Tutorial 1:
In this opening exercise I will show you how to create a simple A4 brochure ready for Offset Printing. Even though this is a simple exercise I will introduce you to the best habits and procedure that will set you on the right track for much more complicated work in the Tutorials that follow. It is most important not to skip any Tutorials because they are all related to a bigger picture. This Tutorial will also require performing
Tutorial 5 on
TheGimpTutorials.net and Inkscape also
Tutorial 5 at
Inkscapetutorials.net
Step 1:
Open Scribus and you will be presented with a New Document dialog as on the right. In that dialog on the top right you will see Options. Notice that I have chosen Millimeters as my default unit. I have also chosen a margin of 5mm. Remember we are preparing this artwork for an Offset Printer and not our local Inkjet or Laser printer.
Click the OK button to create the page.
Step 2:
I was presented with a new document that looks like the image on the Left.
If you click on the View option on your main menu you can see which options I have ticked. Your page may look different to my page because you may have different options ticked , or not ticked.
Please choose the same options I have chosen. At the top of the dialog you will see Zoom options. If you choose 75% you will be able to see the whole page on your screen.
Step 3:
Next we will save the file.
It is very important that you understand the following:
Programs like Scribus and Inkscape link Photographic images when they save the file in their native format. They do not embed the Image in the final file unless you export the final file as an EPS or a PDF file. It is a really important to get into the habit of creating a separate folder for each job and placing all the important files that are used in that job inside this folder.
I have a folder on my hard drive called 'Jobs' inside that folder I have a folder for each customer and then another folder for each individual Job for that customer. I can not stress enough just how important this is.
I have saved the file in My Documents / Jobs / CustomRods / A4Brochure.
The file is called Custom Rods.sla
This same folder should have all of the other files such as Photographic Images or Graphics.
Step 4:
We will NOW place the Image created when you performed
Tutorial 5 on TheGimpTutorials.net
Step 5:
From the main menu choose Insert / Image Frame
Step 6:
Hold down your left mouse button and drag an area on your page as I have done on the right. The little red squares on the border allow you to manually resize the Frame by holding down your left mouse button and dragging whilst over the square.
Step 7:
Click the Right mouse button whilst the cursor is over the Image Frame.
From the Pop up Dialog choose Get Image.
Step 8:
The Open Dialog will appear. This is where we choose the Image prepared in The GIMP. In the preview area on the right of the Dialog we can see the image information. It tells us the Image size, its resolution and its Color space.
Note that this image has the 'magic' ingredients for Offset printing. Firstly it is a .tiff file which means no quality loss, secondly it is 300dpi and lastly it fits neatly in the area set aside for it. You must get into the Habit of correctly preparing Images.
Step 9:
The Image will fit on the screen as on the left. I made some slight adjustments and dragged the Image to center it using the Grid to line up. Refer the Image on the Right.
Step 10:
Next I am going to import an artwork created in Inkscape (
Tutorial 5). The artwork was Opened in The GIMP and prepared for Offset printing using the same process I used to create the Custom Rods Header (Also
Tutorial5).
Note that I exported the Image from Inkscape at 150dpi, to be reduced to half its size in The GIMP at 300dpi .
Note the setting used to re scale the Image in The GIMP. You can see how large the Image is at 300 dpi.
The Scale image dialog and Export Dialog are from The GIMP.
Step 11:
From the main menu choose Insert / Image Frame
Draw the frame below the header text as I have below.
Step 12:
Click the Right mouse button whilst the cursor is over the Image Frame.
From the Pop up Dialog choose Get Image. Choose the Hot Chev Image you just prepared in TheGIMP.
Your Image should now look like my page on the right.
Step 13:
Next we will create some text to add to our page. Choose Insert / Text Frame from the main menu.
Hold down your left mouse button and drag out an area to the right of the car as I have below.
Step 14:
Right click on the Text frame and choose the Edit Text option, this will bring up the Text Edit dialog as below. Carefully choose the same options as I have below and your text should appear as it does on the insert below.
Step 15:
Next we will place some body text on our page. From the main menu choose Insert / Text Frame
Drag out a rectangle whilst holding down the Left mouse button on the bottom half of your page as below.
Right click on the newly created Text Frame and choose Get Text from the pop down dialog.
The dialog immediately below will appear. I used Open Office Write to create my text file, but you can use any supported writing program such as Microsoft Word etc.
To save you time you can download the text file HERE. Don't forget to copy the file to your Custom Rods folder as you can see below.
Step 16:
Your page should now look like the image below.
Right Click on the Text Frame to bring up the pop down dialog. Choose Properties to bring up the Properties dialog.
Click on the Shape tab to bring up Shape Options as below
Change the Columns to 2 and choose a gap of 3mm. Your page should now look like the one below.
Step 17:
Click on the Text tab on the properties bar to bring up the Text dialog as below.
I chose Arial Regular as a type face and set its size to 13pt. Your page should now look like the page on the right.
This is as Far as I will go in this Tutorial. In Tutorial 2 we will finish off the Job and learn how to present the Project to an Offset Printer for Publication. Make sure that you save the file before closing Scribus.
