Desktop publishing was an unknown industry 30 years back. Whenever companies needed a design, they would hire artists who would composite a rough sketch and get the owner’s approval, and then work on the final layout. Design was expensive, so the design stayed the same decades later. The proprietors of desktop publishing companies ruled the kingdom with glee, as they provided exclusive output to posters, logos, and AD agencies.
But with the advent of technology, anybody with a desktop and a creative sense could get into this industry. But demand and supply go hand in hand. Software companies decided to be stingy, and saved the best features for their paid versions, and included a trial version for those who needed to see it and not use it on a daily basis. We present to you a list of the best open source desktop publishing applications available today. With this, you can run a small business without digging deep into your pockets.
Scribus
Scribus is one of the best open-source software that is compatible with Mac and Windows. It follows the principle of WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get). Armed with a word layout software and CMYK palettes, it gives users the chance to explore their creativity without compromising on quality. It comes with predefined templates for brochures, greeting cards, posters, and business cards. A better alternative to Microsoft Publisher, it even supports the creation of PDF and many other popular formats like PSD and AI, both from Adobe. It has a drop-down menu and a floating properties bar, which is easier to input and saves on time. That being said, it can’t support the formats of InDesign and QuarkXpress. Support for importing these formats is worked on in the next version.
LyXPronounced as ‘Licks’, it’s based on the LaTeX typesetting system. Instead of WYSIWYG, it follows the principle of WYSIWYM (What You See Is What You Mean). What shows up would be an approximation of what we think is the best suitable formatting. It’s a favorite of technical authors and scientists for the mathematical node system of its databases. A formal teaching of the LaTeX markup language would be beneficial for speeding things up. It runs on Linux, Windows. and Mac OS X. LyX can be used either by clicking on the respective menu button or typing commands on the UNIX command line. It has automatic hyphenation with word wrapping. and excellent page layout.
