DTP apps less costly than Quark etc.

[eric j]

Hi,

I already have CorelSuite 11 (complex and flaky but powerful and I like it AND got it cheap), and iCalamus (because I grew up on Calamus on an Atari ST).

Nowadays I do little DTP work but this kind of app fascinates me. During my meaderings across the web I serendipitously encountered a review that impressed me with its thoroughness so I'm postiong the link here in the hope that others may find it useful;.

http://jonwhipple.com/blog/2009/08/08/layi...t/#installation

The website of one inexpensive app (iStudioPublisher) contained tutorial videos so informative and well-explained that I dowmloaded the demo (valid 30 days) and intend to purchase it.

I have absolutely no financial or other connection with iStudioPublisher.

YMMV.

eric j

[Xairbusdriver]

My first page layout app was FileMaker! Actually the precursor to it. It is, of course, a database app but you start with a completely blank 'page' of any size you want and can place anything you want, anywhere you want. And, it's a database, too!

I could never justify paying the price for what were called DTP apps like Quark, etc. But Pages does everything I need and is very similar to the concept of FileMaker; anything you want, anywhere you want. But it also has a word processing side with all the bell's and whistles needed for formatting text. My last project was a fairly simple but large 40+ page High School Reunion book. Included images of most and bio's that ran from two lines to two pages! Plus several lists, poems, picture area. Have also used it for a half-sized (8.5 by 5.5 inch booklets). Supremely intuitive, easy to use, Apple standard GUI, of course. I don't think anything can touch it for 20 USD!

BTW, here's a link to the <iStudioPublisher web site>, never saw it on your linked, almost infinitely long page! And it's also available at the Mac App Store. The output to an ePub file (type not mentioned) could be handy, also.

[Shades of Gray]

Back in the day the best low cost DTP was Personal Press from Silicon Beach, later acquired by two or three others, and eventually swallowed by Aldus which had Page Maker. I eventually bought PM, but still liked the simplicity and power of PP.

I use Pages for quite few projects for page layout stuff, especially multi-page bulletins for worship. Because I am editor of our national church magazine I needed to share files with the layout editor, meaning Adobe InDesign was required. Four years ago I was able to purchased Adobe CS4 Adobe CS4 Premier Collection (Acrobat Pro, Bridge, Device Central, Dreamweaver, Drive, Fireworks, Flash, Illustrator, InDesign, Media Player, Photoshop) for less than $600. I use Acrobat Pro, Photoshop, and InDesign most. At that $200 for each, divided by four years is $50/year for the apps.

I also produce seminary and congregation teaching materials, which often include diagrams, drawings, etc. I find that if I do it in Illustrator then make PDF of it, I can effectively import into most programs. For my serious academic work I use Mellel (its support of Hebrew is superb, as well as auto titles, style sheets, etc.). For shorter projects I like Nisus Writer Pro. Neither is ideal for graphics support. And thus, I pull out Pages for special projects.

Generally you could say I am a DTP/word processing junky who can’t make up his mind.