I am doing another approach at photo books with Scribus. However, I do not get the idea of master pages. All tutorials I found, and even the Scribus wiki, show only how to edit and apply master pages, but not how to get content in. Let’s check e.g. the following tutorial:
They are doing master pages with image and text placeholders. I did this as well (only image placeholders, it’s a photo book), but when I apply the master pages, I can add additional images but cannot get content into the image frame of the master page. How is this intended to work?
I thought I will post this here first, since the answer is most useful for photo books, but if nobody can answer I will ask the Scribus guys and document the answer here.
Hm, now I found an old forum thread at insert editable text frames in master page that suggests that this is not what master pages are for. If this is still true, that means the tutorial and even that on the Scribus wiki are plain wrong. At least they give a false impression on what the feature is. They say at Working with Master Pages - Scribus Wiki
As soon as you consider using many objects (common headers, logos, background, page numbers etc.) on the same places throughout your document, you will be well advised to use master pages.
But headers are dynamically changing, so this is wrong I guess. Page numbers seem to work somehow.
Further, there is written
The objects belonging to master pages cannot be changed in the normal Edit Mode. There is a good reason for it, since it could easily happen while working with a document that something on a master page would be unintentionally moved or changed.
I thought there is a mode where I can change the contents, but not page position etc., which would make perfect sense for me. But unfortunately, it seems that it is not meant that way. Too bad. I’ll follow the suggestion to look at the “scrapbook” instead, unless there changed something to master pages in recent years …
Hm, from Photo Albums - Scribus Wiki I learn that the scrapbook can save page layouts, but there are 2 big drawbacks: the layouts are not bound to the document (not that big of a problem but not what I was looking for), and, the position on the page is not saved. This is a big drawback, since I do not want to place images exactly centered on the page, but slightly above the center line such that they appear optically centered (there is no English wikipedia entry for the phenomenon, so I link to the German one: Optische Mitte – Wikipedia). Does that mean I have to generate a transparent background for that? Or is there a better way of dealing with the issue? Any thoughts?
A master page is a template, basically. You shouldn’t be able to put content in it (variables & placeholders, perhaps). A master page will define things like orientation, bleed, margins, etc etc.
You should apply a master page to a set of pages in your book. You can have different (named) master pages.
Yes, the scrapbook feature is the way to go here! You can define several layers per page or per spread, then apply them to a page. This is where you’d put your images places holders, in the scrapbook. Then apply the scrap book page to your layout pages.
Scrapbook layouts are mutable, master pages should not be.
Thanks, @paperdigits! But how to deal best with the alignment issue? Or can I put entire pages into the scrapbook such that element positions are exact relative to the page?
I haven’t touched Scribus before, besides installing it once to take a 2 minute look . I did a web search on “master page” and “scrapbook” and I got Future of Master Pages - Scribus Wiki. The page is kind of old but it looks like there has been discussion on them. I also found another link on master pages:
Just a note. The above is not how master pages are used in most (any) other dtp software. I’ve worked in Quark Express (long time ago but many hours) and loads of Indesign and there an image can be inserted into a frame from a master page. I was stumped by the same issue as @chris when i first used Scribus.
edit:
Just tested the scrapbook feature. It works but defeats the purpose of masters. As you have to paste the layout into every page. Masters are usually a means of fixing the layout throughout a section of a document. Particularly useful when non designers are to fill out content.
I suppose you can put images and text into a master page, but I wouldn’t recommend it, especially for a photo book. If you end up with a master page for each photo, you’re doing it wrong. He probably needs one master page (or at most 3ish, front cover, back cover, and body).
Yes! You are correct. My comment was more a general one about the scribus feature. Usually you would have one master page that defines the layout including the image frame for a simple project like a photobook. Scibus just does it differently!
No, it’s exactly the opposite. In Inkscape templates or PowerPoint master slides, the text boxes that I define can be filled on the actual page/document that uses them. This is not true for Scribus master pages. Everything I define there is fix on the page it is used, even empty image frames stay empty, with no chance to fill them.
The scrapbook is not an adequate replacement for what I thought that master pages are, but almost. E.g.,
And the placement on the page is a bit uncertain, especially, when you define full spread layouts, you seem to have to apply them to the odd page for correct initial placement.
That is exactly the difference to Scribus. I personally think the Adobe way is beneficial since empty text or image frames are of absolutely no use on Scribus master pages.
I am annoyed by that every time I use Scribus, too. My personal workaround is to have guides around the recurring image position and snapping the images to those. Having fillable image frames on master pages would be so nice.
It becomes less annoying when you realize that you can use the scrapbook for that purpose. When you do not drag&drop scrapbook elements onto the page but double-click them with the page you want them highlighted, all elements are positioned at their original position. Then you can drag images onto the frames. Unfortunately, you then have to resize them within the frame to better fill the frame, which I am using a script for. If you want to have templates for double pages/spreads, you have to highlight the right page to have the elements in the right position.
It works pretty well. I read through the tutorial here: https://wiki.scribus.net/canvas/Photo_Albums several times, always thinking that it is cumbersome to have to align the scrapbook layouts on the page, but with double klicking it works pretty well.
@houz: There are still some little issues I have: The first I already mentioned, the images are inserted way too large, I assume they are scaled to match assumed printing dpi or display ppi. That makes no sense for me, a reasonable initial scaling would have the image filling the frame in one direction and centered in the other direction, such that the frame is filled.
The second issue is that you can position an image such that within the frame there is space around the picture. IMO the image borders and scaling should be lockable to the frame dimensions, such that there are no borders within the frame.
Positioning of images within the frame is as well not optimal by having to enter a measure or pressing up/down arrows.
. I did a web search on “master page” and “scrapbook” and I got 
. Not sure if it helps but here is Adobe’s definition of Indesign’s master pages:
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. In many ways crafting photo and scrap books by hand is the best 
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