[You Can Use Your Existing Fonts Collection] Do you have a collection of fonts that you wish to use under GnuLinux? Install your existing TrueType, Postscript, or OpenType format fonts under GnuLinux. You'll find the simple steps mentioned in the documentation section of the Scribus site. For our tutorial, we don't need to install any special fonts. So you can start right away with your first sample publication.

[Sane Workflows] Our magazine is called 'FreedomYug' and it contains a lot of pictures and text. A magazine with a few hundred pages could also have several Scribus files, each with eight to 20 pages. So, it is best to create a folder for each publication. I've created one called 'Fyug'. Inside this, create atleast two distinct folders, 'Text, ' and 'Images'. Using a wordprocessor, such as OpenOffice.org, author your articles and save them in the Text folder. For the moment save a version in simple text format, with the extension .txt. While I write this tutorial, the developers at Scribus assure me that soon you can save your text as Rich Text Format (.rtf) and import it into Scribus, with all your typesetting, such as bold, italic, and bold-italic text and other formatting intact.

Similarly, scan or enhance photographs and store them in the 'Images' folder, mostly as *.JPG files.

Empty, White Spaces

A magazine or a publication design is not about text and images on the page. It is about empty, white spaces on the page. The text and images merely punctuate this emptiness. These 'breathing' spaces are important, much like gardens, parks, and other open-air sites are important to any high-density metropolis. So launch Scribus, go to the File menu, and click on New. For the rest of the tutorial, I will use the following convention to describe menu choices: File>New.

[New Emptiness] The New command displays this dialog box. Click on the 'Default Unit' drop-down box, and choose 'Millimetres (mm)' rather than the default 'Points'. Click on the drop-down menu of 'Size' and choose 'Custom' for the page-size of our magazine. Enter the above dimensions for width and height. Note the level of precision beyond the decimal-point to the right, offered by Scribus. Click on 'Facing Pages' so you can view pages side-by-side, as in a realworld magazine. Enter the above margin area, that marks off the actual printing area, inside the physical paper. Click 'OK' to view your first blank page in Scribus.

Cover Page

If you see too many gridlines on your blank page, goto View>Hide Grid. You will see blue-colored lines marking the outer margins of your page. The concept of Scribus is quite simple: To place a photo on the page, first you must create a photo-frame and then import the photo into this frame. Similarly, to place text on the page, you must create a text-frame first, and then insert, or type, text into this frame. You'll soon discover that this approach has some great advantages.

[Insert Picture] Here is a screenshot of a panel that contains all the Tools that Scribus offers. Glide your mouse over each icon to find out what each tool does. Click on the third one. That's the one that allows you to insert a Picture frame in the page. That's what you want for placing the cover picture. Drag your mouse from the top-left of the scribus page, to the bottom-right. Don't worry if you don't get it exactly right. You'll find a picture frame drawn on your page, in the shape of a large rectangle, with black-colored diagonal lines forming a large 'X' through it. This is a traditional printing-industry custom, to distinguish picture frames from text frames. That 'X' won't ever print, so don't worry.

[Soul of Scribus] From the menus, go to Tools>Properties. Along comes a dialog-box that is at the heart and soul of Scribus. All objects you add to the page, from picture frames, text frames, or even actual photos, text, or lines, are all controlled from this central dialog box. Make sure the picture frame you just created is highlighted. Usually red-colored or other colored square dots will mark all the four corners as a visual cue. If not, in the Tools palette, click on the first icon, and just click on the picture frame. The Properties dialog box will instantly show all its details.

Give a human-readable label to this picture-frame, such as 'CoverPhotoFrame' in the 'Name' field of Properties. In case you do not see the 'Name' field, just click once on the top tab, that says 'X, Y, Z'. Next, precisely place the top-left of your picture frame on the top-left edge of your page. In the X-Pos and Y-Pos fields, type in the values of 0mm, each. Pos is obviously a short-form of Position. Type in the Width and Height at 210 mm and 280 mm respectively. Your frame is precisely placed on the page.