Beginning Scribus

Beginning Scribus

Released November 2015
Publisher(s): Apress
ISBN: 9781484207222

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Book description

Beginning Scribus is the book you wish you’d read when you downloaded Scribus for the first time. Scribus is an award-winning page-layout program used by newspaper designers, magazine designers and those who want to do proper page layout but not pay for an expensive solution. It is free and Open Source, providing a useful alternative for those who cannot afford or choose not to use Adobe InDesign or QuarkXpress.

Beginning Scribus provides you with the skills you will need in order to use this program productively. It demonstrates the techniques used by printers and publishers in order to create a range of layouts and effects, and it shows you how you can use these techniques to design everything from a flyer to a three-fold brochure. Using the latest Scribus release, Beginning Scribus takes you through the process of designing a magazine from start to finish and teaches you some of the tricks of professional page layout and design. The book also provides a definitive guide to desktop publishing using free, open source tools, such as GIMP for photo manipulation.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents at a Glance
  6. Contents
  7. About the Author
  8. About the Technical Reviewer
  9. Acknowledgments
  10. Introduction
  11. Chapter 1: Scribus Basics
    1. Welcome to Scribus!
    2. Download and Installation
      1. Ghostscript
      2. Scribus 1.4.5
      3. How to Install Scribus on Windows
      4. How to Install Scribus on a Mac
      5. How to Install Scribus on Linux Distros
      6. Scribus Documentation
    3. Organizing Your Workflow
      1. Use a Separate Folder and Subdirectories for YourContent
      2. Scribus Files
    4. Before You Open Scribus
      1. Opening Scribus: The New Document Window
      2. Document Layout
    5. An Introductory Tour of the Scribus Workspace
      1. Setting Your Preferences and Document Settings
    6. Creating Your Document
      1. Laying Out Your Document
    7. Introduction to Frames
      1. How to Insert Sample Text
      2. Working with Image Frames
      3. Creating Inline Characters
      4. Saving a Document
      5. Collect for Output
      6. Viewing Your Documents
      7. How to Zoom In on Your Documents
    8. Navigating Your Documents
      1. The Page List
      2. Page Arrows
      3. Document Outline
      4. Switching Between Documents
      5. Adding and Deleting Pages
      6. Deleting Pages
      7. Arranging Pages
      8. Navigating with Bookmarks
      9. Rules and Guides
      10. Locking Your Guides
      11. Working with Grids
    9. Introducing Layers
      1. Adding and Deleting a Layer
    10. Summary
  12. Chapter 2: Getting to Know the Workspace
    1. The Scribus Workspace
      1. The Menu Bar
      2. The File Menu: Preferences
      3. Preferences: The General Tab
      4. The Document Tab
      5. Bleeds
      6. The Fonts Tab
      7. The Guides Tab
      8. The Typography Tab
      9. The Tools Tab
      10. The Hyphenation and Spelling Tab
      11. The Preflight Verifier Tab
      12. The PDF Export Tab
      13. Keyboard Shortcuts Tab
      14. The Display Tab
      15. Plugins
      16. The Scrapbook
    2. The Edit Menu
    3. The Page Menu
    4. The Insert Menu
    5. The Item Menu
      1. The View Menu
      2. The Extras Menu
    6. The Toolbar
      1. The Eye Dropper
      2. The Select Item Tool
    7. The Story Editor
      1. Closing
    8. The Properties Palette
      1. The XYZ Tab
      2. Properties: The Shape Tab
      3. Properties: The Line Tab
      4. Properties: The Colors Tab
      5. Properties: The Image Tab
      6. Properties: The Text Tab
    9. Grids and Guides
      1. Grids
      2. Guides
      3. Scrapbook
    10. Summary
  13. Chapter 3: Text Frames and Font Management
    1. Using Frames
      1. Frame Options
      2. The X-Pos and Y-Pos and Basepoint Controls
    2. Introduction to Nodes
    3. Editing Your Text Frames
      1. Importing Text
      2. Using Sample Text
      3. Importing Files
      4. Indenting Text
      5. Adding a Frame Margin
      6. A Note About Overflowing Text
    4. The Story Editor
    5. The Text Tab
      1. Text Overflow
    6. Text Wrapping: Flowing Text Around a Quote
    7. Text Alignment
      1. Left-Aligned Text
      2. Centered Text
      3. Right-Aligned Text
      4. Justified Text
      5. Forced Justification
    8. Kerning and Tracking
      1. Tracking
      2. Text Rotation
      3. Drop Caps
    9. Manipulating the Baseline Grid
    10. Adding a Text Frame Background
    11. Creating Text over a Semi-Transparent Background
    12. Creating Text on a Path
    13. Paragraph Alignment and Formatting
      1. Making Tabs
      2. Scaling the Text Size
    14. Inline Objects
    15. Fonts in Scribus
      1. Font Preview
      2. Font Families
      3. Serif Fonts
      4. Elements of a Typeface
      5. Italic and Roman fonts
      6. Font Managers
      7. Letter Spacing: Proportional and Monospaced Fonts
      8. Superscript and Subscript
      9. Drop Shadow
      10. TrueType, OpenType, and PostScript
      11. Font Installation
      12. Adding a New Font
      13. Font Sample
      14. Special Characters
      15. Hyphenator
    16. Summary
  14. Chapter 4: Working with Graphics
    1. Working with Graphics Files
      1. Working with Image Frames
      2. Loading an Image
    2. Collecting forOutput
    3. Missing Files
      1. The Info Box
    4. Working with Image Effects
      1. Flipping Your Image
    5. Image Formats
      1. Working with Vector Images
      2. Shapes, Lines, and Paths
      3. Mesh Distortion
      4. Arrows
    6. Summary
  15. Chapter 5: Working with Colors
    1. Color Theory
      1. Color Models and Color Space
      2. The Color Compatibility Issue at the Heart of Desktop Publishing
    2. Ink Types
      1. Process Colors: CMYK
      2. Spot Colors
    3. Choosing Colors: The Color Wheel
      1. Color Schemes
      2. Composing Your Palette
    4. Applying Colors
      1. Fill Color
      2. Setting Stroke Color in Scribus
      3. Background Color
      4. Shade and Transparency
      5. Creating Custom Colors
      6. Color Sampling with the Eyedropper Tool
    5. Gradients
      1. Working with Patterns
    6. Calibrating Colors in Your Computer’s Monitor
    7. Summary
  16. Chapter 6: Exporting and Printing Your Documents
    1. Copy Editing and Proofreading
      1. Quality Control
    2. The Preflight Verifier
      1. Setting Up the Preflight Verifier
      2. Corrections
    3. Print Preview
    4. Exporting to EPS or SVG
      1. Save as Image
    5. Introduction to Adobe Portable Document Format
      1. PDF Versions
      2. Exporting a PDF: The Quick Export Method
      3. Exporting a PDF: The Longer Method
      4. Viewing Your Document in a PDF Reader
    6. Printing from within Scribus
      1. Printing Booklets: Imposition
    7. Creating Lightweight PDFs
      1. Color Sampling
      2. Inserting a Linear Gradient
    8. A Word on Layers
      1. Exploring the Layers Window
      2. Layer Properties in Scribus
      3. Working with Layers
      4. Moving Objects Between Layers
      5. Changing Layer Opacity in the Layers Window
    9. Summary
  17. Chapter 7: Working with GIMP
    1. Installing GIMP for Windows
      1. Installing GIMP on Linux Ubuntu
      2. Installing GIMP on Mac OSX
    2. Opening GIMP for the First Time
    3. The Toolbox
      1. Docking
      2. The Undo List
      3. Opening and Creating Files
      4. Scaling and Cropping
      5. Light-Adjustment Tools
      6. Other Tools
    4. Adding Text to an Image
    5. The GIMP Color Chooser
    6. The Blend Tool
    7. Removing Objects from Photographs
    8. Summary
    9. References
  18. Chapter 8: Automating Scribus
    1. The Need for Consistency in Your Documents
    2. Styles
      1. Advantages of Styles
      2. What Is a Paragraph Style?
      3. How to Set a Paragraph Style
      4. Create a Drop Cap Style
      5. Applying the Drop Cap Style
      6. Character Styles
      7. Line Styles
      8. Templates
      9. Saving a Document as a Template
    3. Master Pages
      1. Creating a Master Page from Scratch
      2. Creating a Master Page from an Existing Page
      3. Using Master Pages to Add Page Numbers
      4. Applying a Master Page
      5. Navigating Your Master Pages
    4. Scripting with Python
      1. Starting a Script
      2. Running a Script
      3. Beginner’s Scripts
      4. Adding a Script
      5. Extension Scripts
    5. Designing a Threefold Brochure
      1. Using Glyphs
    6. Summary
  19. Chapter 9: Designing Magazines
    1. Efficient Magazine Design
      1. Choosing Your Format
      2. Using Grids
      3. Achieving a Sense of Flow
    2. Summary
  20. Chapter 10: Interactive PDFs
    1. Adding Page Transition Effects to Your PDF Files
      1. The Viewer Tab
      2. Adding Thumbnails
      3. Inserting Bookmarks
      4. Adding Hyperlinks
    2. Interactive Forms
      1. Editing PDF Forms with JavaScript
    3. Summary
  21. Index

Product information

  • Title: Beginning Scribus
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: November 2015
  • Publisher(s): Apress
  • ISBN: 9781484207222