How to Install Scribus on Ubuntu 20.04 – An Open Source Desktop Publishing Application

Scribus is open-source and free Desktop Publishing (DTP) application available for most desktop operating systems. It is designed for layout, typesetting, and preparation of files for professional-quality image-setting equipment. Scribus supports most major bitmap formats, including TIFF, JPEG, and PSD. Vector drawings can be imported or directly opened for editing.

Scribus is an great alternative to Adobe InDesign.

Its an cross-platform application available for Linux, FreeBSD, PC-BSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, OpenIndiana, Debian GNU/Hurd, Mac OS X, OS/2 Warp 4, eComStation, Haiku and Windows. Scribus is available in 60 languages.

Scribus can create animated and interactive PDF presentations and forms. Example uses include writing newspapers, brochures, newsletters, posters, and books. Whether you choose one of their given templates for your project, or just want to start from a scratch using their easy access tools to design your project, it will come perfectly in line with what you have visualized.

With a modern look and user friendly interface (UI), Scribus carries out a row professional publishing features like color separations, ICC color management, CMYK and Spot Color support and versatile options for creating PDF files. Scribus isn’t exactly a PDF editor but it offers the necessary features such as highlight the text, add content, move the text and many more.

Key Features of Scribus

• Free and Open-Source
• Available in 60 languages
• Cross-Platform application
• Excellent color management options
• Works well with CMYK and spot colours that includes ICC profiles
• Can create singlular or multi-page documents that contains texts, images of vector graphics, and also imported images from mainstream applications.
• Ideal application for print documents and interactive PDFs
• Supports major bitmap formats including TIFF, PSD, JPEG etc..
• Can create as well as edit frames, keep them visible or hidden, and scale them, rotate them and also add your customized corners.
• Supports import and export of various file types

Installing Scribus via PPA Repository

If you want to install the most recent version of Scribus, you can use the PPA repository.

Personal Package Archives (PPA) are software repositories designed for Ubuntu users and are easier to install than other third-party repositories. PPAs are often used to distribute pre-release software so that it can be tested.

Step #1

First of all open the terminal from system application launcher and type the following command to add the Scribus PPA to your system.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:scribus/ppa

Step #2

Then, execute the following commands to install Scribus package on your Ubuntu system.

$ sudo apt update && sudo apt install scribus

At this step, you have successfully installed Scribus on Ubuntu 20.04 system. Now you can launch the application from your system application menu.

Starting Scribus

In the Activities search bar type “Scribus” and click on the icon to launch the application.

Scribus User Interface:

How to Uninstall Scribus from Ubuntu 20.04

For some reason, If you want to uninstall Scribus application, refer following steps.

Step #1

It’s most likely that you added the PPA using add-apt-repository command. You can use the same command to remove the PPA as well. Just give it --remove option in the command.

$ sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:scribus/ppa

Step #2

As of now we removed the PPA. What about the applications installed using these PPAs? Will they be removed as a result of removing the PPA? The answer is NO.

So this is when ppa-purge comes in picture. It not only disables the PPA but also uninstalls all the programs installed by the PPA or revert them to original version provided by your distribution.

So type the following command to install the ppa-purge package and uninstall the Scribus package.

$ sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:scribus/ppa

Conclusion

I hope that now you have a good understanding of How to Install Scribus on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa.

If anyone does have any questions about what we covered in this guide then feel free to ask in the comment section below and I will do my best to answer those.