Scribus

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Scribus
Scribus 1.4.6 under Linux Mint 18
Developer	The Scribus Team
Initial release	16 June 2001; 24 years ago (2001-06-16)
Stable release	1.6.6[1]  / 13 April 2026
Preview release	1.7.3[2]  / 13 April 2026; 46 days ago (13 April 2026)
Written in	C++ (Qt)
Operating system	Linux/UNIX Mac OS X 10.5-10.8 (up to 1.4.8) Mac OS X 10.9 (64-bit, up to 1.5.3), Mac OS X 10.10-10.12 (64-bit, up to 1.5.4), macOS X 10.13 (64-bit, up to 1.5.5) Windows 2000 (32-bit, up to 1.5.0), Windows Vista (64-bit), Windows 7 OS/2 Warp 4/eComStation (up to 1.5.0) ArcaOS FreeBSD (up to 1.5.0), PC-BSD (up to 1.5.0), OpenBSD (up to 1.5.0), NetBSD (up to 1.5.0) Solaris (up to 1.4.8) OpenIndiana (up to 1.5.0) GNU/Hurd Haiku
Available in	Multilingual
Type	Desktop publishing
License	GNU LGPL 2.1, MIT, 3-clause BSD, Public domain
Website	www.scribus.net
Repository	sourceforge.net/projects/scribus/

Scribus (/ˈskraɪbəs/) is free and open-source desktop publishing (DTP) software available for most desktop operating systems. It is designed for layout, typesetting, and preparation of files for professional-quality image-setting equipment. Scribus can also create animated and interactive PDF presentations and forms. Example uses include writing newspapers, brochures, newsletters, posters, and books.

Scribus is written in Qt and released under the GNU General Public License. There are native versions available for Unix, Linux, BSD, macOS, Haiku, Microsoft Windows, OS/2 (including ArcaOS and eComStation) operating systems.

Scribus supports most major bitmap formats, including TIFF, JPEG, and PSD. Vector drawings can be imported or directly opened for editing. The long list of supported formats includes Encapsulated PostScript, SVG, Adobe Illustrator, and Xfig. 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 60 languages.

High-level 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 1.5 specification including layers (OCG), as well as PDF/X-3,^[3] including interactive PDFs form fields, annotations, and bookmarks.^{[4][failed verification]}

The current file format, called SLA, is XML. Old versions of SLA were based on XML. Text can be imported from OpenDocument (ODT) text documents (such as from LibreOffice Writer), OpenOffice.org XML (OpenOffice.org Writer's SXW files), Microsoft Word's DOC, PDB, and HTML formats (although some limitations apply). ODT files can typically be imported along with their paragraph styles, which are then created in Scribus. HTML tags which modify text, such as bold and italic, are supported. Word and PDB documents are only imported as plain text.^[5]

ScribusGenerator is a mail merge-like extension to Scribus.^[6][7]

Scribus 1.5.1 added PDF/X-4 support.^[8]

Initially, Scribus did not properly support complex script rendering and so could not be used with Unicode text for languages written in Arabic, Hebrew, Indic, and Southeast Asian writing systems, even though it supported Unicode character encoding.^[9][10] In August 2012, it was announced that a third party had developed a system to support complex Indic scripts.^[11][12][10] In May 2015 it was announced that the ScribusCTL project had started to improve complex layout by integrating the OpenType text-shaping engine HarfBuzz into the official Scribus 1.5.1svn branch.^[13] In July 2016 it was announced that the text layout engine had been rewritten from scratch in preparation for support of complex scripts coming in Scribus 1.5.3 and later.^[14] In December 2016 Scribus announced they got support for OpenType advanced feature in 1.5.3svn, as well as complex script and RTL direction.^[15]

Scribus 1.4.7 did not have OpenType alternative glyph support, so ligatures, for example, were not inserted automatically;^[16] this became available from v1.5.3.

The 1.6.0 release in January 2024 introduced a number of typographical features that had long been requested, including footnotes and endnotes, text variables, cross-references, vertical justification, and orphan and widow control.^[17] It also added a "Weld" feature for joining objects without grouping them and a Symbol/Clone facility comparable to that found in Adobe Illustrator.^[17][18] A bundled "Picture Browser" plugin provides asset management for image files, and the application directory layout on Linux now follows the XDG Base Directory specification.^[17] Subsequent point releases in the 1.6.x series, including 1.6.5, have focused on bug fixes and translation updates.^[19]

Scribus cannot read or write the native file formats of other desktop publishing programs such as QuarkXPress or InDesign; the developers consider that reverse engineering those file formats would be prohibitively complex and could risk legal action from the makers of those programs.^[20]

Due to licensing issues, the software package does not include support for the Pantone color matching system (PMS), which is included in some commercial desktop publishing applications. Pantone colors can be obtained and incorporated within Scribus without licensing issues.^[21] From the 1.5.3 series onwards Scribus has shipped with more than 300 colour palettes, donated by various commercial colour vendors and including scientific, national, and government colour standards.

Support for importing Microsoft Publisher files was incorporated into version 1.5,^[22] and QuarkXPress Tag files, InDesign's IDML, and InCopy's ICML formats were added to the development branch.^[23] The 1.5.6 release added native PDF 1.6 export with embedded OpenType fonts and made Python 3 the default scripting interpreter,^[24] and the 1.5.8 release added Python 3 support on macOS and a dark-mode user interface.^[25]

Books about Scribus are available in several languages,^[26] as is a manual for using Scribus 1.3 in desktop publishing.^[27]

Janayugom, a Malayalam daily newspaper in Kerala, India, migrated all desktop publishing to Scribus and GIMP in November 2019, saving over 10 million Indian rupees (approximately US$130,000).^[28]

French artist David Revoy, known for the Pepper&Carrot webcomic, uses Scribus for the layouts of the print volumes of the series.^[29]

New Escapologist magazine, according to a colophon in the back of each issue, has been made using Scribus since its fourteenth issue in 2023.^[30]

• Comparison of desktop publishing software
• List of desktop publishing software

• Official website
• #scribus ^connect on Libera.chat

• From Jacci Howard Bear at LifeWire
• Book_HowToSCRIBUS-Digital.pdf Archived 5 January 2019 at the Wayback Machine
• For Scribus 1.4 from American Amateur Press Association
• Scribus 2013 hexagon Archived 20 September 2018 at the Wayback Machine
• Scribus 1.5.5 create a book cover Archived 28 January 2022 at the Wayback Machine
• scribus 1.4.6 A. J. Publishing using scribus by Dave Tribby
• scribus 1.5.5 path and Bézier curves(in German)

• Free Desktop Publishing with Scribus at World Label. A blog post on using Scribus 1.3.5 to create labels.
• Open source desktop publishing with Scribus by William von Hagen, from IBM site.