The Scrapbook gives a fast, easy location to store images and text snippets for re-use. It also imports Kivio Stencils (SML), Dia Shapes (SHAPE), Macintosh PICT (PICT), Windows Metafile (WMF), and many others. Scribus has a nice batch of import filters, and imports Adobe Illustrator files, including EPS and PDF files created in AI. Text inside a Render Frame is rendered to LaTex, Lilypond, GNUPlot, GraphViz and POV-Ray, without having to call an external editor. One of its best new features is Render Frames. (I have a love/exasperation thing going with LibreOffice, as it seems composed of equal parts fabulousness and vexations.) Let’s take a quick tour of some of Scribus’ coolest features. You can do a lot of what Scribus does in Libre/Open Office, but Scribus does it better and with fewer vexations. Scribus is all about controlling page layout with precision. When you open an older Scribus file format in 1.4.x it is converted to the newer format, and will not open in older versions. For example, Scribus 1.3.x cannot open Scribus 1.4.x files. Newer Scribus major versions can open files created in all older versions, but not the reverse. The native Scribus file format was changed for the 1.4 series.

When you install Scribus be sure to get the templates and documentation packages. It is cross-platform and runs on all major operating systems. Scribus exports to PDF, SVG, EPS, and most image file formats.

Scribus is a great desktop publishing program for creating brochures, business cards, invitations, newsletters, and pretty much any kind of printed document you want.

Scribus templates free