Rotating Items
From Scribus Documentation Project
The “Rotate” Tool
There are two ways to rotate items in Scribus. You can do it manually by clicking on the “Rotate Item” button in the toolbar or by pressing R on the keyboard. The cursor will then turn into two round arrows. Now you can rotate a selected item with the mouse. The way the item is rotated depends on where you place the mouse pointer. If you place it on a corner of an item, the pivotal point will be the opposite corner, if you place it somewhere else, the centre of the item is the pivotal point.
By pressing the Ctrl key you can restrain the rotation to steps of 15 degrees.
The Properties Palette
The most precise way to rotate is using the Properties Palette. In the X, Y, Z tab you can enter values for rotation. Moreover, you can also change the way an item is rotated by using a different basepoint. Below you see a rectangle rotated six degrees by using different basepoints. From left right: no rotation, basepoint top left, basepoint bottom left, basepoint center, basepoint top right, basepoint bottom right. Note that the distance between the rectangles was originally the same.

