In the past few decades, desktop publishing has become so widely used that it has almost completely taken over the work of creating printed material such as flyers, handouts, award certificates, and diplomas.
We all have had to deal with the need to develop and create a document at some time in our lives. Some of us do it very often, while others never really have to worry about it because they either have someone else do it for them or they just don’t ever really need to see their work in print.
Regardless of where you fall on the spectrum, at some point in your life, you might need to use a desktop publishing program for one reason or another.
Even better, DTP software is usually easy to use and the options for formatting the text of most document creation programs are well known. Resizing the background and font colors is as easy as inserting an image and resizing it to the size you want.
As a result, you don’t have to be a seasoned graphic designer or a seasoned graphic designer to create professional-looking documents.
In this article, you’ll get to see some of the best free desktop publishing software available on the internet today. The fact that they are free doesn’t mean that they lack features.
Table of contents
What is Desktop Publishing?
Desktop publishing (publishing done on computer) refers to the creation of documents for print production with a computer and related desktop publishing software. Desktop publishing is also the name of the professional industry most commonly involved in creating and preparing such documents for commercial printing.
The term ‘desktop publishing’ refers to the fact that all aspects of the process can be controlled from a desk-top personal computer.
What is a Desktop Publishing Software?
Desktop publishing software is used to create professional-quality documents in print and on the web. There are many desktops publishing programs available, but choosing the right program can be difficult.
In this article, we will examine the top 20 free desktop publishing software programs that enable users to make an excellent first impression with their printed materials or digital content.
Impact of Desktop Publishing on Businesses
Many businesses, small and large, have greatly benefited from the use of desktop publishing software.
Though it can be a laborious task, updating your documents and printing new copies has never been easier thanks to this industry.
Desktop publishing is a well-established medium of the publishing industry. Some organizations have benefited significantly from the use of desktop publishing systems.
Here are some examples of the effectiveness of desktop publishing tools:
#1. Time-Saving
Desktop publishing tools are easy to use and help you quickly create print-quality documents, pamphlets, web content, and other documents. These documents can be published immediately, reducing overall process time and providing faster access to information.
#2. Cost-Effective
The price to create, and print or publish is considerably lower. Typical typeset methods, requiring massive investment and considerable value in the recalibration of documents, face avoidance.
Read this: 10 Best College’s for Publishing and Editing in 2024 | Tuition and Admission Requirements
Top 20 Free Desktop Publishing Software
1. Canva for Enterprise
Canva is the best desktop publishing software at the moment and to some extent allows free users to enjoy a lot of features. It allows users to create graphics, presentations, posters, and other visual content for social media ads content.
Anyone can use it with a simple drag-and-drop user interface, a rich library of templates and design elements such as fonts, illustrations, stock photos, videos, and audio content, and the ability to incorporate web content such as Giphy and Google Maps.
Make ideas and something beautiful. Canva is available on the web, iOS, and even on Android.
2. LucidPress
Lucidpress is a design and branding platform that allows free users to create and distribute their own marketing materials (without departing from the brand). Lockable templates that enhance and protect your brand and allow your colleagues to design and tweak small designs.
This reduces the burden on the creative team. Say goodbye to expensive premium branding forever with Lucidpress.
Lucidpress is a largely patronized desktop publishing platform trusted by over 8 million users worldwide.
3. Scribus
Scribus is a free desktop publishing application with many features of the Pro package.
Also, Scribus provides CMYK support, font embedding and scaling, PDF creation, EPS import/export, basic drawing tools, and other professional features.
Also, it works like Adobe InDesign and QuarkXPress, but with text frames, floating palettes, pull-down menus, but no expensive tags.
As great as free, if you are new to desktop publishing software and don’t want to spend time on the learning curve, this may not be the software you want.
4. Foxit PDF Editor
Foxit is a leading software provider that provides fast, affordable, and secure PDF solutions. Businesses and consumers are increasing their productivity by securely processing PDF documents and forms with Foxit’s affordable products.
In addition, Foxit is a pre-installed PDF software included in one-third of all new Windows PCs such as HP, Acer, and ASUS.
5. Inkscape
As a popular free open-source vector drawing program, Inkscape uses the Flexible Vector Graphics (SVG) file format.
Inkscape can create text and graphic configurations for business cards, book covers, leaflets, advertisements, and more.
Inkscape’s functionality is similar to Adobe Illustrator and CorelDRAW. This is a more flexible graphics program than the Bitmap Photo Program for performing many desktop publishing page layout tasks.
6. QuarkXPress
QuarkXPress is a graphic design and digital publishing software. In-house, agency, and independent designers rely on this to express their creativity with tools for page layouts, graphics and illustrations, photo editing, and multi-channel publishing. Great content starts with QuarkXPress.
7. Venngage
Venngage is an information design platform that provides several B2B-specific templates that make it easy to communicate complex information inside and outside the company without a designer. Venngage’s products provide compelling visual materials to add to your learning and development curriculum.
This allows you to inform your organization of important decisions and processes.
Venngage’s products help transform data insights to create compelling, high-performance visual content/research documents and establish thought leadership in B2B.
8. GNU Image Management Program (GIMP)
The GNU Image Management Program (GIMP) is a popular free, open-source alternative to Photoshop and other image editing software.
GIMP is a bitmap photo editor, so it’s not suitable for text-heavy designs or those with multiple pages, but you can add it to your desktop publishing software collection for free.
9. PDFelement
PDFelement is the easiest way to create, edit, convert, and sign PDF documents on Windows and Mac.
This major alternative to Adobe Acrobat offers enterprise-class PDF functionality and a perpetual license at a fraction of the price.
Sold worldwide in nine different languages, PDFelement is an all-in-one PDF solution for all types of users and the only complete PDF solution other than Adobe Acrobat available for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android.
10. VistaCreate
VistaCreate is an easy-to-use graphic design platform that creates various visual content with over 50,000 professionally designed templates and a library of over 50 million royalty-free creative assets including premium images, videos, and vectors. I can do it.
Edit visuals directly with VistaCreate, remove backgrounds, and add text, images, music, and branding elements. Upload your own photos and videos, or use free images, backgrounds, and clip art.
With VistaCreate, anyone can become a creator without needing specialized skills or a dedicated designer.
11. Adobe Creative Cloud Express
Adobe Creative Cloud Express (formerly Adobe Spark). Available on the web and mobile devices.
Create compelling content. Start with thousands of templates for social media graphics, stories, thumbnails, posters, flyers, business cards, logos, and more.
Get free Adobe Stock Photos. Access the royalty-free Adobe Stock Photo Library containing millions of trends and seasonal images. Choose from over 18,000 licensed fonts from the Adobe Fonts library for free.
Also, check this: Adobe Certifications List | Requirements, Cost, Job, Salary
12. Lyx
LyX is another free desktop publishing software. It can handle different styles of documents. Some great built-in features can be versatile for desktop publishing.
You can add text directly as paragraphs, citations, citations, lists, sections, subsections, subparagraphs, titles, authors, dates, addresses, and more. You can insert formulas using various mathematical operators and letters.
With this desktop publishing software, you can work on multiple tabs, insert labels, insert indexes, use different bullet formats, insert notes, insert comments, import and export other documents, and insert files.
You can add fields of various shapes and sizes, and so on.
13. Designrr
With Designrr you can create e-books, reports, white papers, and lead magnets to reach more people, increase your audience, and increase your sales. With Designrr, you can turn content such as blog posts, Word, Google Docs, podcasts, audio files, videos, and PDFs into e-books and flipbooks.
Great for users who want to convert their content into e-books, reports, and white papers.
14. iStudio Publisher
iStudio Publisher is a powerful and intuitive page layout application for desktop publishing on Mac computers.
Great for designing different documents such as newsletters, brochures, advertisements, flyers, brochures, invitations, menus, reports, posters, greeting cards, yearbooks, and more.
Easily create beautiful, professional-quality documents, starting with professionally designed templates or blank documents of any size. Export or print the completed document as a PDF file.
15. PubHTML5
PubHTML5 provides a professional HTML5 publishing solution for global users to create online magazines, catalogs, lookbooks, newspapers, textbooks, newsletters, and more.
Also, it is designed to be easily published by anyone and has a very easy-to-use interface. Simply upload the PDF and PubHTML5 will automatically convert it into a stunning flipbook and host it online.
Convert boring PDFs into interactive flipbooks online. Also, Videos, photos, URLs, hotspots, amplifiers, and Flipbook upgrade details. Accessible on mobile devices, tablets, and desktops.
16. Spring Publisher
Spring Publisher is another free desktop publishing software. You can easily create business cards, letterheads, postcards, and more. Insert text, images, maps, shapes, barcodes, logos, etc.
There are options for image effects such as opacity, shadows, frames, filters, and rotation. This free version of desktop publishing software allows you to create documents with limited functionality and save low-quality documents.
17. OpenOffice Writer
OpenOffice Writer is a popular open-source word processor that can also be used as desktop publishing software. There is a list of wizards that you can use to create documents for different purposes.
Create letters, faxes, agendas, presentations, web pages, business cards, templates and documents, HTML documents, drawings, databases, spreadsheets, and more.
18. Kotobee Author
Kotobee Author is a comprehensive ebook maker and EPUB editor suitable for education, training, and publishing. Also, it has won the Academics` Choice 2016 SmartMedia Award.
Furthermore, Kotobee Author makes creating interactive e-books rich in video, audio, 3D, book widgets, questions, and easier.
Customize the look and feel of your eBook app and emulate results on various platforms and devices.
Export e-books in various formats, including web apps, desktop apps, Chrome apps, EPUB3, and more.
These formats can be opened with the free Kotobee Reader app or one of the popular store e-readers.
The free license is forever free and the base license is worth $150, so you can fully customize your eBook app to remove the Kotobee logo watermark and add your logo.
19. Xara Cloud
Xara Cloud is a template-based creation and editing tool that anyone with no design experience can use to create professional marketing materials for their company.
The drag-and-drop editor lets you quickly create social media posts, e-books, display banners, slide presentations, and more.
Xara automatically imports colors, logos, and font styles so you can focus on your message while making sure your brand and design elements are sorted.
20. Sesimi
Sesimi is a brand management platform that creates, manages, and shares branded content. Straight away. Sophisticated and intuitive digital asset management tools allow you to store, manage and share all your marketing assets in one place.
Optimized processes allow you to give back time and resources to your team. Creative Automation templates turn your design into a campaign to create large content quickly. Like … I don’t have time.
Increase the number of media through better production and enter the market faster with 100% brand-compliant advertising. With the help of our global support team, we can help you at every stage.
You can do anything with desktop publishing
Know that you can do anything with these 20 pieces of software for free. Tasks that used to be performed by a professional printer are now done by desktop-publishing programs, which are available in different versions for business and home use.
Tasks that desktop publishing can do, as we have mentioned under the software functions, include creating newsletters, brochures, business cards, fliers, labels, calendars, and greeting cards.
Desktop publishers can also create charts and graphs with more than one kind of data.
Desktop publishing lets you design your document using a specially designed computer program.
The programs allow you to choose the type of font you want to use and the style of the letters. You can pick from a variety of faces, including script fonts.
You can also choose from a range of sizes and specify how much space should appear between each letter and each line of text. Some desktop publishing programs also allow you to choose page layouts for your document.
FAQs
Desktop publishing creates print-quality documents, pamphlets, web content, and other documents. These documents can be published immediately, reducing overall process time and providing faster access to information.
Desktop publishing (DTP) programs, also known as “page layout programs” or “publishing programs,” provide a wide range of page design features such as magazine-style columns, rules and frames, pages, chapters, caption numbering, and correct typographical errors. To do. Alignment.
Word processing software focuses on creating text documents line by line while on the other hand desktop publishing software allows you to layout complex pages of text and graphics for publications such as newspapers, magazines, brochures, and books.
Conclusion
There are many desktop publishing software available in the market. But with so many choices available, choosing the right tool for the job becomes tough.
This article will look at the best free desktop publishing software and the most popular and powerful desktop publishing software.
References
Recommendations
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