scribus(1)

📦
version 1.6.6 · 2 versions
  • 1.6.6 · alpine 3.24, arch rolling, debian bookworm, debian trixie, epel 9, fedora 43, fedora 44, opensuse-leap 16.0, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking (latest)
  • 1.7.3 · nixos 26.05, nixpkgs unstable
, in alpine 3.24, arch rolling, debian bookworm, debian trixie, epel 9, fedora 43, fedora 44, opensuse-leap 16.0, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 scribus — the manual page, but make it a group chat 💖

okay bestie, welcome to scribus(1) — the General Commands Manual entry, but with main character energy. sit down, grab a boba, we're doing desktop publishing. 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

scribus — cross platform WYSIWYG desktop publishing app. that's it, that's the name, she's iconic, she does layout. 👑

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

scribus [-h|--help] [-v|--version] [-l|--lang language] [-la|--langs-
available] [-f|--file|--] [filename]

like. that's the whole vibe of how you call her. no cap. ✨

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Scribus is an open source desktop publishing program. she gives you true WYSIWYG editing, excellent PDF export facilities, and a whole rainbow of other input and output options. literally the full package. 💅

for the comprehensive, up-to-date tea, go look at the scribus documentation at http://docs.scribus.net/ or the program's built-in help. 📚

ngl, this man page is only giving summaries of some aspects of the program's use. its main purpose is to make sure you can find the full documentation quickly and easily. it's a little map, not the whole treasure. 🗺️

💅 OPTIONS 💅

the definitive options live in the program's usage statement. run this:

scribus --help

...to view the usage statement. periodt. ✨

  • -l, --lang xx — overrides the system locale and runs Scribus in language xx. the language is specified with the same POSIX language codes used in the LANG and LC_ALL environment variables. for example, English can be selected with 'en' (generic English), 'en_GB' (British English), 'en_US' (American english), etc. similarly, Deutsch can be selected with 'de' or 'de_DE'. 🌈
  • -la, --langs-available — prints a list of languages for which user interface translations are available. to use that language, run Scribus as 'scribus -l xx' where xx is the short language code, or set the locale environment variables as described below. 👀
  • -v, --version — prints the Scribus version number and exits. short, sweet, slays. 🎀
  • -f, --file — open the specified file. it's possible to simply pass the file name as an unqualified argument instead of using this, though if the name begins with a - you will need to use --, eg 'scribus -- -myfile.sla'. 🗂️
  • -h, --help — print a brief usage summary. the lil cheat sheet. 💖
  • -fi, --font-info — shows the font file listing as Scribus starts. this can be used for diagnosing missing glyphs within fonts or possible broken font files. font detective mode activated 🔍
  • -pi, --profile-info — shows the color profiles listing which Scribus can use. this can be used for diagnosing missing or broken color profiles. 🎨
  • -pr, --prefs <filename> — use filename as path for user given preferences. ✨
  • -py, --python-script <script> [arguments ...] — run script in Python [with optional arguments]. this option must be last option used. 🐍 (like, LAST last, bestie, no options after her, she's the finale)
  • -ns, --no-splash — suppresses display of the splash screen during Scribus start-up. straight to business. 💅
  • -nns, --never-splash — stop the showing of the splashscreen on startup. writes an empty file called .neversplash in ~/.config/scribus. she's gone forever, iconic behaviour honestly 🫶
  • -sb, --swap-buttons — use right to left dialog button ordering (eg. Cancel/No/Yes instead of Yes/No/Cancel). 🔄
  • -u, --upgradecheck — downloads a file from our scribus server indicating latest available versions. nosy but make it productive 📥

🌿 ENVIRONMENT 🌿

Scribus respects the standard locale environment variables. others may be used through underlying libraries, such as Qt, or by programs used by Scribus. http://docs.scribus.net/ and the in-program documentation may note other environment variables used by Scribus or the programs and libraries it uses. 👑

  • LC_ALL, LC_MESSAGES, LANG — POSIX locale. see locale(1). Scribus uses these three environment variables, in the listed order of precedence, to select the language (including the user interface translation) to use. if none are set, it will fall back on the locale set by the underlying Qt library. 🌍
  • PATH — Scribus may search the PATH for external tools if their paths are not specified absolutely. this is currently most likely to affect you if you have multiple copies of gs(1) installed. you can set an absolute path to the correct gs(1) in your Scribus preferences and bypass the PATH search. 🛣️

a few important environment variables from other programs are summarised here for convenience, though you should check the original program's documentation if you are having trouble. (fr fr, go to the source 💜)

  • GS_FONTPATH — GhostScript font path. affects the font search path for GhostScript, a component Scribus uses for some PostScript operations. add new directories containing fonts to this colon-separated list to help GhostScript find fonts in non-standard locations. see gs(1) and the GhostScript HTML documentation for more information. 🔤
  • GS_LIB — GhostScript library path. GhostScript searches this path for Fontmap files. like GS_FONTPATH it's a colon separated list of directories. you will usually want to use GS_FONTPATH instead, though building a Fontmap file and using GS_LIB can speed things up if you have a lot of fonts. see gs(1) and the GhostScript HTML documentation for more information. 📚

🗂️ FILES 🗂️

  • $HOME/.config/scribus/ — user preferences are stored in $HOME/.config/scribus/ on Unix or Linux. most other paths are configurable from the Scribus preferences. Scribus 1.5 preferences are separate from Scribus 1.3.x. user preferences for Mac OS X, OS/2 and Windows are documented in the help docs (F1) in Scribus. 💾
    • $HOME/.config/scribus/scribus150.rc — Scribus preferences file - formatted in a custom xml schema. may eventually be retired in favour of new format prefs file. 👵
    • $HOME/.config/scribus/prefs150.xml — Scribus 1.5.x preferences are separate from Scribus 1.3.x 🌱
  • $HOME/.fonts/ — font home, cozy. 🏠
  • $HOME/.fonts.conf — the lil font config bestie. 📝
  • /etc/fonts — Fontconfig, the library used by Scribus to locate fonts, is normally configured with files in /etc/fonts, mainly /etc/fonts/fonts.conf and /etc/fonts/local.conf. it may also use a config file $HOME/.fonts.conf and fonts in $HOME/.fonts/. see fonts.conf(5) and the fontconfig documentation for more information. note that Scribus may also use its internal font path to locate more fonts - see the Preferences dialog and scribus help. 🔍

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

💀 BUGS 💀

see http://bugs.scribus.net/ for the Scribus on-line status tracker, which is used to track bug reports and feature requests. if you intend to submit a bug report or feature request, please search the bug database first. (not me submitting a dupe 😭 search first bestie, i'm begging) 🔎

👑 AUTHORS 👑

please see the About Scribus option in the Help menu for a list of authors, translators, and contributors. the whole squad, the whole group chat, the whole village 🫶

and that's the page, bestie!! this version is the one updated 2010-24-06 and it lives under the name scribus(1). go make something gorgeous. mwah. 💋✨

📦 where this page comes from