Desktop Publishing Overview

There are many choices in DTP software. Here's how to pick the right one.

The Players

QuarkXPress
Microsoft Publisher
PageMaker
InDesign
FrameMaker
Ventura
Ready,Set,Go!
Others

QuarkXPress

"Never buy version 1.0 of anything," I often tell people. What many people don't realize is that version 3.0 or 4.0 of a program usually falls prey to the same, seemingly immutable, law of the universe. If it's the initial release of a major upgrade, it's going to have more bugs than a dumpster in the summertime. Such was the case with QuarkXPress 4.0. Fortunately, the program has since been updated several times and the latest incarnation of QuarkXPress 4.1 is now a robust and stable performer on both the Mac and PC platforms. The new Bezier tool in version 4.x allows text on a path and can paste graphics inside images and perform several other new text tricks that, in many cases, alleviate much of the need for a separate illustration program, such as Adobe Illustrator.

Even with these new features, however, QuarkXPress remains a relatively simple and focused application. It's quick to learn and, in the hands of an expert, makes short work of page production. Although I own and am familiar with all the DTP programs listed above, this is the one I use when I need to bang out a quick layout or a job for a client. However, with a price tag close to $1,000, this is not a program well suited to casual use.

Although at this writing, QuarkXPress version 5.0 is not yet shipping, it was pre-announced more than two years ago at the Seybold conference in Boston way back in March, 1999. The company at that time said QuarkXPress 5.0 would ship later in 1999. And, as so often happens in the software world, that schedule slipped -- badly. The company then showed off a beta release of XPress 5.0 at the Drupa conference in May 2000 and claimed the final release would ship by the end of Y2K. It didn't. Now, the company looks likely to ship the program a full two years late -- a delay that's causing a great deal of concern from Mac users who are incensed that the update, which entered "wider beta testing" in Q2 of 2001, will not be "Carbonized" for native-mode compatibility with Apple's OS X. The latest beta version of QuarkXPress 5.0 was trotted out again at the Seyboard Publishing Conference in April 2001 by Quark staffers, but according to Quark boss Fred Ebrahimi, will ship "when it's ready." The company took a lot of heat over the buggy initial release of QuarkXPress 4.0 and vows that fiasco won't be repeated.

For more information, refer to our report on QuarkXPress 4.x and our Preview of QuarkXPress 5

Microsoft Publisher

Now at version 2002, MS Publisher is probably the easiest to use of all the titles listed here, while providing a reasonable range of advanced functions. Most "professional" publishers will scoff at the program, but for home or small business users, the convenience of built-in templates for almost any type of document you may want to create is a definite advantage. It can also create HTML Web pages as output, although the files it creates are bloated with XML code, which Microsoft uses to allow re-editing of the files.

Key features of the 2002 edition include highly automated design functions (utilizing the “task pane” interface seen in Office XP). Publisher can import Word documents with inline graphics intact and maintains compressed TIF and JPEG images in their native format. Publisher 2002 can combine process colours with up to 12 spot colours -- previous versions of the program were arbitrarily limited to “black plus two spot colors." However, its lack of PostScript or PDF workflow tools means that such jobs all but require Graphics Service Bureaus to directly support Publisher files – which most don’t. Although the program is capable of outputting PostScript and EPS file suitable for output at Service Bureaus, the relative scarcity of support for this program at professional output houses makes it a poor choice for those planning this type of activity on a regular basis.

Publisher 2002 is bundled as part of Microsoft Office XP Professional Special Edition, which Microsoft says is available for a limited time to existing Office customers in select worldwide geographies (including Canada). This edition also includes Word 2002, Excel 2002, Outlook 2002, PowerPoint 2002, Access 2002, the FrontPage 2002 Web site creation and management tool, SharePoint Team Services, and a Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer mouse. The approximate retail price is C$709. After this promotion ends, Publisher 2002 will be available only as a standalone application for about C$150. You can order a 30 day trial CD of Publisher 2002 from the Microsoft Web site.

PageMaker

PageMaker, as old-timers may recall, started its life as an Aldus product, before being purchased by Adobe. Putting to rest the notion that PageMaker is a dead product, Adobe has announced an upgrade to the one-time DTP leader with PageMaker 7. The new release includes a converter utility able to open Quark XPress 3.3-4.1 publications directly in PageMaker with most of the formatting intact. The same utility can open and convert Microsoft Publisher 95-2000 to PageMaker for Windows format. You can also drag and drop objects between PageMaker and Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator and open Illustrator AI files directly in the program. Other key capabilities include HTML export and the ability to merge text and graphics stored originally in spreadsheets or databases to create custom publications, including form letters, mailing labels, envelopes, catalogs, or direct mail campaigns. PageMaker can place (some) CorelDraw CDR files and can output pages as PDF or colour-separated files, complete with integrated trapping and “build booklet” pagination capabilities, suitable for production at virtually any service bureau.

Although the program continues to be used in corporate and education circles, in many cases, it is increasingly viewed as a "legacy" product. It’s unfortunate that, by the time Adobe added support to PageMaker 6.5 for the frames-based layout metaphor favoured by Quark, the program was already considered irrelevant by many reviewers and frustrated users, many of whom jumped ship to QuarkXPress or other titles. It’s too bad, because now that PageMaker supports both the Quark-like “frames based” and classic PageMaker “free flow” layout metaphors, it’s like having the best of both worlds. In terms of the modern conveniences of an easy-to-use and graphically rich DTP title, however, PageMaker -- version 7 notwithstanding -- is no longer a front runner. The program sells for US$499.

InDesign

PageMaker, since its inception, used a pasteboard metaphor onto which text and graphics could be poured or placed as desired. Adobe's chief competitor, Quark, meanwhile, employed a so-called frames-based metaphor for its text placement that ultimately proved more favourable to many designers (especially those who had accidentally clicked on one of PageMaker's text columns and pressed Delete. In PageMaker, that text was gone, gone, gone; in QuarkXPress, it would simply re-flow the text to the next column. InDesign uses these Quark-style frames, but enhances them with a variety of fancy edges, including rounded and cut-out corners, sophisticated multi-colour gradients and strokes.

Indeed, Quark fans are clearly a target -- InDesign not only provides a set of shortcut keys that exactly match those in QuarkXpress, but InDesign actually loads QuarkXPress files (versions 3.3 through 4.04). It also loads files created in PageMaker 6.5. InDesign features an interface that resembles that found in Photoshop, Illustrator and other recent Adobe applications. This helps users familiar with those programs to learn InDesign more easily.

We use InDesign 1.5.2 to produce the monthly Computer Tracker magazine, available on Canada's west coast. The features that led us to choose InDesign over QuarkXPress and other competitors are its excellent cross-platform compatibility (we use both PCs and Macs) and its superior handling of the Acrobat PDF format. We use PDF for virtually all aspects of our editorial workflow and ad production, allowing us the luxury of all-digital delivery to the press. The fact that it costs less than QuarkXPress didn’t hurt, either. InDesign retails for about $900. A much better deal, however, is the Adobe Design Collection, which bundles InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator and Acrobat for US$999. There’s also a special upgrade price of US$299 for PageMaker or PageMaker Plus users. You can download or order a free 60-day trial version of Adobe InDesign 1.5.2 at www.adobe.com.

FrameMaker

FrameMaker enjoys a following among those producing technical documentation -- an application to which it is well suited. Sensing an opportunity to capitalize on a fast-growing market seemingly enthralled with the category of technical documentation, Adobe developed a version of FrameMaker for Linux and released it in beta form in late 1999, apparently intending to release a commercial Linux version of the product at some point. However, in Nov. 2000, Adobe announced that it would not release a commercial version of FrameMaker or FrameMaker+SGML on the Linux platform. FrameMaker 6.0 and FrameMaker+SGML 6.0 software continues to be available for the Windows, Mac and UNIX platforms.

Ventura

There are few desktop publishing titles with as fiercely loyal, but largely silent groups of users as Corel Ventura. We first tested Ventura back in the days before it used Windows as its user interface (it used Digital Research GEM instead). It eventually switched to the Windows environment and, fast forwarding several years, ended up being owned by Ottawa-based Corel.

Sadly, all of the other DTP titles mentioned in this article are better supported than it is. The English version of Ventura hasn't seen an update in almost two years (since 8/99) and it is little more than a has-been player in the DTP world at this point, just slightly more relevant (and not as historically significant) as Ready Set Go.

Ready,Set,Go!

First released in 1985 by Manhattan Graphics Corporation, Ready,Set,Go! started the DTP revolution, although it was PageMaker that quickly stole the limelight in those early years. Remarkably, Ready,Set,Go! has kept up since with virtually all the major developments in the DTP market. Diwan, an early participant in the development of Ready,Set,Go!, and now the owner of the program, has developed Ready,Set,Go! even further. The Global version now includes support for international languages and internet publishing. See www.diwan.com for details. Read more....

Others

There are, of course, many other programs that may be used to produce publishable output. Graphics-oriented designers often prefer to work in a program such as Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia FreeHand or CorelDRAW; fans of shareware and Open Source software have a wide array of titles from which to choose. There are even those who manage to use Microsoft Word (and/or other Office components) as a makeshift publishing program.

If you are "making do" with such a program, here are a few of the features you may be missing.

Character- and/or paragraph-based style sheets
Custom kerning, leading and tracking
Support for ligatures and other advanced typographical features
Advanced text-wrap around graphics objects
Non-rectangular text blocks
Text justification
Color separation and spot color output
Pagination and/or other "booklet layout" features
Import and/or export of styled text in popular document formats (RTF, DOC, HTML, etc.)
Gradient blends and fills
Accurate "what you see is what you get" layout of text and/or graphics objects

It should be noted that some “pro” publishing programs also lack some of these features. Microsoft Publisher and Adobe PageMaker, for example, lack character-based style sheets – feature in Ventura Publisher practically since its inception. On the other hand, advanced graphics features such as semi-transparent objects and fills can be found in many graphics programs, but few DTP titles other than InDesign. Thus, the “best” program depends on your needs.

Recommendations

As always, the right program is the one that best helps you do the job. The following recommendations are, therefore necessarily generalized. You should refer to the features and specifications of each program you are considering to ensure that it handles the types of files you want to work with, and is capable of producing the kind of output you require.

Our Choices

For newspapers or multi-page magazine publishing or those commonly printing at service bureaus: QuarkXPress (or the high-end Quark Publishing System);
For corporate or small office users and those not commonly printing at service bureaus: MS Publisher 2002;
For those working extensively with PDF files and/or other Adobe file types: InDesign.

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