DESIGN & PRINT YOUR OWN FREE BOOKLET

Easiest Software to Use

Scribus; Any Windows version (XP to 10) 40 minutes

publishing programs tend to be very expensive. The most popular one, Adobe Indesign, costs £30 a month as part of Adobe Creative Suite. Scribus is a brilliant open-source desktop-publishing program that has many of the tools you’ll find in paid-for software. We’ll show you how to use this free tool to create a simple booklet page with images and text. You can then use what you’ve learned to design other pages and print your finished booklet, or export it as a PDF.

STEP 1

To download Scribus, go to www.snipca.com/28231 and click the Download button 1 . Open the downloaded file, click Yes, OK (to set English as your chosen language), click Next, select ‘I accept the terms…’ 2 , then keep clicking Next 3 until you’re given the option to click Install. Installation can take a few minutes. When it has finished, tick Run Scribus, then click Finish to open the program. Opening Scribus for the first time takes a while because it downloads all the resources it needs.

STEP 2

Your first task is to choose the layout for your booklet. Click the New Document icon 1 , select Double Sided 2 , set the size to A4 3 and the orientation to Landscape 4 , then click OK. Your page will appear across the entire screen. Use the percentage arrows or zoom icons 5 to zoom into the page until it’s a comfortable size to work on. First we’ll show you how to add one of your images to this page. Click the Insert tab 6 , then click Insert Image Frame (or press I).

STEP 3

Click and drag on the page to create a frame for your image 1 . Right-click inside the frame, move your cursor to Preview Settings 2 , then click Full Resolution 3 . Next, click Get Image 4 . Navigate to the folder that contains the image you want to add, select the image, then click OK. When you first import your image, it probably won’t fit the frame. To rectify this, right-click anywhere on the image, then click ‘Adjust Image to Frame’ 5 . Now you can click and drag the image to reposition it, and click and drag the borders to resize it. Press Ctrl+z to undo any changes you’ve made.

STEP 4

If you want to add effects to your image, right-click it, then click Image Effects. You’ll see a pop-up menu offering 12 different effects 1 . Select the one you want, then click the right arrow button 2 to apply it. Use the dropdown menus or sliders 3 to adjust the effect. Repeat the process to add and customise any other effects you want. When you’re happy with the way your image looks in the preview window 4 , click OK 5 to apply the effects. Repeat Steps 3 and 4 to add more images and effects.

STEP 5

Now we’ll show you how to add text to your page. The process is similar to adding an image. Click the Insert tab again, then click Insert Text Frame (or press T). Click and drag to create a text box on the page 1 . Doubleclick inside this, then start typing (or copy and paste) your text 2 . To format the text, right-click anywhere inside the box, then click Edit Text (or press Ctrl+t) 3 . You’ll see a new textediting window.

STEP 6

Highlight the text 1 you want to format. At the top 2 , you’ll see options to change the font, size and colour, align your text and make it bold, italic or underlined. Unfortunately, you can’t see a preview of your text changes before you apply them. When you’ve finished formatting your text, close the window 3 , then click Yes to see the text changes on your page 4 . Press Ctrl+t to open the text-editing window again and make further tweaks if you need to. Repeat Steps 5 and 6 to add more text to your page and format it.

STEP 7

Next, we’ll show you how to create a page border and add a line dividing the page in half - which will be useful when you come to fold your pages into a booklet. The best way to add a border is to draw a shape. Click the Insert tab, move your cursor to Insert Shape (or press S) 1 , select Default Shapes 2 , then click the square 3 . Now click and drag your cursor to create a page border. To add a line dividing the page in half, click the Insert tab again, click Insert Line (or press L) 4 , then click and drag your cursor to create a line down the centre of your page (use the page ruler 5 for more precise measurements).

STEP 8

It’s a good idea to save your booklet page as a template that you can refer to or edit later. Click the File tab 1 , then ‘Save as Template’ 2 . Name the template, then click OK. To access this template in future, click the File tab, ‘New from Template’ 3 , Own Templates on the left, select your template’s name, then click OK. Now we’ll show you how to duplicate the page, which is a good way to create more pages, because you can simply replace the text and images while maintaining the same layout. Click the Page tab 4 , then click Copy. Type 1 in the first two fields, change the dropdown menu to At End, then click OK.

STEP 9

Scroll down to the duplicate page you have made and start working on it. Repeat this process to create other duplicate pages, then edit them using the above steps until you’ve finished your booklet and are ready to print it. Export your booklet as a PDF if you want to email it to others. To do this, click the File tab, move your cursor to Export, then click ‘Save as PDF’. Click the Change button 1 , then choose where you want to save your PDF booklet 2 . Give the file a name 3 , click OK 4 , then click Save 5 .

STEP 10

To print your booklet, click the File tab, then Print Preview at the bottom. Click the Scaling dropdown menu and select ‘Fit to Page’ 1 . Here you can see how your booklet page will look when printed 2 . Click the arrows 3 to see other pages. When you’re happy with how everything looks, click the Print button 4 . Select your printer in the window that opens, then choose how many copies you want, whether to print one or two-sided, and in colour or monotone. Click Print when you’ve finalised your settings. The program’s Help tab 5 contains links to useful tutorials and guides. ●