Freeware Like QuarkXpress

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dave
  • Start date Start date
Hi

Is there any free ware equivalent to QuarkXpress?

Regards
Dave
Click to expand...
Not really a "freeware" alternative. The nearest you will find is
Serif's Pageplus. You can download fully-functional older versions from
a Serif website for free. Not sure of the url, though; something like
freeserifsoftware.com
 
Dave said:
Hi

Is there any free ware equivalent to QuarkXpress?
Click to expand...

From S.O.S.'s site, this registerware:

"PrintMaster Express At last! Free Desktop Publishing! With PrintMaster
Express you can easily create Greeting Cards, Note Cards, Banners,
Calendars, Photo Projects and so much more. Other features include an
address book complete with event reminders for birthdays and
anniversaries, plus mail merge capabilities that let you send
personalized letters, invitations, and newsletters. The interface is
easy enough for kids to learn and use, but flexible enough, providing
full functionality for creating a wide variety of projects. ** note:
requires registration but this is only available for US/Canadian persons
(for now)."

http://www.sover.net/~wysiwygx/Apps2.html

scroll down to the description and download link.

As for it being as good as QuarkXpress, well, that's subjective. Depends
on what you need it for.
 
Doesn't seem to be available.
Click to expand...

It is available - on the PL2005 CD or as a download. The PL2005
description is here:
http://www.pricelesswarehome.org/2005/PL2005BUSINESS-HOME.php#0612-PW

Home Page:
http://www.ragtime-online.com
Program description:
http://www.ragtime-online.com/Content/product_ragtime_solo/index.html
download page v 5.6.5 (2004- ) (Windows) (English)
(RagTime_Solo_565_en.exe) (35 MB)
http://www.ragtime-online.com/Content/download_rts_program/index.html

The download link (English version) worked for me a moment ago:

ftp://ragtime.ftp.fu-berlin.de/English/windows/RagTime_Solo_565_en.exe

Susan
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John said:
Dave wrote:

From S.O.S.'s site, this registerware:

"PrintMaster Express
Click to expand...

PrintMaster Express became payware a while back - AFAIK there's no last
freeware version. See:

http://www.broderbund.com/jump.jsp?itemID=209&itemType=PRODUCT

Susan
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Susan said:
The download link (English version) worked for me a moment ago:

ftp://ragtime.ftp.fu-berlin.de/English/windows/RagTime_Solo_565_en.exe
Click to expand...



Now, as then, I get:

Not Found
The requested URL /English/windows/RagTime_Solo_565_en.exe was
not found on this server.

p.
 
Hi Paul, just click on it, it came back and asked if I wanted to run it or
save it. best wishes..J
 
John said:
Well that sucks. And Alan is usually real good about catching things
like that.
Click to expand...

Could be because there was a period of time when *Broderbund* didn't
seem to know if the app was free or not. They were selling it for 10
bucks at the top of a web page while still offering it for free at the
bottom of the same page. ;)
Thanks for pointing it out though, Susan.
Click to expand...

YW John. :)

Susan
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Is there any free ware equivalent to QuarkXpress?
Click to expand...

The short answer is 'no'. QuarkExpress is an expensive
professional-level program. As a professional typesetter I use
QuarkExpress exclusively in my business. Although there are other
similar commercial programs available (I've tried them all) I
believe QE is the best of them for both monochrome and colour
publications. I don't believe a freeware program could have
anything like the functionality.

If you want to do simple jobs like flyers, community newsletters,
simple booklets etc then a freeware program might do the job. But
if you want a professional program you'll just have to buy one
I'm afraid.

Pete Andrews
 
The short answer is 'no'. QuarkExpress is an expensive
professional-level program. As a professional typesetter I use
QuarkExpress exclusively in my business. Although there are other
similar commercial programs available (I've tried them all) I
believe QE is the best of them for both monochrome and colour
publications. I don't believe a freeware program could have
anything like the functionality.

If you want to do simple jobs like flyers, community newsletters,
simple booklets etc then a freeware program might do the job. But
if you want a professional program you'll just have to buy one
I'm afraid.

Pete Andrews
Click to expand...

Well said.
 
Sietse said:
I am not sure about this but I believe that SOS does link to an older
version (2.1) that is actually freeware (not even registerware?). It can
also be obtained from here
<http://expressit.broderbund.com/400_co_branding/internationalpaper/printmas
terse.asp>
Click to expand...

Good scouting Sietse. :) :) :)

That is the same version that was free for a long time and then payware.
FWIW- according to my notes it was still free on 2002-05-09 but payware
($9.99) on 2002-06-24 (at that point I quit watching it).

Free again - Hurrah! (I sure hope it stays that way now). It's a nice
greeting card app - does banners etc. etc.

Susan
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Susan said:
Good scouting Sietse. :) :) :)
That is the same version that was free for a long time and then payware.
FWIW- according to my notes it was still free on 2002-05-09 but payware
($9.99) on 2002-06-24 (at that point I quit watching it).
Free again - Hurrah! (I sure hope it stays that way now). It's a nice
greeting card app - does banners etc. etc.
Click to expand...

Just remembered an experience I had with Broderbund. While in a local
Staples one day, I bought an older version of their calendar program (it
was real inexpensive) and installed it. The program raped my registry
and cluttered up my hard drive. Not only that, but it kept trying to
call home. I eventually took it off of my system thanks to Total
Uninstall, but the memory left me bitter towards Broderbund. I hope
Printmaster Express is less hostile than that calendar program I bought.
 
Dave said:
I should have mentioned that my mother wants to write a book.
Click to expand...

In that case, I would highly recommend OpenOffice.org:

http://www.openoffice.org/

since a word processor may be a better choice for that purpose than a
desktop publisher.

Heh... I've never really seen the need for a desktop publisher in the
first place, since there's nothing I haven't been able to do using my
(it will remain unnamed) commercial word processing program (that I've
been using for 13 years) won't do that a desktop publisher can.

I will admit that there may be things that a professional desktop
publisher may need to do that I haven't needed to do as yet, but for the
purposes of writing a book, OpenOffice.org is a good choice.
 
Dave said:
I should have mentioned that my mother wants to write a book.
Click to expand...

What sort of book?

What sort of software has she used in the past and how does she expect
the book to look and be printed?

What sort of computer does she have (how fast?)

Quark XPress, while once the dominant page layout program is being
rapidly eclipsed by Adobe InDesign. Even the XTensions which could make
it wonderfully efficient for specific page layout tasks are in many
cases not being updated (or have been replaced by less capable built-in
features).

The Ragtime Solo program which several people have mentioned is an
excellent choice if a highly decorative / graphical layout is
desired--- it grew out of an integrated application suite on the
Macintosh (possibly some other platform prior to that, but the first
copy I used was for the Mac). However, the license for it specifies
home / non-commmercial use, so if your mother intends to sell her book,
it's not free.

OpenOffice is an acceptable tool for preparing a manuscript, and w/
care is workable for a basic layout to be printed by a quick printer,
or on a home printer.

An interesting alternative might be LyX --- the Windows QT version is
available under a no-commercial clause though, so again, not
appropriate if the book is going to be sold. http://www.lyx.org It will
provide one a fully professional, and very customizable typesetting
tool though (it uses LaTeX as its ``back-end''), and is an interesting
``What You See Is What You Mean'' document editor. Highly recommended
if your doing mathematics.

You can see some samples of TeX / LaTeX output at
http://www.tug.org/texshowcase

(ob. discl. some are from my portfolio at
http://members.aol.com/willadams/portfolio.html . I believe some of
these might be a bit difficult to do in OpenOffice or any other word
processor (on the gripping hand, Robert Bringhurst used XyWrite to
create the lovely ``letterfall'' frontispiece in the first edition of
his book _The Elements of Typographic Style_)

Your mother may find some texts which I list of interest:

http://members.aol.com/willadams/books-free-type.html

Another alternative miight be the opensource program Scribus. It is
intended as a Quark XPress alternative --- you can get it on some Linux
Live CD distributions, so if you have a more recent system w/ a
bootable CD-ROM it may be workable.

Or, if it's a small project, a drawing program can be used to good
effect for intricate page layout:

http://members.aol.com/willadams/portfolio/typography/theriver.pdf

William
 
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