Yesterday I told you all about the free pro-quality PDF creation program Scribus. (Click here to read that article)
Today, I’ll walk you through downloading and installing the program. Make sure you read this whole article before installing.
First, click this link to head to the Downloads page: https://sourceforge.net/projects/scribus/
You can choose between the Stable version that has most of the bugs worked out and the Development Branch that has some new features but they are still working out some details. I’d suggest only using the Development Branch if you’re pretty tech-savvy and familiar with this type of software. I’m going to choose Stable.
Select the version for your operating system. You have options for Windows, Mac, Linux, and more. There’s even an option for a portable Windows version you can install on a USB drive and take with you to use on other computers. For my needs, I’ll use the Windows 64-bit option.
Then click on Download latest version.
You’ll need to grant permission to keep the file.
Go to Downloads and click on the Scribus exe file. You’ll need to grant permission to install.
When the installation wizard opens, choose your language.
Then click Next to start the process.
Accept the terms of the license agreement.
You can customize the installation by skipping the installation of a desktop shortcut or additional fonts if you like but I’d suggest just doing with the defaults.
Installation went pretty quickly on my PC.
Then select Finish. I chose the Show Readme option.
It suggested I install GhostScript for Windows first, which I hadn’t. Ghostscript enables you to import certain types of image files. Though Scribus noticed it was missing right away and put up an alert that told me to click on help and explained the process for installing.
I went to this link: https://www.ghostscript.com/download/gsdnld.html
and installed the standard opensource version of Ghostscript for my device. You should probably go ahead an do that before downloading Scribus.
The downloading and installation of Ghostscript is pretty much the same as Scribus. Launch it from the Downloads folder, give installation permissions and follow the instructions of the installation wizard.
Then launch Scribus and select New document.
Now you’re ready to give Scribus a try. I suggest checking out the very helpful Scribus Wiki at this link: https://wiki.scribus.net/canvas/Scribus
I think the manual is especially helpful: https://wiki.scribus.net/canvas/Help:TOC
Give it a try and let me know what you think.