Scribus icon
Scribus icon

Scribus

Open-source desktop publishing software offering flexible layouts and typesetting, professional image setting, CMYK support, interactive PDFs, vector tools, and wide format support, perfect for creating newspapers, brochures, and more on Mac, Windows, Linux, and BSD.

Scribus screenshot 1

Cost / License

Application type

Platforms

  • Mac
  • Windows
  • Linux
  • BSD
  • Flathub
  • PortableApps.com
  • Oracle Solaris
  • Flatpak
Scribus screenshot 1
Scribus screenshot 2
+2
Scribus screenshot 3
Scribus alternatives  
435likes
28alternatives
4articles
Save

Features

Properties

  1.  Lightweight
  2.  Privacy focused

Features

  1.  Desktop Publishing
  2.  Publishing
  3.  Interactive PDF forms
  4.  Fill PDF Forms
  5.  Color management
  6.  Works Offline
  7.  No registration required
  8.  Ad-free
  9.  Portable
  10.  Create PDF files
  11.  Knowledge Base
  12.  WYSIWYG Support
  13.  QT Based
  14.  No Tracking
  15. LaTeX icon  Support for LaTeX
  16.  Built-in Color Picker
  17.  Support for scripting
  18.  Support for CMYK Mode
  19.  Dark Mode
  20.  Presets
  21.  Convert images to PDF
  22.  Color Palette
  23.  Page labeling

 Tags

Scribus News & Activities

Highlights All activities

Recent News

Recent activities

  • PubRef Pro icon
    Herman Snaphaan added Scribus as alternative to PubRef Pro
  • adamcorso liked Scribus
  • lilith888 liked Scribus
  • catmuf liked Scribus
  • Nam Pham liked Scribus
  • Ellipsus icon
    Diego Ospina Serna added Scribus as alternative to Ellipsus
  • Vyom Mengar liked Scribus
  • shaysio liked Scribus
  • Joe Howell liked Scribus
  • benni liked Scribus
Ad
Screenshot
Adobe InDesign icon
Adobe InDesign

Industry-standard software for print and digital design with advanced typographic controls and integration in the Adobe Creative Suite.

 
Learn More

Comments and Reviews

   
Comment summary: Scribus is praised for being an open-source alternative to expensive software like Adobe InDesign, capable of producing high-quality PDFs for both personal and professional use. However, it is noted for having a steep learning curve. While it has strong features like robust CMYK color management and font handling, users criticize its user interface and delays in updates, with some labeling it as abandonware due to missed milestones.
Top Positive Comment
Sabire
5

I have used scribus for years for personal as well as professional usage. I have used it to create flyers, pvc banners, business stationery, signage as well as social media content eg twitter or facebook or youtube cover photos. I have also used it to create slider images for websites as the software allows custom page sizes apart from standard page sizes.

Once you know how to use this software, your creative imagination is the limit of what you can do with this software as you can see the examples of usage i have provided above.

Before installing the software, you should install ghostscript which is available for free online. Watch this video on how to install ghostscript and scribus successfully.

Hope you have a lovely time using the software :)

[Edited by Sabire, May 19]

Top Negative Comment
João Lourenço
-1

I really wanted to ditch Adobe and its always bad to crap on an OS project, but if you want an alternative to indesign, just get Afinitys' solution.

playmobilmeister
0

a true PDF editor for Linux

Guest
-1

I am interested in creating greeting cards. Has anyone used Scribus for this, and how does it perform? Thanks.

Roland Ino
1

Scribus is not very good looking or sleek, but if this doesn't bother you, you will find it is a great program, especially versions from 1.5 onwards. The only thing that irks me is the difficulty of importing text with italics and bolds preserved. But its CMYK color management and font management is one of the best among DTP programs. I learned book formatting with Scribus and I continue using it for this purpose, but I also use the proprietary VivaDesigner.

ruskelljd
1

On Ubuntu Linux the AppImage version works the best. That is the best publisher for Linux that I have found that is free. I ma sure there are paid ones that are better but this is more than enough for me.

hansencomputers
0

Scribus is a very refined and user friendly software that I use to create PDF documents with Combo Boxes, List Boxes, etc. at my office.

We prefer the PDF rather than working with a WORD doc or Excel spreadsheet, so whenever possible I'll make the interactive document (usually a form of some type) with Scribus.

This is another great Open Source software that is amazingly well developed and powerful.

7 of 14 comments

Featured in Lists

Free tools (Software that can help you mostly in any field)

This is going to be a list of the free tools/software that can be used mostly in any field. it's based on websites recommendations, personal experience and YouTube videos. If there's any software that you like to be added here pls inform me so we can do it together. They won't be in the alphabetical order. Together we can do it. If you find any software in the list that's not free let me know
By tameresa138 appsUpdated

Create without Adobe (free n' paid) 2025

There is no doubt that Adobe Suite is great, even in some case it's probably the best. But you can be mad at Adobe for many reasons, expensive monthly subscribtion method, bad stability, useless features, paying for tools you don't use. Here is my list with the best way to ditch Adobe monopoly in my opinion. I tried to add Open Source alternatives too as some are really good. I only covered Adobe softwares that I've used so I'm sorry if you don't find what you came for...
By Darlene Sonalder72 appsUpdated

$0.00 and/or Open source Creative Software

Here's a list of free and/or open source creative software that I found
By A Kulkarni47 appsUpdated

Official Links

AppStores & Other Links

Install from the command line

  • winget install -e --id Scribus.Scribus
  • flatpak install flathub net.scribus.Scribus

Be careful what you paste into a terminal. Check what a command installs before running it.

What is Scribus?

Scribus is a desktop publishing (DTP) application. Scribus is designed for flexible layout and typesetting, and the ability to prepare files for professional quality image setting equipment. It can also create animated and interactive PDF presentations and forms. Example uses include writing small newspapers, brochures, newsletters, posters, and books.

Underneath a user-friendly interface, Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as CMYK colors, spot colors, ICC color management and versatile PDF creation.

Scribus has many unexpected touches, such as powerful vector drawing tools, support for a huge number of file types via import/export filters, emulation of color blindness or the rendering of markup languages like LaTeX or Lilypond inside Scribus. The Scribus file format is XML-based and open. Unlike proprietary binary file formats, even damaged documents can be recovered with a simple text editor – sometimes a challenging problem with other page layout programs. Scribus has been translated into more than 25 languages, and more are coming in the future.

Scribus information

  • Developed by

    DE flagScribus

  • Licensing

    Open Source (GPL-3.0) and Free product.

  • Rating

    Average rating of 4.5

  • Alternatives

    28 alternatives listed

  • News

    4 news article related to Scribus

  • Badge

    Get an embeddable badge for Scribus

  • Supported Languages

    • English
    • Slovene
    • Portuguese
    • Dutch
    • Croatian
    • Hungarian
    • Chinese
    • Esperanto
    • Basque
    • Russian
    • Italian
    • Polish
    • Ukrainian
    • Arabic
    • Spanish
    • Galician
    • German
    • French
    • Danish
    • Norwegian
    • Norwegian Bokmål
    • Norwegian Nynorsk
    • Serbian
    • Breton
    • Catalan; Valencian
    • Slovak
    • Czech
    • Estonian
    • Lithuanian
    • Swedish
    • Indonesian
    • Japanese
    • Korean
    • Finnish
    • Sanskrit (Sa?sk?ta)
    • Greek
    • Turkish
    • Welsh
    • Malayalam
    • Persian
    • Georgian
    • Albanian
    • Kannada
    • Hebrew
    • Afrikaans
    • Occitan
    • Luxembourgish
    • Tamil
    • Malay
    • Bulgarian
    • Telugu
    • Hindi
    • Interlingua
    • Tatar
    • Somali
    • Bengali
    • Mongolian
    • Sinhala, Sinhalese
    • Belarusian
    • Romanian
    • Thai
    • Azerbaijani

Our users have written 14 comments and reviews about Scribus, and it has gotten 435 likes

Scribus was added to AlternativeTo by corfy on and this page was last updated .