options Scale To Frame Size and Proportional
might be enabled. If so, then one possible fix for
a badly filled frame is to uncheck the
Proportional box, which will then stretch the
image to fit the frame.
However, this may look horrid, so you can
fine-tune the image by clicking the Free Scaling
option, where you can move and stretch the
image to your heart’s content. Or you can resize
the picture frame to fit.
In the Newsletter 1 template the image and
text frames are locked in place, meaning that
you can’t resize them. To unlock the frames,
right-click any image or text frame and uncheck
the option ‘Is Locked’, and you can now resize
the frame as much as you want.
With any luck, working from a template will
have been sufficient to create the document you
wanted. If so, save your work and export it. The
native Scribus format is .sla, but if you’re sending
your work to anyone other than a fellow Scribus
user, you need to use something more universal
like PDF. That’s easily done, by clicking
File>Export>Save as PDF.
Note that in both exporting files and in
Print Preview you’ll likely encounter warning
messages. That’s quite normal – Scribus can be
pretty pedantic! Ignore them, you’ll probably
be fine.
A document from scratch
If you have something more specific in mind a
template probably won’t cut it, meaning you’ll
need to build up your own document from
scratch. But don’t worry, we’re here to take you
through the basics.
For a starting point, if you have something like
a magazine whose style you want to imitate it’s
worth getting out a ruler and measuring the
dimensions of every box, row, image, and
column. The Scribus layout can be set to operate
within physical dimensions, meaning you should
be able to replicate the formatting elements of
your favourite magazine.
My brother and I have been trying to
replicate the style and feel of Commodore
Format from the early ’90s, so we can work on
our own book and provide a cool template for
other retro gaming authors. Aside from copying
the physical dimensions and styling language,
those magazines usually had a three column
layout, so that’s a good place to begin. Bring
some formatting ideas of your own and we’ll
get started.
Click File>New to start afresh and the New
Document window will appear, where you
define your layout. To keep things simple we’ll
stick with a Single Page layout. Otherwise
everything’s fairly conventional except the
choice of Default Unit, which is “Points (pt)”.
That’s a typographic unit of measurement, with
72 points to the inch, but it’s not very useful so
switch it to something everybody understands,
like millimetres.
Now you can easily define the page margins
on the left, and if you check the “Automatic
Text Frames” box, you can set the number of
columns and the gap between them. If you
just want a normal full page of text leave
Columns as 1, but most magazines use two or
three or even seven columns, and newspapers
usually use four.
Tex t frames
When you click OK you’ll have a blank page with
three columns, if that was your choice. The
column markers will act as visual guides, and if
you check your work in Print Preview you’ll see
these ugly things are thankfully not included!
The obvious place to start would be with some
text, so let’s create our first Text Frame.
In the middle of the main toolbar is the Insert
Text Frame button. On your blank page click
and place your first frame wherever you like.
You can even overlap the column guides
and page borders if you want – this can be
changed though, see the box on guides for
more information (page 45). Note that Scribus
will switch back to Select Item mode after
you’ve inserted a frame, so you’ll need to click
the button each time you want to generate a
new text frame.
To add text use the same method as before,
right-clicking and choosing Edit Text. If you
happen to run out of space in your first frame,
don’t worry. Create a few more blank framesUSING THE GRID
If you click View > Show Grid, an overlay in the style of technical
graph-paper will appear, with big cubes (the major grid) containing
smaller cubes (the minor grid). You can either use this grid as a simple
visual guide, enabling you to still draw freehand and place things where
you like, or you can make objects rigidly ‘snap’ to it. If you’re making a
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you’re making something quite conservative with many pages to
produce, you want the snap function.
%y default the grid will simply act as a visual guide, but if you want to
enable the snap function, from the main menu choose Page > Snap to
Grid. However, the default grid sizes are a bit weird and the page
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To make the grid more useful, change its settings by clicking File >
Document Setup, and in the new window click Guides. If you enable the
Show Page Grid option this will let you modify the grid settings. The
default spacing is 35.278mm for the Major Grid and 7.056mm for the
Minor Grid. If you change these to an even 35mm and 7mm,
UHVSHFWLYHO\WKHSDJHPDUJLQVZLOOQRZÀWZLWKLQWKHJULGOur advice to any Scribus first timer would be to find a template that appeals to you, and then
jump in fearlessly and experiment with changing almost every aspect of it.Explore
Design with Scribus
December 2019 | |^43