Scribus – Open Source Desktop Publishing DTP Software

Posted by admin on October 2, 2009 under Free Software | Be the First to Comment

Scribus is an Open Source Desktop Publishing (DTP) software that brings award-winning professional page layout to Linux/UNIX, Mac OS X, OS/2 Warp 4/eComStation and Windows desktops with a combination of “press-ready” output and new approaches to page layout. It has the modern and user friendly interface, Scribus supports professional publishing features, like

• CMYK Color
• ICC Color Management
• Separations
• Spot Colors
• Versatile Pdf Creation

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, Mac OS X, OS/2, and Microsoft Windows. It is known for its broad set of page layout features comparable to leading non-free applications like:

• Adobe InDesign
• Adobe PageMaker
• PagePlus
• QuarkXPress

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

• Books
• Brochures
• Newsletters
• Posters
• Writing Small Newspapers

Download Scribus Desktop Publishing Software

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/X3, including interactive PDFs form fields, annotations and bookmarks. While PDF export is very good, it is not currently able to import/edit PDF files, and PDFs exported from Scribus 1.3.3.x and earlier are not searchable in Acrobat Reader if the fonts were outlined/subsetted.

Reference - Scribus DTP at Wikipedia