Most commercial publishing software is expensive. But don't despair, there are at least two excellent free programs that will allow you to cope with the specific task of creating a print layout. One of these programs is designed for small businesses and is a great alternative to Microsoft Publisher. The other is a serious high-end competitor, not inferior to multifunctional commercial programs.

Review of free software for publishing (creating a print layout)

Scribus a multi-platform, complete layout solution

The first and most advanced program is open source. Scribus was originally designed only for Linux systems, but over time it also began to support Mac OS X, OS2 and Windows.

Scribus is truly a program capable of creating professional creations that can be sent to print right away, without any need for pre-processing. The list of features is impressive. Anything that comes in handy, including support for CMYK colors, separators, ICC color profile management, pdf creation, and more. The layout procedure is somewhat similar to Gimp (a fairly well-known open source program). In addition, Scribus can import and export data from Open Office, a powerful counterpart to Microsoft Office.

Although Scribus is a very, very functional application, the user interface still lags slightly behind its commercial brothers. Of course, the program allows you to use different display templates (shells), but you can still feel the difference. Scribus is well documented and development continues to this day.

Overall, Scribus places more emphasis on functionality rather than beauty. Therefore, this program is more suitable for those who need to create printed layouts of any complexity.

PagePlus Starter Edition is a great product for budding publishers and small organizations

The second program is from Serif, the creators of the renowned free photo editor PhotoPlus. PagePlusSE is a simplified version of PagePlus X8. Of course, the free version lacks many of the features of the commercial version, but the functionality available is more than enough to create the relatively simple brochures, flyers, announcements, and newsletters often used by small businesses and charities. In fact, the lack of complex features makes PagePlusSE much more intuitive and user-friendly for novice users with regular publishing needs.

The program comes with a good set of ready-made templates (additional templates can be downloaded from the Internet), so that even a novice user can create beautiful and presentable print materials in a short time. PagePlusSE has quite good tools for processing text and images (insertion, resizing, etc.). There is also a basic set of forms: folding flyers, business cards, letter forms, etc. The tools for managing the color palette are limited in places, but, however, they are sufficient for most needs. The limitations also apply to the available file formats for saving your works (for example, there is no PDF).

Note: However, you can use pdf generation programs to work around this limitation.

If there is one thing that really sets PagePlus SE apart from its peers, it is undeniably ease of use. In fact, the program's interface is designed in such a way that if you are at least a little familiar with Microsoft Word and similar office suites, then consider that you already know how to use PagePlus SE. In this case, it feels good that this product is based on commercial software.

NoteA: Of course, you should not in any way assume that free and open source products cannot be attractive, beautiful and user-friendly. And that all commercial products have a better interface by default. In reality, this is not always the case. It's just that, unlike free products, the main focus of commercial software should almost always include appearance (interface, etc.). Otherwise, they simply cannot withstand the competition.

Quick Pick Guide (Free Publisher Download Links)

Scribus

PagePlus Starter Edition

A program for printing should conveniently and effectively solve problems associated with the main production, that is, offer a convenient and correct description of the process of manufacturing printed products, calculate the order, automate the planning and collection of actual production data, and provide tools for analyzing work results. And of course ensure the implementation of management decisions by adjusting the rules for performing automated business functions.

There are not so many specialized programs for printing on the market. Basically, some "universal" solutions are offered, for example, adapted versions of accounting systems, CRM systems.

Often there are programs that were made for a specific production and with a big stretch can be considered as a commercial solution for a wide range of printing houses.

Our company develops and implements software for managing a printing company. Our main software products are ASystem and PrintEffect control systems.

Our programs - solve the problems of automation of business processes of the printing house, as well as planning and economic analysis of printing production. These are specialized programs designed specifically for the printing industry.

We offer software for printers of all sizes. If ASystem is successfully used at the largest printing enterprises of the country, then PrintEffect Lite is a program for small production facilities of the print shop level.

We offer:

ASystem printing business management system

A powerful management system for medium to large print businesses. The system can be adjusted to any composition of equipment, any technological processes and any types of printing products.

This is a very functional program, it has specialized interfaces for registration and calculation of printing orders for flexible and cardboard packaging, flexo labels, hardcover books. The technology for calculating and planning the production of products manufactured using the technology of web-based printing with several roles is supported.

Project price - from 765 thousand rubles. The price includes implementation work and technical support.

PrintEffect printing enterprise management system

Control system for small printing industries. By its purpose, this program is close to ASystem, but it has a number of functional limitations. The program is intended for printing houses dealing with sheet printing, the production of souvenirs, as well as large-format printing. This program is specially designed taking into account the independent implementation of the printing house specialists.

PrintEffect is a boxed product, the price starts from 105 thousand rubles. Implementation work can be ordered separately.

PrintEffect Lite sales management system

Sales management system of a small printing house. In fact, this is PrintEffect, which lacks planning and production accounting functions. The program solves the business functions of the print shop sales department. Accordingly, this program does not have the ability to calculate and analyze the actual cost. This is also a boxed product. Price - from 44 850 rubles.

Features:

All our software products are based on client-server technology. All data is stored on the database server. Client workstations access the server only when reading and saving data. This technology provides high reliability and stable performance.

The main advantages of our programs are high quality, exceptional reliability and data security, and the broadest functionality. More than 450 printing houses in Russia and the near abroad use our programs.

Country support:
Operating system: Windows
Family: Universal Accounting System
Purpose: Business automation

Printing software

Key features of the program:

You will have a single customer base with all the necessary contact information

Each employee will be able to plan contact with any client, marking this in the program so as not to forget anything

By setting up a calculation for each type of work performed, you can speed up the process of calculating any orders

Contracts, forms, order specifications and much more can be generated automatically

You can attach any files to each order, for example, with an order layout

The program allows you to automatically split the order for impositions when offset printing

A supplier can work in our system, noting the availability of the necessary materials for the execution of each order

You will also get the opportunity to keep inventory records: receive materials, transfer to production and write off

Even in the workshop, each employee will be able to take a certain job in execution with his badge and mark the fact of its readiness

All departments will interact with each other as a single successful mechanism

You can easily analyze which products are popular with you

The system will show the statistics of orders for each client in the context of your product types

All payments made will be under your complete control

You will have all the detailed reporting for each cash desk or account in any currency

Each of your marketing decisions will be taken into account and analyzed by the number of new customers and payments

The report will show which of the customers did not fully pay for their purchases or which of the suppliers you have not yet fully settled with

All financial movements will be under your complete control. You can easily track what you spend the most money on for any period

Your craftsmen and managers can be easily compared according to various criteria: number of customers, services rendered, profit and productivity

You will have "at hand" visual information on unfinished orders for the current day

The program will show all statistics on orders for the selected period to analyze orders, staff work, deadlines and production

You can easily find out what consumables are required for orders for any day

Convenient list of paper cutting jobs optimizes the activities of your employees

The program will tell you what products you need to purchase and will automatically generate an application

At any time, in any warehouse, you can find out detailed information on the consumption, availability and movement of each product

Integration with the latest technologies will allow you to shock your customers and deservedly gain the reputation of the most modern company

The ultra-modern function of communication with the PBX will allow you to see the data of the caller, shock the client, immediately referring to him by name, not waste a second searching for information

The necessary data can be uploaded to your site to control the order status, display the cost of services - there are many possibilities!

A special program will save a copy of all your data in the program on a schedule without the need to stop work in the system, automatically archive and notify of readiness

Reserve
copying

Communication with payment terminals, so that customers can pay for their orders not only in the store, but also in the nearest terminal. Such payments will be automatically displayed in the program

Payment
terminals

The scheduling system allows you to set up a backup schedule, receive important reports at a specific time and set any other program actions

Integration with cameras will provide reliable control: the program will indicate the data on the received payment and other important information in the titles of the video stream

You can quickly enter the initial data required for the program to work. For this, a convenient manual input or import of data is used.

The program interface is so easy that even a child can quickly figure it out

We have performed business automation for many organizations:

Language of the basic version of the program: РУССКИЙ

You can also order the international version of the program, in which you can enter information in ANY LANGUAGE of the world. You can even easily translate the interface yourself, since all the names will be placed in a separate text file.

The printing industry must keep records for each order. Our software for printing will help you quickly register and find orders. Each printing order is issued to a specific manager who can only work with his own orders. And the manager will control the work of all managers. Moreover, the list of orders will be classified by order status. You can work with pre-orders and those that have been put into production. The polygraphy program can be supplied in an expanded or lightweight form. The extended version of the program will include an order calculation, which will make it easy to calculate the cost for the required types of work. Costing can be customized for different activities.

Printing department carries out on: printing, lamination, UV varnish, creasing, folding, die-cutting, embossing, hot stamping, saddle stitching and other works. Automation of printing allows you to create your own list of work performed and fill out a cost estimate for each. Printing system of order transfer allows transferring the order to the next contractor. This ensures the control of finding an order at each stage of production. Printing management automates every stage of the technological chain. This chain will also involve: managers, the head of the marketing department, operators and designers, production technologists, suppliers and other employees of the organization. Accounting in the printing industry can be kept up to the shop floor, where each worker or shop foreman will be able to note who took what work, when and how he performed it.

Printing control can be carried out with the support of barcodes, then each worker of the shop will be able to log in to the program with a personal badge. Accounting in the printing industry will be very easy with our specialized management accounting system. Special software for printing will be your irreplaceable assistant!

The program can be used by:

Video software for printing

By watching the following video, you can quickly familiarize yourself with the capabilities of the USU program - Universal Accounting System. If you do not see the video uploaded to YouTube, be sure to write to us, we will find another way to show the demo video!

Control and management capabilities of the printing program

• Control in the printing industry begins with the organization of a single customer base in the program;
• For each client in the accounting program, you can view his order history for any period of time;
• At will, accounting of materials in the printing program is added;
• Management accounting will help increase prestige;
• Management of printing costs and technological processes will become easier and faster using our program;
• You can easily generate a performance report in the program without special education, the program is simple and convenient to use;
• Our employees will be able to automate and install the program remotely via the Internet;
• Improving the quality of manufactured products can be easily carried out using the program;
• The program will be able to keep track of balances, receipts and consumption of various materials;
• Operational printing management includes work with the order of various employees;
• Orders can be transferred with fixing the time of transfer and finding the order in execution;
• Management accounting with the USU program will help increase prestige;
• Control of technological processes will become easier and faster using our program;
• The planning software has a wide range of management tools;
• You can easily generate a performance report in the program without special education;
• Our employees will be able to automate the program remotely via the Internet;
• An organization's personnel motivation system can be easily created using a program that simplifies the work of employees;
• Improving the quality of manufactured products can be easily carried out using a universal accounting system;
• Development of a decision support system is a responsible business, on which much depends on the enterprise;
• It is easy to analyze the management organization with us!
• The timesheet in excel is inconvenient. In the program, you can make all charges quickly and accurately;
• A print order form is printed from the program;
• The manager's order form may differ from the technologist's order form, which will be transferred to production in the form of a specification;
• Management systems in the printing industry can include ordering costing;
• The manager simply describes the types of work, and the printing software calculates the cost for them;
• You can download software for printing from this page;
• Printing software can automatically generate a price offer and an invoice for payment;
• Printing software can also be used to create other required documents;
• Accounting system Polygraphy automates the work of a technologist;
• Technologists can change the manager's specification, divide the work by imposition, select a printing press and make a list of required materials;
• The program keeps track of orders, taking into account the work of the supplier, who will note in the program whether all goods and materials are available for the fulfillment of each individual order;
• The printing program allows even TCP and workshop workers to work in a single database;
• Shop employees choose a job and, upon completion, enter the result into the printing accounting program;
• Printing orders and color control in printing will be under the watchful eye of electronics using our specialized program!

Download software for accounting in printing

Below are the download links. You can download the software presentation in PowerPoint format and demo version for free. Moreover, the demo version has certain limitations: in terms of time of use and functionality.

Description of the printing program Smart Numbers

The printing program simplifies the conduct of complex and routine operations. With its help, it will be possible to increase the efficiency of enterprise management by an order of magnitude, regardless of its scale of activity. The Smart Numbers software supports an unlimited number of printing devices in the form of color and black and white printers, offset machines, large format plotters, risographs, etc. It is also compatible with various peripheral devices such as barcode scanners and fiscal recorders.
The program for calculating printing "Smart Numbers" has the following functionality:
- creation, printing and mailing of the order and delivery form;
- calculation of the total cost of the order according to several methods;
- acceleration of the process of interaction of all employees;
- availability of a flexible system of settings;
- use of templates of standard products;
- online creation and printing of barcode labels and much more.
The printing calculator will calculate the total cost of any additional work. The software package has a directory-directory for clients, which contains a table of contact persons. Users can print and export generated reports. Installation of the software package will minimize manual labor and the likelihood of errors. Detailed analysis and provision of analytical information will reduce costs. Using the program will increase labor productivity and profit.
You can purchase the program right now. Pay for the required number of licenses (1 license \u003d 1 computer with the program) and start using! Our experts will always help you if you have any questions.

Typography software

A program for a printing house should take into account the specifics of the printing business and the peculiarities of technological processes of production of printed products.

We draw the attention of potential users to the fact that the PrintEffect system is specialized software specifically for a printing company. PrintEffect allows you to reliably describe the product, its production process, and make all the necessary calculations for placing an order and its implementation.

Why is it important

A universal program that can solve all the problems of enterprise management regardless of industry is a myth.

If some software is positioned as universal, it is either a "designer" that requires a lot of work to adjust to the needs of a particular production, or it is a system that solves a certain, rather narrow, range of tasks typical for most enterprises. And not only printing, For example, accounting systems, personnel records, personnel access control systems, etc.

We are constantly confronted with programs. Pay attention to how you shop in the supermarket, pay for home Internet and cellular services, buy train or plane tickets over the Internet, buy tours. It seems to be just a purchase, a typical task, a product or service is purchased. But everywhere they use their own programs.

Which program to use to manage typography

Our opinion is that software should be used that will allow you to make more money.

A printing house is a manufacturing enterprise. The main income of printing houses is obtained from the sale of products of the main production - printing products. To maximize profits, it is necessary to ensure the well-coordinated work of the main services of the printing house - the sales department, production departments, supply services.

The rest of the units - administrative, accounting, security, personnel department, etc., simply serve the main production.

Therefore, in order to ensure high-quality management of the printing house, it is necessary, first of all, to pay attention to the peculiarities of the printing business and use the software that is maximally adapted to the specifics of business processes and the peculiarities of the technological process of the printing company.

The technology of printing production has a number of features that are not found in other industries. For example, a description of a printed product uses concepts such as "type of product", "format", "number of stripes", "color", "printed material" and so on.

For the correct calculation and ordering for production, it is necessary to take into account the peculiarities of the technology, for example, formats, layout, ratio of circulation of product elements, technological waste, types of finishing and stitching, equipment parameters, material characteristics and much more. The software product that is used in the printing industry must take all this into account.

Our software was originally designed taking into account all the features of the printing industry. PrintEffect contains interfaces for a competent description of the technology for fulfilling a printing order, uses typical algorithms in the calculation process. For registration of a fact in production, specialized interfaces and options are offered that allow high-quality collection of production accounting data.

As a result, the system provides a detailed plan / fact analysis of the efficiency of the printing house, including at each step of the order. When implementing the system, it is enough to set up directories of equipment, technological operations, materials, reflecting the specifics of a particular production. Everything else is initially included in the control system.

If you are inclined to purchase any "universal" software product, take into account that you will have to put all the printing specifics into the system yourself. It will be either a rather complicated setup, or you will have to write a detailed technical task and use the services of programmers.