Scribus linked on Astoundingly scriptable apps

Scribus is a very nice open source page layout application and includes full PDF creation. It is also scriptable using Python if you need to automate page layout tasks. Scribus is very useful for making documents that need to be shared with other editors, since anyone can get the Scribus application unrestricted.

Scribus is not the easiest page layout software in the world, but it does allow for very easy scripting, using Python. For example, {% cross page save-all-scribus-pages-as "a script to save all Scribus pages as EPS files”. The same logic could be used to save them as PDF files, or to save each layer as a PDF file.

I use the latter to print pre-generated characters for the North Texas RPG Convention; each character is in a layer, and the script traverses through each layer, hiding the previous ones and saving the current one as a PDF. Whenever I make a change, I don’t have to reprint nine characters; I run the script and it reprints them.

I used Scribus to create the wraparound cover for 42 Astoundingly Useful Scripts and Automations for the Macintosh. It is both free and useful.