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Scribus

Free, open-source page layout and desktop publishing program with CMYK, spot colors and PDF output.

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Our verdict

Good for people who want a free, open-source layout program for print-ready PDFs, on Linux in particular. Skip it if you need to work inside the Adobe ecosystem.

What it does well

  • Free software under GPL v2 or later
  • Supports CMYK and spot colors and creates PDF and PostScript output
  • Complex text layout: right-to-left, bi-directional and Indic scripts

Where it falls short

  • Desktop program only; no web or mobile version listed
  • The 1.7.x versions are development builds, not the stable release

Scribus describes itself as an open-source page layout program that produces commercial-grade output in PDF and PostScript. It supports CMYK and spot colors, PDF creation, EPS import and export, and color separations.

It runs on Linux and other Unix systems, macOS and Windows. The source code is released under the GNU General Public License, version 2 or (at your option) any later version.

Scribus is free software and the sources checked do not list any price or paid plan. The official project keeps its code in Subversion at svn://scribus.net; the GitHub repository scribusproject/scribus is a community mirror.

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Last updated 16 October 2026. Facts checked against the official site on 16 October 2026. How we make money