Good news: stable version 1.6.1 has just been released. I’m surprised not to find a Scribus tag here.
I’ve been using Scribus routinely for more than a decade, for a local exhibition, editing books, writing newsletters, making brochures for small enterprises, and preparing teaching materiel. There doesn’t seem to be an equivalent that’s as good without being unduly expensive and only available online. Office suites like LibreOffice have drawing modules, but these are not in the same category.
We could ask why recent development has been worryingly slow, though I’m aware that one of the key developers died a few years ago. More resources – getting a bigger team together – are obviously needed, and I’d like to ask whether this case might indicate that the current FOSS model could benefit from some adjustment on the financial side. I’m not competent to discuss whether the software design and development environment are becoming too old to be easily maintained, nor whether AI could do something useful by facilitating porting to something else.
A while ago, the Scribus team invited users to contribute macros (Python) or extensions to add to what is built-in to the application. I’m too old to do anything myself, but one ‘nice-to-have’ item I once asked for would provide nicer vectorial framing for text and image frames.
A major enhancement would be a vectorial implementation of the LaTeX render frame system, which currently provides only an unsatisfactory bitmap output. While Scribus provides a full set of typesetting tools, these are suitable only for experts when extended text is involved. LaTeX does the work automatically, but native LaTeX isn’t really suitable for books with numerous pictures. Inkscape (which is thriving) already has some vectorial LaTeX render frame extensions, and I wonder whether a way forward might be to set up better ways of moving objects between these complementary applications.
I have used Latex (on its own, not in Scribus) for articles with pictures and graphs.
It is a little tedious importing images, and there are layout constraints concerning how graphic images are fitted into the document, but you can get an end result that is acceptable to journal publishers.
I have never tried Scribus. I have a project that involves documenting my collection of bird photographs… I plan to have a series of short notes with illustrations and text. Is that too simple for Scribus?
I would have naturally gravitated to Latex, but learning something new , before I get too old, is a possibility.
Nothing is too simple for Scribus. Once you get used to it, it isn’t terribly difficult, and far easier than LaTeX when you want accurate placing of images with respect to the associated text. You can even wrap text around an image. A big advantage is that image files are not embedded in the document - you use ‘Collect for output’ to put them in an adjacent folder, and have full control over the pdf processing (compression if any, colour management specified for screen or printing, etc.). As I said, Scribus is the quickest way to make teaching handouts, brochures and newsletters, when text and images are combined.
That’s why I’d like to automate typesetting by using LaTeX render frames - I haven’t yet tried copying them from Inkscape. Render frames are plain rectangles you can resize and reshape as long as the justified text fits - no wrapping text around images here.
That is more than what I need. Yes I combine text and images, but only simple layouts. In Latex I use figures and tables and it numbers them and makes references in the text. I will see what Scribus can do… next fun project.
I should have mentioned that point, which can be a very good reason for staying with LaTeX. https://forums.scribus.net/index.php?topic=2081.0
I moved from Open/LibreOffice more than a decade ago for scientific work, because these wordprocessors were totally unreliable for references and cross-references. LaTeX uses plaintext markup for that, and I don’t think there is a suitable alternative. This applies even more to literature citations, where you use textual keys from a bibtex or similar text file that’s generated by your bibliographic database.
It might be possible sometimes to create a book or document in LaTeX and copy the references across to Scribus, but even one last minute change would mess that up.
While we’re on the subject, LaTeX handles page layout automatically, including starting a chapter on an odd-numbered page, placement of running titles, etc. Page numbers on the recto and verso sides coincide so they don’t show through the paper.
Since we’re discussing FOSS DTP options, if anyone wants to try LaTeX and its ecosystem, a free subscription to Overleaf is the easiest way to go. There are plenty of templates to get started. It’s adequate for my purposes - they make their money from university and other corporate subscriptions.
But to use render frames in Scribus, you need to install a LaTeX distribution such as: https://www.tug.org/texlive/
Various dedicated front-end text editors are available in addition to the one provided; one of these may help with configuring a render frame, as the procedure isn’t too well documented.