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Top Ten Hints - Tips and Tricks I use to make better docs, faster in Scribus.

These are my top ten hints for using Scribus, in (sort of) order:

  1. Get the latest 5.0.7 Acrobat Reader installed. Without this, is it impossible to open PDF's from Scribus and see all the features Scribus can create within a PDF. Plus, it renders PDF better than most any other viewer. In the future more documentation for Scribus will in PDF format, optimized for display in Acro Reader. More details..
  2. Use guides to help visually align things in your document. Guides are invisible rulers you can place on the canvas to align different text boxes, as well as centering objects. In almost every doc, I create a vertical guide to split the page in two. Then you can use this guide to center objects much easier.
  3. Use the "nudge" tool. Select an object and then use the arrow keys to move object a tiny bit at a time - .01 inch or .01 mm.
  4. Save Paper - Instead of printing a proof, export a low res PDF and open in Acrobat Reader. A properly setup PDF, will display on the screen with a great deal of fidelity to the printed page.
  5. Use PNG, in place of jpeg or gif. PNG is a much more versatile image format and it usually prints much better at the same resolution. Most importantly, it is a lossless format and compress some types of images really well. Lastly, the GIMP, which most users have as their primary bitmap editor, does a superb job of handling PNG, as well as compressing them highly.
  6. Get Good Ghostscript - The newest 7.05+ versions are much better at helping Scribus import EPS and generating high quality print previews..
  7. Get Good Fonts - By good fonts, I mean high quality Type 1or True Type fonts from foundrys like Adobe Bitstream and Monotype. Lucklily, the available MS Web fonts are also pretty reliable in postscript printing. A good source of fonts is the collection of Bitstream fonts including with most versions of Corel Draw. I have clients who have used these fonts for years and can't remember a font problem with these fonts. Most disks have the same font in Type and True Type versions. Some Adobe applications, like Pagemaker or Indesign include a small collection of useful high quality Type 1 fonts. This will make printing and PDF creation much more reliable.
  8. Page Templates can be big time saver. Anytime, you have common elements on several pages, add those elements to a template. This also avoids accidently moving or deleting objects.
  9. Backup Your Preferences - This is more important for users of cvs versions of Scribus. Occasionally - much less common now, a program crash caused by a bad image etc., can corrupt your preferences. So, to get a good replacement setup, close Scribus and rename the hidden .scribus folder in your home directory to .scribusbak. Then reopen Scribus with no doc open and change every setting as you wish and then close Scribus. Now copy the whole directory somewhere else. Then, if you have weird behavior in Scribus, the first thing to do is copy the good .scribus directory over the current one and restart. This is also important, if like you like me, have lots of custom keyboard short cuts.
  10. A Cool Trick for precision adjustments - This may or may not work on your workstation, depending on how your wheel mouse is configured. You can use the mouse wheel with the spin boxes instead of clicking the arrows. For small steps, put the cursor to the far right, as shown below. Then spin the mouse wheel up and down to adjust the measurement or setting. This adjusts 10ths of a unit. For larger adjustments, put the cursor to the left side. For extra slow and precise adjustments 100th of a unit, Hold Crtl - Shift keys while moving the wheel mouse up and down. Since I discovered this by accident, I use this constantly.

    Place the cursor as inidicated by the arrow


  11. Bonus - subscribe to the Scribus mailing list. You can get this in digest form daily. The list is active, polite and newbies and experts alike are welcome. Do not be shy to ask questions, Linux gurus might be new to DTP and vice versa. Scribus Mailing List Info If you tips you would like to share post themthe the list. We will ensure they are considered and credited properly.
  12. Extra Bonus - How to ask questions and file bug reports/issues on mailing list? First, in newer versions go to Help > About and include the build info. More details Then, look in the mailing list archives, you might find you answer there. Then, make sure you add relevant details like which distro, version of Scribus, versions of relevant packages or libraries. e.g. version of Xfree86, if you have video or font issues. This helps the developers and other knowledgable users to repsond quicker and more accurately. Note: If you are using a cvs version of Scribus, please also include the build date, as well.

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