March 17, 2006
The Different Kinds of Desktop Publishing Software
Professional Page Layout Software
Adobe InDesign
QuarkXPress
Adobe PageMaker
These programs are great for producing publications such as ads, fliers, brochures, newsletters, posters, business cards, and ebooks.
Pros: You have a much greater design flexibility with these programs than you would with a standard word processor or a cheap desktop publishing program.
Cons: The cost of these programs are prohibitive to the average consumer. Quark costs $750 (manufacturer’s price) for version 6.0. Then you have to buy the extensions if you want to design your book with it as well as instruction manuals because it doesn’t come with any.
InDesign costs $700. Like it’s competitor, you’ll have to buy instruction manuals separately. The only good thing I can say about that is the upgrade costs under $200.
PageMaker is the cheapest, but Adobe has decided to stop developing it. You can still get it on Amazon (used) for approximately $230. You may be able to buy it on Ebay for an even better price.
Another issue a steep learning curve with these programs. With a good manual, you can gain a good working knowledge within a few weeks, if you can devote all of your time to sitting in front of the computer and working through the tutorials. Most of us don’t, so stretch that out to a few months or longer.
Long Document Composition Software
Adobe FrameMaker
Corel Ventura
Pros: These programs were specifically designed to create long, complex, and highly structured publications. You can use them to create books, textbooks, encyclopedias, etc. They are the steroid version of the professional page layout programs.
Cons:: Again, the price is prohibited. FrameMaker runs around $800 while Corel Ventura runs for $640 on Amazon. And, like the programs above, the learning curve is steep.
Page Layout on a Budget
Microsoft Publisher
Serif PagePlus
greenstreet Publisher 3 and 4
Diwan Ready, Set, Go!
Pros: The price is much more accessible for the average consumer (under $200). MS Publisher and PagePlus can produce professional quality publications.
Cons: You get what you pay for. While these programs are great for small businesses, I can’t see them producing a professional quality book. Read the reviews here.
Deborah,
Are you going to be offering your services as a book cover designer at any time in the future?
Being a dud designer, I’ve stuck with PagePlus for years. But it now has some high-end features, like PDF in various types of Postscript up to professional printer’s standard. I tried Quark once but found it far too feature-rich for my restricted talents.
Hi, John,
Yes, I’d like to start offering my services this summer.
Great, please let me know when.
I’m using PagePlus at the moment. It’s good and I should be able to do what I want for my collection of writing, problem is, how do I convert it to PDF?
Deb, if you could reply via email, I’d be most grateful.