The winner is BeLight Software Swift Publisher
MacFormat issue 188 November, 2007
By: Christopher Phin
A new wave of software offers desktop publishing at affordable prices. We test six of the best titles
The whole desktop publishing revolution started on the Mac in 1985, and today, though you'll find Apple kit in server rooms, science labs and office desks, its natural home is still on a professional designer's desk, helping to create beautiful pages for print and the web. The best bit, though, is that the last two decades have slashed the cost of ownership and helped create software that's more accessible to folks who haven't the time or inclination to wade through a doorstop-sazed manual.
So we've decided to set aside QuarkXpress and InDesign and check out six of their up and coming rivals. We've spent weeks with these applications, linking and flowing text, creating master pages and templates, cursing at typographical controls, wrestling with open source 'help' files, creating everything from a business cards to multi-page document, and generally trying to break things. A few years ago, many of these features were no more than the blue-sky dreams of Adobe and Quark software engineers: now they're available to everyone. Read on for our definitive guide to costumers-focused DTP applications...
| DESKTOP PUBLISHING SOFTWARE |
| |
Apple Pages
 |
BeLight Software
Swift Publisher
 |
iCalamus
 |
| SPECIFICATIONS |
| Source |
www.apple.com/uk |
www.belightsoft.com |
http://icalamus.net |
| Price inc VAT |
£55 |
$50 (£25) |
€129 (£87) |
| Bundled clipart |
0 |
23,000 |
0 |
| Bundled fonts |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Master pages |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Grids |
No |
No |
Yes |
| Guides |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Layers |
No |
Yes (2) |
Yes |
| iPhoto integration |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Text styles |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Tables |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
| Linking text frames |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| HTML export |
Yes (via iWeb) |
No |
No |
| Manual |
Electronic |
Electronic |
Electronic |
|
| |
| DESKTOP PUBLISHING SOFTWARE |
| |
Scribus
 |
Software MacKiev
The Print Shop
 |
Stone Create Design
 |
| SPECIFICATIONS |
| Source |
www.scribus.net |
www.mackiev.com |
www.stone.com |
| Price inc VAT |
Free |
£40 |
€149 (£74) |
| Bundled clipart |
0 |
19,500 |
51 |
| Bundled fonts |
0 |
240 |
0 |
| Master pages |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
| Grids |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Guides |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Layers |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
| iPhoto integration |
No |
Yes |
No |
| Text styles |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
| Tables |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
| Linking text frames |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
| HTML export |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
| Manual |
Electronic |
Printed |
Electronic |
|
See other reviews...
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