Colors and Gradients
From Scribus Documentation Project
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Line & Fill Colors
The colors of Scribus objects are controlled via the Colors tab in the Properties Palette. For frames and shapes, Scribus distinguishes between the line color and the fill color. The fill color is used to fill the area which is surrounded by the object's borders. The line color is the color of the frame's border or the outline of the shape. If the border's width is set to “0” in the Line tab of the Properties Palette, changing the line's color will have no effect. Also, a line with the color “None” will be invisible, regardless of its width.
A straight line and freehand lines can only have a line and not a fill color. However, as you can see in the chapter Bezier Curves and Freehand Lines,ENDNOTE Bezier curves can have a fill color. The two buttons in the middle of the tab (“Edit Line Color Properties” and “Edit Fill Color Properties”) (1) can be used to switch between line color and fill color.
The select box (2) under the two buttons controls the kind of color which is used on the object. If it is set to “Normal”, the selected color is simply applied. The other selections are defining various kinds of gradients.
Here is something important to know as you make lines thicker, not just those of shapes, but also those of frames: All of these squares have the same dimensions as defined in the X, Y, Z tab of the Properties Palette, and the thin magenta-colored line also has this value. As you increase line thickness, you'll see that it spreads both outwards and toward the center of the square, so in effect the visual boundary of the square becomes larger, and simultaneously the content of a frame is encroached upon.
Shade & Opacity
With the spin boxes, shade and opacity can be set from 0 to 100% (3).
Shade
The shade in Scribus is similar to saturation. A fully saturated color is at 100%, and whatever hue the color has will be the most intense. At 0% the shade will be a neutral gray color. The example shows a black rectangle at decreasing levels of shade from left to right:
Opacity
The opacity, like its opposite term transparency, defines how much of the background behind the actual object can be seen. If set to 100%, nothing of the background shines through the object. In contrast, an opacity of 0% results in a transparent object. The example shows a gray rectangle in the background and in the foreground a black one at different levels of opacity:
Applying Colors
A simple click in the list of colors (4) selects this color and applies it to the object's line or area, depending on what is selected. If you want to add more colors or edit existing ones, this can be done in Edit > Colors.
Editing Colors
Scribus organizes colors per document. A list of colors is always associated with a document. This permits the creation of individual color sets for every single document.
Scribus is shipped with a number of predefined color lists. If these are not sufficient, you can edit existing colors and add new ones. Go to Edit > Colors:
- Import: With this function you can import colors from other documents into the existing one.
- New and Edit: Change existing colors or create new ones:
- Name of the color.
- The color model, RGB, CMYK or web safe RGB.
- Spot and/or Registration Color. For handling Spot Colors, see the section Spot Colours. It's highly recommended to use only one registration color with the values for C, M, Y and K all set to 100!
- Preview of the edited color, compared to the old one.
- Different choices of predefined color lists or a generic color chooser.
- Duplicate: Duplicates the marked color.
- Remove unused: Deletes all colors from the list that are not used in the current document.
Managing Color Sets
If you open the dialog Edit > Colors when no document is open, you'll get some more options to change the existing color lists:
Select an existing color set via “Current Color Set”. Change or edit colors as described above – a click on “Save Color Set” saves the edited color set. A click on “Save Color Set” asks for a new name. This way, you can create new color sets.
Gradients
Scribus objects can be filled with gradients. A gradient is a smooth transition from one color to another. Between these start and end colors, there can be one or more color stops. Gradients can be only applied to fill colors, not to line colors.
The drop down list in the middle of the Color tab of the Properties Palette offers several kinds of gradients. If a gradient is selected, the gradient editor appears under the drop down list. In our example we see a horizontal gradient with “Red” as the start color and “Black” as the end color:
Selecting the arrows at the start or end of the gradient, and clicking in the list of colors applies a new color to the gradient. The arrows can be moved with the mouse away from the start or end point. As a result, the selected color moves within the gradient. The select box “Position” under the gradient allows for exact control of the position of a color (the red arrow indicates the current gradient stop). If the mouse pointer is moved between the two arrows, it turns into a new symbol with a “+” sign. A left click now adds another color stop:
The new stop can be assigned a third color, and so on. Dragging an arrow outside the gradient's area deletes the gradient stop.
The example below shows a gradient with three colors, from “Red”, over “Green” to “Blue”:
There are two special kinds of gradients, namely “Free Radial Gradient” and “Free Linear Gradient”. These permit editing the gradient directly on canvas:
The spin boxes “Shade” and “Opacity” also work in gradients as described above. When a color's opacity is set to 0%, it is completely transparent. Here, a gradient from “Black” to “White” is applied. The end color's opacity is set to 0% and the text frame below can be seen:
Examples of Gradients
Here are some examples of gradients. From left to right: A horizontal gradient, a vertical one, two diagonal ones and one radial gradient.













