The following is a comparison of major desktop publishing software.
This table provides general software information including the developer, latest stable version, the year in which the software was first released, and the license under which it is available.
Desktop publishing software | Developer(s) | Latest stable version | Initial release | License |
---|---|---|---|---|
Affinity Publisher | Serif Europe | 2.3.0 30 November 2023 [1] | 2019 | Proprietary |
Apache OpenOffice Writer | Apache Software Foundation and others | 4.1.15 [2] ![]() | 2002 [3] | Apache License 2.0 (Apache OpenOffice 3.4 and later) |
Canva | Canva Pty Ltd | Rolling updates | 2013 | Proprietary SaaS |
Collabora Online [4] | Collabora | 24.04.10.4 [5] ![]() | 2016 [6] | MPL-2.0 and others |
CorelDRAW | Corel | 24.5 18 September 2023 | 1989 | Proprietary |
InDesign | Adobe | CC 2024 20.0 October 2024 | 1999 | Proprietary Trialware |
LibreOffice Draw [7] | The Document Foundation | 2011 | LGPL v3 | |
LyX | The LyX Team | 2.4.3 [8] ![]() | 1995 | GPL v2 [9] |
Marq | Draper | Rolling updates | 2013 | Proprietary SaaS |
Microsoft Publisher | Microsoft Corporation | 2021 October 5, 2021 [10] | 1991 | Proprietary Trialware |
Pages | Apple Inc. | 13.2 September 21, 2023 [11] | 2005 | Proprietary |
QuarkXPress | Quark, Inc. | 2024 20.0.0 November 14, 2023 | 1987 | Proprietary |
Scribus | The Scribus Team | 1.6.1 [12] 7 January 2024 | 2003 | GPL |
The Print Shop | Broderbund | 23.1 2009 [a] | 1984 | Proprietary |
Desktop publishing software | Developer(s) | Latest stable version | Initial release | License |
This table shows Operating System (OS) compatibility with the latest version of the desktop publishing applications, there are five possibilities:
Application names that are on a light purple background are discontinued.
Desktop publishing software | Android | ChromeOS | iOS | iPadOS | Linux | MacOS | Windows | Web, Online, Cloud | Other OS |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Affinity Publisher | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No [13] |
Apache OpenOffice Writer | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes [b] | Yes | No | Yes [14] [c] [d] |
Canva | Yes [e] (App [15] and Online) | Yes (App and Online) | Yes [e] (App [16] and Online) | Yes (App and Online) | Yes | Yes (App and Online) | Yes (App and Online) | Yes | No [17] |
Collabora Online | Yes [e] (App [18] and Online) | Yes (App [19] and Online) | Yes [e] (App [20] and Online) | Yes (App and Online) | Yes (App and Online) | Yes (App [21] and Online) | Yes (App and Online) | Yes | Yes [f] [d] |
CorelDRAW | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No [22] |
InDesign | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No [23] |
LibreOffice | No | Yes [24] [d] | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes [f] |
LyX | No | Yes [25] | No | No | Yes [26] | Yes | Yes | No | OS/2, Haiku |
Marq | Yes [e] [27] (Online) | Yes (Online) | Yes [e] [28] (Online) | Yes (Online) | Yes (Online) | Yes (Online) | Yes (Online) | Yes | No |
Microsoft Publisher | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No |
Pages | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes [29] | No | No | No |
QuarkXPress | No | No | No | No | No | Yes [30] | Yes | No | No |
Scribus | No | Yes [31] | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | OS/2 Warp 4, ArcaOS, eComStation, OpenIndiana, Solaris, Haiku |
The Print Shop | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No |
Desktop publishing software | Android | ChromeOS | iOS | iPadOS | Linux | MacOS | Windows | Web, Online, Cloud | Other OS |
This table gives a comparison of the file formats that can be opened or imported.
Desktop publishing software | EPS | SVG | HTML | OpenDocument ODT | Microsoft DOCX | Other | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Affinity Publisher | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes [32] |
Apache OpenOffice Writer | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | Yes [33] |
Canva | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | PNG, WebP, audio, video, fonts, others [34] |
Collabora Online | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | PUB, TeX/LaTeX, WebP, others [35] [36] |
CorelDRAW | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | others [37] |
InDesign | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | WebP, others [38] |
LibreOffice | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | PUB, WPD, TeX/LaTeX, RTF, others [39] |
LyX | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | CSV, TeX/LaTeX, others [40] |
Marq | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | PNG |
Microsoft Publisher | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | RTF |
Pages | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | RTF [41] |
QuarkXPress | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | PSD, AI, SWF, PNG PDF, RTF |
Scribus | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | PUB, TeX/LaTeX, others List |
The Print Shop | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Desktop publishing software | EPS | SVG | HTML | OpenDocument ODT | Microsoft DOCX | Other |
This table gives a comparison of the file formats each software can export or save.
Desktop publishing software | EPS | PNG | SVG | WebP | EPUB | HTML | Other | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Affinity Publisher | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes, others [42] |
Apache OpenOffice Writer | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | [43] |
Canva | Yes | No | Yes [g] [44] | Yes | Yes | No | No | JPEG, Video:GIF, MP4, others [45] |
Collabora Online | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ODF, others [46] [47] |
CorelDRAW | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | PSD, AI, SWF, WPD, others [48] |
InDesign | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | JPG, RTF, others [49] |
LibreOffice | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ODF, JPEG, RTF, other [50] |
LyX | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | PS, ODF, TeX/LaTeX], DOCX, others [51] |
Marq | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | JPEG, GIF, MP4, others [52] |
Microsoft Publisher | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | JPG, TIFF |
Pages | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | RTF [53] |
QuarkXPress | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Kindle [54] |
Scribus | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | List, TeX/LaTeX] |
The Print Shop | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Desktop publishing software | EPS | PNG | SVG | WebP | EPUB | HTML | Other |
StarOffice is a discontinued proprietary office suite. Its source code continues today in derived open-source office suites Collabora Online and LibreOffice. StarOffice supported the OpenOffice.org XML file format, as well as the OpenDocument standard, and could generate PDF and Flash formats. It included templates, a macro recorder, and a software development kit (SDK).
QuarkXPress is desktop publishing software for creating and editing complex page layouts in a WYSIWYG environment. It runs on macOS and Windows. It was first released by Quark, Inc. in 1987 and is still owned and published by them.
In computing, cross-platform software is computer software that is designed to work in several computing platforms. Some cross-platform software requires a separate build for each platform, but some can be directly run on any platform without special preparation, being written in an interpreted language or compiled to portable bytecode for which the interpreters or run-time packages are common or standard components of all supported platforms.
iWork is an office suite of applications created by Apple for its macOS, iPadOS, and iOS operating systems, and also available cross-platform through the iCloud website.
Pages is a word processing program developed by Apple Inc. that is part of the iWork productivity suite. It runs on the macOS, iPadOS, and iOS operating systems and is also available on the iCloud website. The first version of Pages was released in February 2005. Pages is marketed by Apple as an easy-to-use application that allows users to quickly create documents on their devices. Many Apple-designed templates comprising different themes are included with Pages.
A number of vector graphics editors exist for various platforms. Potential users of these editors will make a comparison of vector graphics editors based on factors such as the availability for the user's platform, the software license, the feature set, the merits of the user interface (UI) and the focus of the program. Some programs are more suitable for artistic work while others are better for technical drawings. Another important factor is the application's support of various vector and bitmap image formats for import and export.
The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of office suites:
This is a comparison of word processor programs.
Spreadsheet is a class of application software design to analyze tabular data called "worksheets". A collection of worksheets is called a "workbook". Online spreadsheets do not depend on a particular operating system but require a standards-compliant web browser instead. One of the incentives for the creation of online spreadsheets was offering worksheet sharing and public sharing or workbooks as part of their features which enables collaboration between multiple users. Some on-line spreadsheets provide remote data update, allowing data values to be extracted from other users' spreadsheets even though they may be inactive at the time.
The following tables compare notable reference management software. The comparison includes older applications that may no longer be supported, as well as actively-maintained software.
Serif (Europe) Ltd., a subsidiary of Canva, is a British software developer and publisher, best known for its Affinity suite of professional graphic design, photo editing, and desktop publishing software. The company delivers products directly to consumers through its dedicated website and contact centre, as well as through various retailers.
Mendeley is a reference manager software founded in 2007 by PhD students Paul Foeckler, Victor Henning, Jan Reichelt and acquired by the Dutch academic publishing company Elsevier in 2013. It is used to manage and share research papers and to generate bibliographies for scholarly articles.
LibreOffice Writer is the free and open-source word processor and desktop publishing component of the LibreOffice software package and is a fork of OpenOffice.org Writer. Writer is a word processor similar to Microsoft Word and Corel's WordPerfect with many similar features, and file format compatibility.
LibreOffice Calc is the spreadsheet component of the LibreOffice software package.
LibreOfficeDraw is a free and open source vector graphics editor. It is one of the applications included in the LibreOffice suite, developed by The Document Foundation.
Affinity Publisher is a desktop publishing application developed by Serif for iPadOS, macOS and Microsoft Windows. It is a part of the Affinity product line along with Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer.
Collabora Online is an open source online office suite based on LibreOffice, enabling web-based collaborative real-time editing of word processing documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and vector graphics. Optional apps are available for desktops, laptops, tablets, smartphones, and Chromebooks.
Collabora Productivity, the driving force behind putting LibreOffice in the Cloud, has released the first production grade version of Collabora Online, its flagship cloud document suite solution.
Collabora Office - LibreOffice based editor for Microsoft Office, LibreOffice and OpenOffice docs.
...it works on desktop and mobile, and it will sync up between devices too, so you can start something on your desktop PC and then pick it up later on your phone and/or tablet.
Collabora Office - This app is available only on the App Store for iPhone and iPad.