Creating Text Frames for Image Captions

This article is part of the Scripts series.

Here are a series of scripts which accomplish the simple task of creating a caption frame for images. You can either do frames one-by-one, or select a number of frames as long as you want the captions in the same position relative to the image.

I tend to prefer simple scripts, with little or no input needed, which is why I made individual scripts for each position, but at the bottom, I'll show how to create one script which needs input to state which position to place the caption. The sizes and positions of frames can be changed according to your needs, and like any frame, can be edited afterward.

bcaption.py

#!/usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8  -*-
"""

© 2017 Gregory Pittman

bcaption.py

Creates a text frame (caption) below one or more selected frames.

"""
try:
    import scribus
except ImportError:
    print "Unable to import the 'scribus' module. This script will only run within"
    print "the Python interpreter embedded in Scribus. Try Script->Execute Script."
    sys.exit(1)

numselect = scribus.selectionCount()
count = 0
frames = []

if numselect == 0:
    scribus.messageBox('Selection Count', "You must have at least one image frame selected",
                       scribus.ICON_WARNING, scribus.BUTTON_OK)
    sys.exit(2)
pageunits = scribus.getUnit()
scribus.setUnit(scribus.UNIT_POINTS)

while count < numselect:
    frames.append(scribus.getSelectedObject(count))
    count += 1
    
for frame in frames:
    fwidth, fheight = scribus.getSize(frame)
    fx, fy = scribus.getPosition(frame)
    textf = scribus.createText(fx, fy+fheight, fwidth, 24)
    
scribus.setUnit(pageunits)

scribus.setRedraw(True)

tcaption.py

#!/usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8  -*-

"""

© 2017 Gregory Pittman

tcaption.py

Creates a text frame (caption) above one or more selected frames.

"""

try:
    import scribus
except ImportError:
    print "Unable to import the 'scribus' module. This script will only run within"
    print "the Python interpreter embedded in Scribus. Try Script->Execute Script."
    sys.exit(1)

numselect = scribus.selectionCount()
count = 0
frames = []

if numselect == 0:
    scribus.messageBox('Selection Count', "You must have at least one image frame selected",
                       scribus.ICON_WARNING, scribus.BUTTON_OK)
    sys.exit(2)
pageunits = scribus.getUnit()
scribus.setUnit(scribus.UNIT_POINTS)
                
while count < numselect:
    frames.append(scribus.getSelectedObject(count))
    count += 1
    
for frame in frames:
    fwidth, fheight = scribus.getSize(frame)
    fx, fy = scribus.getPosition(frame)
    textf = scribus.createText(fx, fy-24, fwidth, 24) # frame height set at 24 points
    
scribus.setUnit(pageunits)

scribus.setRedraw(True)

rcaption.py

#!/usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8  -*-

"""

© 2017 Gregory Pittman

rcaption.py

Creates a text frame (caption) to the right of one or more selected frames.

"""

try:
    import scribus
except ImportError:
    print "Unable to import the 'scribus' module. This script will only run within"
    print "the Python interpreter embedded in Scribus. Try Script->Execute Script."
    sys.exit(1)

numselect = scribus.selectionCount()
count = 0
frames = []

if numselect == 0:
    scribus.messageBox('Selection Count', "You must have at least one image frame selected",
                       scribus.ICON_WARNING, scribus.BUTTON_OK)
    sys.exit(2)
pageunits = scribus.getUnit()
scribus.setUnit(scribus.UNIT_POINTS)

while count < numselect:
    frames.append(scribus.getSelectedObject(count))
    count += 1
    
for frame in frames:
    fwidth, fheight = scribus.getSize(frame)
    fx, fy = scribus.getPosition(frame)
    textf = scribus.createText(fx + fwidth, fy, 150, 40)
    
scribus.setRedraw(True)

lcaption.py

#!/usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8  -*-

"""

© 2017 Gregory Pittman

lcaption.py

Creates a text frame (caption) to the left of one or more selected frames.

"""

try:
    import scribus
except ImportError:
    print "Unable to import the 'scribus' module. This script will only run within"
    print "the Python interpreter embedded in Scribus. Try Script->Execute Script."
    sys.exit(1)

numselect = scribus.selectionCount()
count = 0
frames = []

if numselect == 0:
    scribus.messageBox('Selection Count', "You must have at least one image frame selected",
                       scribus.ICON_WARNING, scribus.BUTTON_OK)
    sys.exit(2)
pageunits = scribus.getUnit()
scribus.setUnit(scribus.UNIT_POINTS)


while count < numselect:
    frames.append(scribus.getSelectedObject(count))
    count += 1
    
for frame in frames:
    fwidth, fheight = scribus.getSize(frame)
    fx, fy = scribus.getPosition(frame)
    textf = scribus.createText(fx-150, fy + fheight - 40, 150, 40)
    
scribus.setUnit(pageunits)

scribus.setRedraw(True)

caption.py

Here is one more script which incorporates all the above options, by allowing you to choose position in a dialog. If you press something other than b/t/r/l it shouldn't do anything.

#!/usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8  -*-

"""

© 2017 Gregory Pittman

caption.py

Creates a text frame (caption) in selected location relative to 
one or more selected frames.

"""

try:
    import scribus
except ImportError:
    print "Unable to import the 'scribus' module. This script will only run within"
    print "the Python interpreter embedded in Scribus. Try Script->Execute Script."
    sys.exit(1)

numselect = scribus.selectionCount()
count = 0
frames = []

if numselect == 0:
    scribus.messageBox('Selection Count', "You must have at least one image frame selected",
                       scribus.ICON_WARNING, scribus.BUTTON_OK)
    sys.exit(2)

captionloc = scribus.valueDialog("Caption Location","Where to put the caption(s) -\n B/T/R/L?", "b")
captionloc = captionloc[0]
location = captionloc.upper()

pageunits = scribus.getUnit()
scribus.setUnit(scribus.UNIT_POINTS)

while count < numselect:
    frames.append(scribus.getSelectedObject(count))
    count += 1
    
for frame in frames:
    fwidth, fheight = scribus.getSize(frame)
    fx, fy = scribus.getPosition(frame)
    if location == "B":
        textf = scribus.createText(fx, fy+fheight, fwidth, 24)
    elif location == "T":
        textf = scribus.createText(fx, fy-24, fwidth, 24) # frame height set at 24 points
    elif location == "R":
        textf = scribus.createText(fx + fwidth, fy, 150, 40)
    elif location == "L":
        textf = scribus.createText(fx-150, fy + fheight - 40, 150, 40)
scribus.setUnit(pageunits)

scribus.setRedraw(True)