Scribus, the popular free open-source desktop publishing software, released new 1.6.4 version yesterday.
This is a maintenance release for current 1.6 stable release series. It features only some bug-fixes and few minor new features.
According to the official release note, Scribus 1.6.4 improved Python scripting support for advanced users, by adding new functions, and a fix to locked layer detection.
It now has the functions for page sizing, bounding boxes for page items, min/max word kerning. Sadly, I didn’t find any document about the new functions. If you know, please let me know by leaving comment below.
Besides the scripting changes, the release now avoids custom font encoding when embedding TTF fonts in PDFs. It also updated translation, and fixed the following issues:
- PDF import and export, and checkbox rendering issue on MS Edge.
- PDF/X-4 export issue when attempting to use ICC profile unsuitable for output.
- Incorrectly import images as black when importing PDF.
- Building issue with newer versions of poppler.
Nothing else.
How to Install Scribus 1.6.4
The official Scribus packages for Linux, Windows, macOS, as well as the source tarball are available to download at sourceforge.net via the link below:
For Linux, it’s an AppImage that works in most Linux systems. Just grab it, add executable permission (under file Properties dialog), finally run to launch the application.
For those who prefer the native .deb package, I’ve built the new release page into this unofficial PPA for Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 24.04, Ubuntu 24.10, and Ubuntu 25.04 on amd64 and arm64/armhf platforms.
To add the PPA and install Scribus from it, press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal, and run 3 commands below one by one:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/scribus sudo apt update sudo apt install scribus
Uninstall:
For any issue, you may run the command below in terminal to remove the desktop publishing app package:
sudo apt remove scribus scribus-data
Also remove the PPA, either by running the command below in terminal window:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/scribus
or by removing source line using “Software & Updates” utility under “Other Software” tab.
