[Choose Your Flavour] In the dialog-box, start by clicking on the 'General' tab, and selecting PDF/X-3 from the drop-down menu for 'Compatibility.' It's a good idea to Downsample images to 300 dpi, at the bottom left here.

[Color Management] In the 'Fonts' tab, choose to embed all fonts and 100% of all characters. Then click on the 'Color' tab. Note you can use a source ICC profile for the file, choose its rendering intent, and also choose whether to use the source profile of the Images, or to discard it and choose your own. If you don't understand this, don't worry. It is quite simple.

Head out to littlecms.com and read the documentation available there. Also read the documents on the Scribus website, and check out the links to the excellent reference material on Scribus' page.

[Press Inks] Finally, click on the 'PDF/X-3' tab. You have to choose the output profile, which is basically selecting the kind of ink and paper you are printing your magazine on, and giving the job a mandatory 'Info String'. Give the name of your file here. You can also handle some amount of trimming, which is changing an existing paper-size in a document to a slightly smaller size to accommodate a print-job.

Before sending your job to the press, please go to Extras> Print Preview. You can see a soft-preview of your file in the inks of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black, and even simulate a progressive proof on-screen.

[Native Scribus File To Press] If you are blessed to have a Scribus-savvy printing plant, and wish to deliver a native Scribus file, go to File>Collect For Output. Select a folder and Scribus will copy your file, as well as put copies of all graphics and images, and even font files, in this directory. Transfer this folder to your press. May I recommend you throw in a copy of Scribus in this folder too. A clueless person can discover the joys of Scribus. Go ahead, this is perfectly legal, thanks to the power of GPL.

Travel At The Speed Of Scribus

[Advanced Features] Scribus has some pretty advanced and mature features that you will appreciate as you grow familiar with its interface. For instance, Once you have dozens of pictures linked into a Scribus document, managing such links can be a nightmare, unless you use the Manage Pictures feature under the Extras menu. Broken links can then be repaired or newer versions of images can be used without having to manually delete and replace images.

For special accents, diacritical marks, and special glyphs, edit text in a text frame, and click on Insert Special under the Extras menu. The complete collection of characters of a chosen font are displayed, so you can just point and click. Try it.

Do you wish to quickly navigate through your pages to find a particular element? Go to the Tools menu, and select Outline. A structured view of your document, with all items per-page in a collapsible list, shows up.

Scribus supports the Python language, so lots of people have written amazing scripts that automate several tasks for you, from creating custom calendars to printing out font families, all with a single click. That's what the Script menu on top does for you. If you know Python, you could create some pretty sophisticated scripts to assist your work, while you design your publication.

Using the free tools at the site of LittleCMS, I managed to calibrate my monitor under GnuLinux, much like you would do yours with the Adobe Gamma utility under Mac or Windows. Here's a screenshot of my monitor's profile, plotted against a CIE color model for comparison. Ain't that cool!

The 'Tables' button in the main Tools allows you to quickly generate tables in your layout. It is rather rudimentary at this moment, but within a few weeks I expect it to evolve rather rapidly. Similarly, Indic support will be available in the same time-frame.

Finally, the greatest strength of Scribusis the set of people behind it. They work 24-hours, creating a new version every night. Should you get stuck, they walk you through your installation, and even assist you live over Internet Relay Chat. As you continue working, and find yourself lost for a feature, just hop over and request them.

Hope you found this tutorial helpful. Please add to it, improve it, and share it with others. It belongs to everybody. [ends]