Journal: News & Comment

Powerful free desktop publishing software

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RagTime Solo is a remarkable product: a desktop publishing application some might consider in the league of Adobe InDesign or QuarkXPress (although with hardly any profile compared to them), but totally free for non-commercial use.

This isn't a demo, but a full, working page layout application with built-in spreadsheets, word processing, drawing, charts, typography control, Word and Excel import, and more—free. (The Solo version does lack spell checking, hyphenation, and a full set of colour profiles.) My recent quick glance through it puts it well above such creaky but still-sold programs as PageMaker and Ventura Publisher. At the very least, it's a good place to start learning about computer page layout.

So if you're a student, are part of a non-profit organization (such as a club, church, association, or charity), are learning desktop publishing, want to lay out a family newsletter, or otherwise don't intend to try to make any money using it, go download a copy right now for your Mac or Windows machine. (Yes, Mac OS X and Windows XP are supported.)

If you want to use it commercially, certainly consider paying the $700 USD the full RagTime costs, but weigh it against the more popular alternatives. (Keep in mind the educational price of $95 USD too.)

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