Scripting Scribus
Have you ever said,
"This program is pretty nice, but I wish it would …"? For
applications that offer the capability, scripting gives users the
ability to customize, extend, and tailor a program to meet their needs.
Scribus, a free page layout
program that runs on Linux (and Mac OS and Windows) uses the Python
programming language for user scripting. Python scripting in Scribus
can drastically improve your work flow, and it’s relatively easy for
beginners to not only use scripts, but also write them.
Scripts
are useful for page layout in a few interrelated ways, including
automating repetitive tasks and tasks that involve measuring, such as
placing page elements and creating page guides.
Not much is required to use Python scripts in Scribus. If your
distribution successfully runs Scribus, then you probably have the
required Python components. For this evaluation, I downloaded,
compiled, and installed the latest stable Python version (1.3.3.11).
You can start a Python script from within Scribus by going to the
Script menu and choosing either Execute Script…, which opens a dialog
box for selecting a script to run, or Scribus Scripts, which lists the
scripts in the /usr/share/scribus/scripts directory, which contains the
official scripts for Scribus. Placing additional scripts in that
directory (as the root user or using sudo) makes those scripts
available from the menu.
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