Top Scribus Alternatives

Of many publishing products, Scribus is quite a popular open-source Desktop Publishing App, i.e., DTP. The application was created in 2001 and has continuously been upgraded to include all advanced DTP features. The product can be promptly used for designing layouts, professional color quality files, typesetting, etc. It supports almost all operating systems, including Windows, macOS, BSDs, Linux, UNIX, etc. A few of the popular uses of this tool are formatting papers, newsletters, cards, books, brochures, etc.

Scribus even features the most common publishing interfaces like CMYK colors, PDF creation, ICC colors, and Spot Colors. There are detailed drawing tools and movable interface. The best part is that the format allows even damaged files to be recovered using a text editor.

How does Scribus Work?

Scribus comes with quite a basic setup, and open-source code, without any need to register the product or buy any license. After Installation, Scribus redirects to a blank interface. This UI has typical rulers, marking, drawing tools, selection tools, and many more that are needed in a DTP app.

Users can import and export files, formats like PDF, SVG, EPS, etc. It even supports most image formats like JPEG, PNG, BIT map, and TIFF, combined with support for vector images. Users can make new vector images or edit the existing ones. Scribus offers editing with compressed PostScript, TrueType, OpenType, etc. embedded fonts.

However, it won't support exclusive product files from tools like Adobe InDesign, i.e., IDD format. In Scribus UI, useful templates can also be saved and reused. It offers a detailed text editor. The shape and color tools are quite creative and practical. Users can customize each setting before editing documents, guides, typography, hyphenator, fonts, etc.

Scribus works by inserting various frames into the blank page and rearranging them. You can even add more layers in print by superimposing these frames. Some high-level graphics, charts, and graphs can also be inserted and edited. Overall, Scribus, even being an open-source tool, works very well in most DTP applications and is still very much reliable.