher, and InDesign; the developers feel that reverse engineering those file formats would be prohibitively complex and could risk legal action from the makers of those programs.[3]
Although Scribus supports Unicode character encoding, it currently does not properly support complex script rendering and so cannot be used with Unicode text for languages written with Arabic, Indic and South East Asian writing systems.[4][5]
Milestones
- June 26, 2003 – Scribus 1.0 stable version released
- August 28, 2004 – Scribus 1.2.0 stable version released, first stable release in the 1.2.x.x series
- July 15, 2005 – Scribus 1.3.0 development version released, first version running natively on Windows and Mac OS X
- November 10, 2006 – Scribus 1.3.3.5 stable version released, first stable release in the 1.3.x.x series
- January 9, 2007 – Scribus 1.3.3.7 stable version released, first release running on OS/2
- March 15, 2007 – Scribus 1.3.3.8 stable version released
- May 30, 2007 – Scribus 1.3.4 development version released
- January 8, 2008 – Scribus 1.3.3.10 stable version released
- January 11, 2008 – Scribus 1.3.3.11 stable version released
- June 23, 2008 – Scribus 1.3.3.12 stable version released
References
- ^ Scribus Developer Blog » PDF Surgery
- ^ :Scribus:. GPL Desktop Publishing and More
- ^ Scribus FAQ "Why are there no import filters for Quark, Indesign or other commercial DTP applications?", scribus.net
- ^ Scribus Metabug 3965: Support for non-latin languages
- ^ Scribus bug 1547: Support for Indic Scripts
External links
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Wikibooks has a book on the topic of |
Articles
- Linux Magazine article series: Linux for Layout
- Part 1: A Linux Newspaper — Professional layout in Linux with Scribus (PDF, free download)
- Part 2: Desktop publishing in Linux — Professional typography and layout with Scribus (PDF, free download)
- Part 3: Desktop publishing in Linux — Putting the finishing touches on our Scribus Linux newspaper (PDF, free download)
- Scribus: Open Source Desktop Publishing
- Scribus in the Commercial DTP World
- Small-business forms using Scribus and PDF
- A short Scribus PDF manual by Scot Blades, with source materials available
- Desktop publishing with Writer and Scribus
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