Straight Lines and Arrows
From Scribus Documentation Project
Straight Lines are simple Scribus objects with a starting point and an end point. You can create Straight Lines by using Insert > Line in the Menu Bar, by clicking the button button "Insert Line" in the Toolbar or by pressing "L":
Click the icon, then click-drag to draw the line; let up to finish the Line. If you hold down Ctrl while drawing, your line will rotate in steps of 15 degrees: 0, 15, 30, 45, and so on.
It's also worth pointing out that these Lines can only be simple ones – two points connected by a line. For a series of points connected by lines, you will need to use Bezier Curves.
In the Lines tab of Properties Palette you can control the properties of Lines and convert them to Arrows:
- Basepoint: The Basepoint can be set to Left Point or to End Points. In the first case, you can edit the Line's properties like width in relation to the left point; in the second case you can adjust the X and the Y values of both end points separately. You'll find these properties in the X, Y, Z tab of the Properties Palette, not in the Line tab. Note that the setting of the Basepoint is always valid for all lines in the current document.
- Type of Line: Different kinds of lines like solid, dotted and some more:
- Start Arrow and End Arrow: Both sides of a line can be decorated with various kinds of shapes: arrows, squares and triangles on both end are possible. Each shape is available in three sizes: Large (L), Medium (M) and Small (S). They always have the same color as the line itself. The image shows three lines with an arrow as starting point and a square as endpoint. From top to bottom in size Large, Medium and Small:
- Endings: The shape of the endings of a line. Flat, square and round cap are possible. With a flat cap, the line ends abrupt at its end point, while square and round cap are adding a "cap" to the end of the line, having a rectangular or round shape. The image below illustrates the three types of endings: all three lines are exactly of the same type, except for the endings. The first one has a flat cap, the second one a square and the third one a round cap:
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Line Styles
In the lower part of the lines tab on the properties dialog is a listbox for applying a Line Style to a Line. You can create and edit these Line Styles via Edit > Line Styles:
- Import imports existing Line Styles from other documents.
- New, Edit and Duplicate all open a dialog like the one on the right side of the screenshot above. Here you can change the properties of the selected Line Style as described above.
- Delete removes the selected Style.
- Save saves all Line Styles to the document.
- OK accepts the current settings and closes the dialog.
- Cancel closes the dialog without saving the changes.
Customizing the Relationship between Line Thickness and Arrow Size
It's entirely possible that this size ratio doesn't suit you, so here is how to modify this behavior. First, adjust your Line thickness so that the arrowhead size is correct. Now, create a Line Style, Edit > Line Styles.
Shapes as Arrows
There is another fast way to create arrows in Scribus: the Shape menu contains some predefined arrows. These can be edited in the same way as other Shapes. See Working With Shapes and Polygons
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PROOFREAD VERSION
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Straight Lines and Arrows
Straight Lines are simple Scribus objects with a starting point and an end point. You can create straight lines by using Insert > Line in the menu bar, by clicking the button “Insert Line” in the Toolbar or by pressing “L”:
Click the icon, then click-drag to draw the line; let up to finish the Line. If you hold down Ctrl while drawing, your line will rotate in steps of 15 degrees: 0, 15, 30, 45, and so on.
It's also worth pointing out that these lines can only be simple ones – two points connected by a line. For a series of points connected by lines, you will need to use bezier curves.
In the Lines tab of Properties Palette you can control the properties of lines and convert them to arrows:
- Basepoint: The basepoint can be set to left point or to end points. In the first case, you can edit the line's properties like width in relation to the left point; in the second case you can adjust the X and the Y values of both end points separately. You'll find these properties in the X, Y, Z tab of the Properties Palette, not in the Line tab. Note that the setting of the basepoint is always valid for all lines in the current document.
- Type of Line: Different kinds of lines like solid, dotted and some more:
- Start Arrow and End Arrow: Both sides of a line can be decorated with various kinds of shapes: arrows, squares and triangles on both end are possible. Each shape is available in three sizes: large (L), medium (M) and small (S). They always have the same color as the line itself. The image shows three lines with an arrow as starting point and a square as endpoint. From top to bottom in size large, medium and small:
- Endings: The shape of the endings of a line. Flat, square and round cap are possible. With a flat cap, the line ends abrupt at its end point, while square and round cap are adding a "cap" to the end of the line, having a rectangular or round shape. The image below illustrates the three types of endings: all three lines are exactly of the same type, except for the endings. The first one has a flat cap, the second one a square and the third one a round cap:
Line Styles
In the lower part of the Lines tab of the Properties Palette is a listbox for applying a line style to a line. You can create and edit these line styles via Edit > Line Styles:
- Import imports existing line styles from other documents.
- New, Edit and Duplicate all open a dialog like the one on the right side of the screenshot above. Here you can change the properties of the selected line style as described above.
- Delete removes the selected style.
- Save saves all line styles to the document.
- OK accepts the current settings and closes the dialog.
- Cancel closes the dialog without saving the changes.
Customizing the Relationship between Line Thickness and Arrow Size
If you use the automatic adjustments in the Line tab of the Properties Palette, you will see that after you assign an arrow style, adjustments in line thickness cause an automatic change in arrowhead size, illustrated here
It's entirely possible that this size ratio doesn't suit you, so here is how to modify this behavior. First, adjust your line thickness so that the arrowhead size is correct. Now, create a line style, via Edit > Line Styles.
Keeping it simple for this example, here are the settings for a 6 pt solid black line style, which we then save and assign to our line -- you will see our new line style Sixpointsolid appearing as a choice at the bottom of the line tab in the Properties Palette.
And here is the final result, with our new line style applied to all but the smallest arrow:
Note that if you change color and/or ppacity of the line style, this will be applied to the arrowhead in the Scribus display. However, when you export to PDF, the arrowhead will have the color as defined in Properties > Colors > Line Color.
Shapes as Arrows
There is another fast way to create arrows in Scribus: the Shape menu contains some predefined arrows. These can be edited in the same way as other shapes. See Working With Shapes and Polygons.








