In a previous article we saw the best free programs to write on the computer similar to Word, but free. This type of software called, in more technical terms, Word Processor, is used to write letters and documents or even books and novels, also accompanied by images.
But if you want to create something more complex, for example a newsletter or a flyer, a brochure or a book cover, then you must use a program called " desktop publishing " ( DTP ) or a program to create pages for editorial press.
They are different because they focus on options to create graphics, page backgrounds and particular professional formatting .
In practice, a document similar to that of a brochure or a special invitation is created.
A popular commercial DTP program is Microsoft Publisher, which is very expensive in Office 2013 Professional Plus.
In this article, therefore, we see the best free programs to create documents intended to be printed in color and including text and images in special layouts, ideal for creating invitations, flyers and magazine and book covers.
1) Scribus is the open source (therefore free) historical alternative to Microsoft Publisher.
Who is looking for a professional desktop publishing program that is also free can only choose Scribus.
The program has advanced options that make it not recommended for beginners, with color management tools, direct editing of vector drawings, extensive support for PDFs and much more to produce flyers, brochures, newspapers, books.
This program requires some training before it can be used well and you will need to be patient and download specific guides.
Being an old-fashioned program, although very powerful, it is not recommended for fast projects or for occasional use.
2) Canva is a free web application that makes it easy to create all types of documents with images and colors: brochures, flyers, letterheads, certificates, business cards and is also useful for creating animated web pages and complete websites .
3) Serif PagePlus Starter Edition
PagePlus is the easiest program to use to create documents starting from already made templates: forms, brochures, calendars, CVs and much more.
They can be easily customized with many options for control over layout, alignment of objects, colors, control of text.
However, since there is a paid version, the free version of Serif PagePlus is somewhat limited in functions and only supports documents up to nine pages.
Other restrictions are that it is not possible to export files in PDF format making it possible to use this software only for small documents to be printed at home.
4) Photo Pos Pro is not exactly a DTP program, but it is an excellent image editor that can also work as a program to create documents and pages to be printed.
It's not that a professional program is needed to create an invitation so to make business cards, photo collages and greeting cards this is a good free software with different editing options.
5) HP Photo Creations is a good program for simple projects, which immediately provides many predefined templates: greeting cards, newsletters, postcards, photo albums, calendars etc.
Each of these is then divided again into other sub-categories and the creation of the document becomes only a choice of what you want to achieve, in an almost automatic, but obviously also personalized way.
For specific projects and for the creation of particular prints we have seen, in other articles, such as:
- Create flyers, brochures, flyers, posters and brochures online
- Templates of Word, Excel and Powerpoint calendars
- Create certificates and personalized certificates and models to be printed
- Create posters and posters (large images) to be printed
- Create digital photo albums, image collages and photo books to print
