Scribus for Windows

User Reviews

• Don't even bother

  koalams12/13/2017

  Pros

  None whatsoever

  Cons

  Everything. Incredibly illogical. Can't even format text correctly. No matter what size you set it to, it defaults back to 20pt for the next paragraph. What's the point if you have to do all your text in a separate program and paste it in to this one?

  Summary

  Don't waste your time. Free doesn't have to mean garbage, but it certainly does in this case.

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• Gave up InDesign to switch to Scribus

  Shaggyman212/27/2016

  Pros

  This free program can do pretty much anything InDesign can do. I have the CS4 f InDesign and have used it for years. I do a 25-page (60-70 color photos) monthly email PDF newsletter on Los Angeles homeless issues. I decided to switch when my desktop PC went into the shop for two weeks with a mysterious monitor blackout problem. InDesign can only be installed on 1 computer. A killer if you have to switch to your backup machine. I installed Scribus on my laptop and used creating a duplicate of my previous issue as a way to learn it. It is very different from InDesign and the learning curve is a little steep, but I have found that once you have it down it does anything I want, and it handles sizing photos better than InDesign. (Instead of Placing a photo you draw an image frame. Can set frame to image size or image to frame size. Very good idea.) . I now have it on both my PC and laptop, and keep a daily backup on an external hard drive that can be moved from one machine to another.

  Cons

  Once in a while hitting Ctrl-V to paste something in the clipboard causes the program to close, losing your latest changes. I have gotten into the habit of saving before pasting. But on the whole I am very happy with Scribus.

  Summary

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• LOVE IT...Newsletter creator

  5/26/2015

  Pros

  Easy to learn and use in my opinion, and makes a nice Newsletter. After finishing the Newsletter, I export it to PDF for the ladies in our Guild and send it out. Someday, I hope it will be uploaded to our Guild's website for viewing; either way, it gets the job done, and its free.

  Cons

  None that I know of.

  Summary

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• OK but just not MS Publisher

  Mikeinkerry4/16/2014

  Pros

  It's free and works ok, if you just want a DTP program for occasional use this would probably do the job for you but for regular use...

  Cons

  Not intuitive to use, copied text does not end up as I expected

  Summary

  I have used Publisher for years and find it so easy to use. I am about to replace my XP machine with a Win8 laptop and object to having to buy a new version of MS Pub so looked for an open source alternative. After using Scribus I have decided to bite the bullet and pay for office 365 at €99 per annum but my kids are starting college next year so they can use it too... sorry Scribus but that's the way it is...

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• Great DTP Application

  joolsr13/2/2014

  Pros

  I've used this since early versions going back more than ten years now. Its not perfect, but for free you get an excellent app that I produced nearly all my works DTP, and professional printing with with no issues ever with the PDF export, even complicated CMYK, or spot colours, or PDF X A standards. The community and mailing list/forums are full of help people who will not tell you to RTFM, and will help you as best they can

  Cons

  Menus and GUI need a redesign in places and occasional issues such as non perfect undo steps, and issues with some use of SVG gradient import remain.

  Summary

  An excellent and powerful DTP professional package for many platforms, easily the best open source DTP app out there. If using alongside the gimp and Inkscape makes a great set of powerful tools

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• Major mess-up fo laptop! Stay away!!

  janmeulendijk12/26/2013

  Pros

  None to be identified

  Cons

  Major drag on cpu (I think; unless even worse was happening), to the point that Macbook simply became unusable for ANY purpose

  Summary

  After installing Scribus and after installing the helper programme called Ghostscript my Macbook went into complete meltdown. Only way to restore everything back to normal was throwing all Scribus related rubbish away, and then clearing out the startup-programme list of all sorts of automatically inserted nonsense. Could only do this by starting up the machine in safe mode; otherwise no way into the machine anymore. What world are we living in if that is required? If this is the world of freeware, then I'm all for paying for programmes that do not fry your chips. Stay away. STAY AWAY!!!

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• Good Feature set, available on multiple OS platforms.

  hran3/12/2013

  Pros

  Features/functions are very complete. The user interface is good. Rivals some very costly commercial packages. I can do everything that I need in page layout with Scribus. Worth learning the menu/command structure. Not a ridiculously complex user experience for 95% of what you do in desktop publishing. The last 5% costs a LOT more.

  Cons

  A different user interface and command layout to learn if you use a commercial desktop publishing package. It has to to avoid copyright infringement. Weighs in with programs retailing in $100s for commercial licenses. The last 5% isn't there.

  Summary

  Worth trying and taking the time to master. Comparable to many mid-level commercial products(Up to almost $200). The interface is a bit simple and old-school, but easy to use and learn.

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• Does Scribus work with Win 7?

  RobertDiGi1/11/2013

  Pros

  Very good DTP with XP Pro. I do a monthly 30-odd page folded booklet, text & pictures, all B&W. (I used to do it with Scribus, fewer pages, but with color. Had to switch to BW because of printing cost. Leased laser printer was charging every page as color, though we were only using color on a few. Printer salesman blamed the Scribus, so I switched to paid software, didn't help. So we switched to B&W. When the software required upgrading, I went back to Scribus, now 1.4.1.)

  Cons

  With so many pages and XP, was running too slow. Long pauses when making changes. Scribus does seem to need more memory on large jobs.

  Summary

  My 1-2 year old Seagate 1 TB drive crashed right after I read the article on today's drives not lasting as long as the older drives! I replaced it with a WD Enterprise-level 2 TB drive, and Win 7 Pro and new installation of Scribus 1.4.1. Now I'm having a lot of trouble with it. On a new 1-page job, newly set-up jobs keep disappearing, and it won't let me move them to my 2nd monitor. Scribus was so good with XP, but 7 doesn't seem to like it at all.

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• Professional DTP for free

  vanderloo9/26/2012

  Pros

  A lightweight programme for what it does, all the commercial alternatives are large installs. Simple interface which is relatively intuitive. Built-in pdf output.

  Cons

  No immediate cons. The only problems could only be minor complaints from people accustomed to using other alternatives, and those who don't want to read documentation.

  Summary

  There are several other reviews on here complaining that Scribus doesn't do this or that, but this is a failure to properly read the documentation beforehand. Scribus is not a little programme 'only suitable for newsletters'. It is capable of creating full newspaper layouts and is already used for doing just that. It has powerful text manipulation capabilities and the text editor is a lot more user friendly than Adobe InDesign or Quark (which still doesn't even have proper editor). There are also some complaints here that it 'wouldn't install' or asked for Ghostscript. In fact Scribus does install without having to first install Ghostscript. In any case Ghostscript is here on Download.com, all it takes is typing it into the search box and you get a simple installer that won't frighten the pants off people afraid of the command line.

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• Excellent DTP System

  mikhul17/25/2012

  Pros

  A well-designed interface. Intuitive user interaction. Works well in a Windows environment.

  Cons

  Lacks spellcheck Relative file locations - don't move your photos to a different location or you will need to reinstall them into your document. The help system could be improved by offering worked examples as well as context-sensitive help.

  Summary

  Scribus is a well-designed piece of kit. It's a serious high-end DTP system capable of completing professional-quality layout. Overall, the system is easy to learn - given the intuitive interface - and, a day or so is generally enough to achieve quite passable results.

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