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Scribus

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Scribus
Developer(s)The Scribus Team
Initial releaseJune 26, 2003 (2003-June-26)
Stable release
1.4.0 / January 1, 2012; 12 years ago (2012-01-01)
Preview release
1.5.0svn / January 1, 2012; 12 years ago (2012-01-01)
Repository
Written inC++ using Qt
Operating systemCross-platform
Available inMultilingual
TypeDesktop publishing
LicenseGPL
Websitewww.scribus.net

Scribus is a desktop publishing (DTP) application, released under the GNU General Public License as free software. It is based on the free Qt toolkit, therefore native versions are available for Linux, Unix-like operating systems, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, and OS/2. It is known for its broad set of page layout features, comparable to leading non-free applications such as Adobe PageMaker, PagePlus, QuarkXPress or 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.

An official Scribus manual, published through FLES Books,[1] has been available since January 19, 2009.[2]

Capabilities

Scribus supports most major image formats including scalable vector graphics (SVG). Professional type/image setting features include CMYK colors and ICC color management. It has a built-in scripting engine using Python. It is available in more than 24 languages.

Printing is achieved using 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 supports full 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/X-3[3], including interactive PDFs form fields, annotations and bookmarks.

The file format, called SLA, is based on XML. Text can be imported from OpenDocument text documents, as well as OpenOffice.org Writer, Microsoft Word and HTML formats (although some limitations apply). ODT files can typically be imported along with their styles, which are then created in Scribus. HTML tags which modify text, such as bold or italic should also be handled pretty well. So far, Word documents can only import the plain text from the file.

Scribus cannot read or write the native file formats of commercial programs like QuarkXPress, Microsoft Publisher, or 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.[4] This having been said, some initial steps have been taken on the IDXML format, which waits for further work to incorporate this into the developmental branch.

Due to licensing issues, the software package does not include support for the Pantone color matching system (PMS), which is included in some commercial DTP applications. Nonetheless, there are legal ways to incorporate Pantone colors within Scribus [1]. This involves transformation of EPS files to a color palette which can be used in Scribus. It's also worth mentioning that Scribus has an ever-increasing list of color palettes thankfully donated by various commercial enterprises in the color management business.

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, Hebrew, Indic and South East Asian writing systems.[5][6]

Release history

Scribus 1.3.3.7 in Windows
Order
 Release Date
 Version
 Branch
 Notes
1 June 9, 2001 0.3 Development? First dated release found through archive.org.
2 June 26, 2003 1.0 Stable First stable release.
3 August 28, 2004 1.2.0 Stable First stable release in the 1.2.x.x series.
4 July 15, 2005 1.3.0 Development First version running natively on Windows and Mac OS X.
5 November 10, 2006 1.3.3.5 Stable First stable release in the 1.3.x.x series.
6 January 9, 2007 1.3.3.7 Stable First release running on OS/2.
7 March 15, 2007 1.3.3.8 Stable
8 May 30, 2007 1.3.4 Development
9 January 8, 2008 1.3.3.10 Stable
10 January 11, 2008 1.3.3.11 Stable
11 June 23, 2008 1.3.3.12 Stable
12 April 15, 2009 1.3.3.13 Stable
13 April 20, 2009 1.3.5 Development
14 June 4, 2009 1.3.5 RC2 Development
15 July 6, 2009 1.3.5 RC3 Development
16 November 8, 2009 1.3.5.1 Development
17 January 28, 2010 1.3.3.14 Stable Final version in the 1.3.3.x series
18 March 22, 2010 1.3.6 Development
19 June 5, 2010 1.3.7 Development
20 July 23, 2010 1.3.8 Development
21 November 30, 2010 1.3.9 Development
22 February 18, 2011 1.4.0 RC1 Development
23 March 8, 2011 1.4.0 RC2 Development
24 March 27, 2011 1.4.0 RC3 Development
25 May 30, 2011 1.4.0 RC4 Development
26 October 19, 2011 1.4.0 RC6 Development
27 January 1, 2012 1.4.0 Stable

References

  1. ^ "Scribus 1.3 Official Manual". FLES Books. 2009. Archived from the original on January 6, 2010. Retrieved September 30, 2011.
  2. ^ "Welcome to FLES Books". FLES Books. 2009. Archived from the original on January 17, 2010. Retrieved September 30, 2011.
  3. ^ "Scribus PDF/X-3 Overview". Retrieved 2011-05-22.
  4. ^ Scribus FAQ "Why are there no import filters for Quark, Indesign or other commercial DTP applications?", scribus.net
  5. ^ Scribus Metabug 3965: Support for non-latin languages
  6. ^ Scribus bug 1547: Support for Indic Scripts
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Scribus.
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