It’s time to get your brilliant ideas out there. Get started with free desktop publishing software.
Key Points
- Save money with free open source DTP software.
- Open source tools are available for each part of your workflow.
Desktop publishing (DTP) software is used to develop projects for digital and print. More specifically, DTP refers to page layout software, such as Adobe InDesign, QuarkXPress, or Scribus, in contrast to word processing software, such as Microsoft Word.
On a shoestring budget? No problem. You don’t need expensive, proprietary commercial DTP software to create a professional-looking finished product. Free, open source tools are available for each part of your desktop publishing workflow.
Visual Studio Code
To keep things simple, let’s start writing with plain text. Visual Studio Code helps you to focus on writing efficiently in plain text without the distractions of a full-blown word processor. Pro Tip: To quickly capture ideas, focus on content, not formatting. In addition to plain text, Visual Studio Code supports multiple programming languages, including IntelliSense for JavaScript, TypeScript, JSON, CSS, and HTML. Available for Linux, macOS, Windows. Price: FREE.
LibreOffice Writer
A word processor, LibreOffice Writer, is similar to Microsoft Word and Corel WordPerfect. Writer is excellent for authoring content for documents ranging from articles to book chapters. Pro Tip: Avoid using a word processor to layout and prepare for press. Instead, use a DTP like Scribus for page layout. Writer opens and saves documents in OpenDocument (ODT), Microsoft Word (DOC, DOCX, DOT, DOTX, RTF, XML). Writer saves to Text Document Template (OTT), Flat XML ODF Text Document (FODT), Unified Office Format text (UOT), DocBook (XML), HTML, Rich Text (RTF), Text (TXT), and Office Open XML Text (docx). Writer exports to PDF, EPUB. Available for Linux, macOS, Windows. Price: FREE.
Joplin
A note taking and to-do app, Joplin, organizes notes into notebooks and is a useful replacement for Evernote. Joplin enables links to other other notes, file attachments, and creates Markdown notes. With third-party plugins, it also supports math notation and diagrams. Joplin imports Evernote export files (ENEX) and markdown files, and offers end to end encryption, note revision history, and synchronization with Nextcloud, Dropbox, WebDAV and OneDrive. Available for Linux, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android. Price: FREE.
GIMP
A raster graphics editor, GIMP, is similar to Adobe Photoshop in functionality. Pro Tip: while working in GIMP, save your working files in XCF, which preserves image layer and transparency information. When exporting images for press, save a copy in TIFF. GIMP imports and exports BMP, JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, Adobe Photoshop documents, and PostScript documents. GIMP can import, but not save to PDF. Available for Linux, macOS, Windows. Price: FREE.
Inkscape
A vector graphics editor, Inkscape, is great for preparing graphics for digital and press and uses SVG as its primary file format. Inkscape imports Adobe Illustrator (AI), CorelDraw (CDR), Microsoft Visio (VSD), PDF, JPEG, PNG, GIF, and BMP. Inkscape exports PDF, EPS, PS, LaTeX (TeX), and Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML). Available for Linux, macOS, Windows. Price: FREE.
Scribus
A DTP program for layout and preparing for press, Scribus, is similar to Adobe InDesign in functionality. With support for CMYK and ICC color profiles, and its pre-flight check for press-ready PDFs, Scribus is a good choice for magazines, newspapers, books, brochures, manuals, and posters. Scribus native format is SLA, which is XML and open. Scribus imports and exports LibreOffice (ODT), Microsoft Word (DOC), and PDF. Note that read/write of QuarkXPress and InDesign (INDD) native file formats are not supported, due to their proprietary nature. Scribus also includes vector drawing tools, with support for Encapsulated PostScript, Adobe Illustrator, Xfig, and SVG. Available for Linux, macOS, Windows. Price: FREE.
You’re all set. Create something great.