PubCom n Executive Summary: Software Analysis
10
Key features evaluated
in the comparison table
The following items are key features for different types of publishing—Basic Desktop
Publishing, Long Documents (books & technical publications), and Tabular
Material. The numbers correspond to the line items in the comparison table.
Features for Basic DTP:
A. Typography:
1. Paragraph stylesheets for typography settings
2. Character stylesheets for selected text
3. Keyboard shortcuts for styles
4. Styles can be “based on” other styles so that they can easily be changed &
updated
5. Manual controls (overrides) for tweaking type, including baseline shift
up/down, kerning, font changes
6. Visual “clue” or icon shows which fonts are TrueType or PostScript in font
menus, control panels and dialog boxes
7. Automatic drop caps
8. Automatic bullets & numbering with hanging indent
9. Automatic rules below/above paragraphs
10. Customize size & placement of SMALL CAPS, super/subscripts & underline
rules
11. Horizontal and vertical scaling of type (stretch taller or wider)
12. A paragraph of type can straddle several columns without being in a separate
frame or text box
13. Tab stops can be set on a visual ruler (like in word processing)
14. Search & replace for text, styles, attributes, and other formatting controls
15. Spell checker
16. Can search for a particular font and weight and replace it with another
17. Can create outlines (paths) from a typeface, converting type into a graphic
18. Has built-in editing module for easier editing
B. Master Pages:
19. Has master page feature
20. Can create more than one master page for different looks
21. Can have both landscape and portrait orientations in same document
22. Can override or delete master page elements on document pages without
affecting the master page
23. Headers/footers can be programmed to pick up titles of chapters and other
data from the document
PubCom n Executive Summary: Software Analysis
11
C. Layout & Design:
24. More than one level of undo
25. Uses frames
26. Frames can straddle pages (cross a spread)
27. Can rotate text & graphic frames
28. Can resize, flip and rotate graphics
29. Can control frame inset individually on all 4 sides (not just one amount for
all 4 sides)
30. Can draw ruler guides
31. Can draw ruler guides on pasteboard
32. Can set ruler guides exactly (usually by typing in number x/y location)
33. Can set up designer’s grid that’s different from the number of text columns
(ie, 4 grids with 2 text columns)
34. Easy to designate tints of PMS colors
35. Easy to set up color palettes with PMS spot colors & CMYK builds
36. Break commands for next column of text, next page, etc.
37. Irregular & regular text wraps around graphics, text boxes, and other objects
38. Can start a document on either a left or right-hand page (create 2-page
spread)
39. Can create a spread with 3 or more pages (ie, when doing large brochures)
40. Has a library feature for frequently-used items
41. Has autosave & auto backup feature
42. Rules/lines/strokes/outlines can be customized (ie, can have a dotted rule 4pts
thick with transparent background)
43. Color fills & textures
44. Can draw polygons & polylines in addition to simple circles, squares and
straight lines
45. Can draw freestyle Bezier curves and edit nodes
46. Fit text to a path or curve
47. Can print thumbnails
48. Can export text
49. Can pre-tag text in word processing to coordinate with DTP stylesheet styles
50. Bleeds and pasteboard
51. Can zoom in/out in any percentage, rather than at fixed percentages.
52. Has keyboard shortcuts to quickly zoom in/out
D. Preflighting:
53. Can print color “splits” on laser printer to simulate actual color separations
54. Has built-in preflighting tools to check fonts, graphics (eps, tiff, cmyk, rgb,
resolution), linked graphic files, printing settings, etc.
55. Collects page layout files, graphic files, and font files to send to the service
bureau.
PubCom n Executive Summary: Software Analysis
12
E. Electronic distribution:
56. Has built-in Acrobat PDF creation
57. Can export to HTML
58. Can import and export XML files for Internet publishing (“roundtrip XML”)
59. Can import and export SGML files
Features for book & long technical documents
60. Allows several users to access files (multi-user features)
61. Automatic footnotes at bottom of columns (like word processing)
62. Endnotes at the end of a chapter or document
63. Paragraph numbering
64. Paragraphs of text can be easily rotated inside the main body text columns
65. Equation editor for setting complex math & scientific equations
66. Indexing (index markers in chapters and then generates index)
67. TOC (generates TOC with page numbers based on styles in stylesheets)
68. Cross references across chapters in a publication
69. Book management tools (combine several individual chapters into one
“book” for printing, copying files, indexing, generating TOC, etc.)
70. Centralized stylesheet (can use one central stylesheet for all chapters in a book
like Ventura)
71. Can copy stylesheet into new chapter or publication.
72. Can maintain links with external WP files (so that editors can edit text
without going into DTP)
Features for tabular material
73. Can import data from spreadsheets & word processing tables
74. Can import data from databases
75. Maintains the “cell” construction from spreadsheets & word processing tables
(rather than making it all tabbed like in plain word processing)
76. Uses real tables with individual cells (rather than tabbed like word processing)
77. Can wrap long sentences of text inside a table cell
78. Can have multiple paragraphs inside a table cell
79. Can have shading & rules on individual table cells
80. Can place graphics in cells
81. Can designate the table’s column heads and footers, and have them
automatically repeated on each page of multi-page tables
82. Can rotate text in a table cell (for column heads)
83. Can straddle or merge several table cells
84. Sort data in a table
85. Create formulas and calculations in a table
13
PubCom n Executive Summary: Software Analysis
Comparison of Desktop Publishing Software
Depending on the type of publications you produce, one software program could
have features that make your job easier and faster to produce. This comparison chart
will help you sort out the features that are most useful to you.
Deciding which program is best for your needs is not a simple question to answer
since it depends on the type of publication you are designing. This chart examines
the five professional desktop publishing software programs used to create print
publications:
• Adobe PageMaker, ver 7.0
• Adobe InDesign, ver 2.0
Preliminary evaluation of specific features
• Adobe FrameMaker, ver 7.0 Preliminary evaluation of specific features
• Corel Ventura, ver 8.0
• QuarkXPress, ver 5.0
Preliminary evaluation of specific features
.
PageMaker, InDesign and QuarkXPress can be thought of as solutions for basic page
layout—they are ideal for brochures, newsletters, advertisements, pamphlets, posters
and other items that require a high degree of design and control. FrameMaker and
Ventura are best suited for long documents, technical documents, and database
publishing.
? outstanding feature indicates that this program does a superior job with this feature,
far beyond the other programs.
This is a DRAFT version of the comparison table. Final evaluations of
Framemaker 7, InDesign 2 and QuarkXPress 5 are underway. The comparisons listed
below may change when the final version of this table is published.
Operating Systems Supported
Adobe
Framemaker
Adobe
InDesign
Adobe
PageMaker
Corel
Ventura
QuarkXPress
Windows/
Mac/Unix
Windows/
Mac
Windows/
Mac
Windows
Windows/
Mac
14
PubCom n Executive Summary: Software Analysis
Basic Desktop Publishing Tools and Features
Adobe
Framemaker
Adobe
InDesign
Adobe
PageMaker
Corel
Ventura
QuarkXPress
Typography
1. All of the programs use paragraph stylesheets for formatting text.
They also have controls for fonts, leading and other typesetting formats.
2. Character stylesheets for selected
text
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
3. Keyboard shortcuts for styles
No
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
4. Styles can be “based on” other
styles so that they can easily be
changed
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
5. Manual controls (overrides) for
tweaking type, including baseline
shift up/down, kerning, font
changes
Yes, but…
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
6. In font menus, icon identifies
which fonts are TrueType and
which are Postscript
No
No
No
Yes
No
7. Automatic drop caps
No
Yes
Yes, but…
Yes
Yes
(awkward to
use)
? outstanding
feature
Yes with
addition of
plug-in
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes:small
caps and
superscripts /
subscripts
(awkward to
use, can’t
baseline shift)
8. Automatic bullets & numbering
with hanging indent
Yes, but…
9. Automatic rules below/above
paragraphs
Yes, but…
10. Customize size & placement of
SMALL CAPS, super/subscripts &
underline rules
Yes: small
caps and
superscript /
subscripts
Yes: small
caps and
superscripts /
subscripts
Yes: small
caps and
superscripts /
subscripts
No: underline
No: underline
No: underline
Yes: Horz.
Yes: both
Yes: Horz.
11. Horizontal and vertical scaling of
type (stretch taller or wider)
No
(awkward to
use)
No
? outstanding
feature
(difficult to use)
No: Vert.
? outstanding
feature
No: underline
Yes: both
Yes: can apply
one or the other,
not both
No: Vert.
12. A paragraph of type can straddle
several columns of body text
Yes
No
No
Yes
No
13. Tab stops can be set on a visual
ruler (like in WP)
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
14. Search & replace for text, styles,
attributes, etc.
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
15. Spell checker
Yes:
8 languages
Yes: multiple
languages
Yes, only in
story editing
mode, 17
languages
Yes: 23
languages
Yes: 10-14
languages
(plus 9 optional)
with Passport
version
15
PubCom n Executive Summary: Software Analysis
Basic Desktop Publishing Tools and Features
Adobe
Framemaker
Adobe
InDesign
Adobe
PageMaker
Corel
Ventura
QuarkXPress
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Typography
16. Can search and replace fonts
? outstanding
feature
? outstanding
feature
17. Can create outlines (paths) from a
typeface, converting type into a
graphic
No
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
18. Has built-in “editing” module for
editing text quickly
No
No
Yes, Story
Editor
Yes
No
? outstanding
feature
Basic Desktop Publishing Tools and Features
Adobe
Framemaker
Adobe
InDesign
Adobe
PageMaker
Corel
Ventura
QuarkXPress
19. Has master page feature
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
20. Can create more than one Master
Page for different layout formats
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
21. Can have both landscape and
portrait orientations in same
document, or can rotate master
page
Yes
No
No
Yes
No
22. Can override master page
elements on document pages
No
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
Yes
No
Master Pages
(move items,change fonts, remove items)
23. Headers/footers can be
programmed to pick up titles of
chapters and other data
16
PubCom n Executive Summary: Software Analysis
Basic Desktop Publishing Tools and Features
Adobe
Framemaker
Adobe
InDesign
Adobe
PageMaker
Corel
Ventura
QuarkXPress
No, singlelevel only
Multiple up
to several
hundred
No, singlelevel only
Custom, up
to 99 levels
in any one
open
document
No, singlelevel only
Yes
Frame can
have only
one text
column
Yes
Yes
Layout & Design
24. Multiple undos
(actual amount
limited by RAM,
etc.)
25. Uses text frames that can be
divided into multiple text columns
Yes, but…
26. Frames can straddle pages
(cross a spread)
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
27. Can rotate text & graphic frames
Yes (graphic
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
multiple
columns must
be equal in
width (if
unequal, must
use a separate
text frame)
frames in 90
degree
increments;
graphics
themselves to
any degree)
28. Resize, flip and rotate graphics
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
29. Can control frame inset
individually on all 4 sides
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
30. Can draw ruler guides
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
31. Can draw ruler guides on
pasteboard
No
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
32. Can set ruler guides exactly,
usually by typing in a number (x/y
location)
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
33. Can set up designer’s grid that’s
different from # of text columns
(ie, 4 grids with 2 text columns)
No
Can have
two kinds of
grids (baseline
Yes, using
Grid
Manager
plug-in
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
grid for aligning
columns,
document grid
for aligning
objects)
34. Easy to designate screen tints of
PMS spot colors
Can do, but
clunky
Yes
17
PubCom n Executive Summary: Software Analysis
Basic Desktop Publishing Tools and Features
Adobe
Framemaker
Adobe
InDesign
Adobe
PageMaker
Corel
Ventura
QuarkXPress
35. Easy to set up color palettes with
spot PMS colors & CMYK builds
Reasonably
easy
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes, but…
36. “Break” commands for next
column of text, and next page
Yes
Yes
Layout & Design
37. Irregular & regular text wraps
around graphics, text boxes, and
other objects
Yes, but…
cannot delete
certain preset
colors from
palette even if
you aren’t using
them
Yes
Yes
Yes, but…
? outstanding
feature
can’t be built
into a stylesheet
style
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
irregular wrap is
awkward
38. Can start a document on either a
left or right-hand page
(create 2-page opening spread)
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
39. Can create a spread with 3 or
more pages (ie, when doing multipanel brochures)
No
Yes
No
Yes, layout
Yes
40. Has a library feature for
frequently-used items
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
41. Has autosave & auto backup
feature
Yes to both
No to both
No to both
Yes to both
Yes to both
42. Rules/lines/strokes/outlines can
be customized
Yes, but not
adjustable
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
43. Color fills & textures
Yes
Color and
gradient fills,
no textures
Color fills
only (simple
Yes
Color and
gradient fills,
no textures
settings for
brochures,
pamphlets etc.
that
automatically
arranges the
pages so they
print correctly
straight line &
checkerboard
textures)
44. Can draw polygons & polylines in
addition to simple circles, squares
and straight lines
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
45. Can draw freestyle Bezier curves
and edit nodes
No
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
46. Fit text to a path or curve
No
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
47. Can print thumbnails
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
? outstanding
feature
? outstanding
feature
18
PubCom n Executive Summary: Software Analysis
Basic Desktop Publishing Tools and Features
Adobe
Framemaker
Adobe
InDesign
Adobe
PageMaker
Corel
Ventura
QuarkXPress
Yes: use the
Yes:
RTF, ASCii
text, tagged
text, HTML &
XML formats
Yes: several
common
formats
available
through
filters, or in
various textonly formats
and RTF
Yes: various
text-only
formats and
RTF
Yes:
RTF, ASCii
text, tagged
text, HTML,
XML, &
many word
processing
formats
Layout & Design
48. Can export text
“Save As”
command
? outstanding
feature
? outstanding
feature
49. Can pre-tag text in word
processing to coordinate with
DTP stylesheet styles
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
50. Bleeds and pasteboard
Bleeds: are
set
automatically —
difficult to
control.
Bleeds:Must
Bleeds:Must
Bleeds:
set bleeds
manually, can
set bleed size
when exporting
EPS file.
set bleeds
manually.
Can set bleed
Bleeds:
can set bleed
size
Pasteboard:
Pasteboard:
dynamic
pasteboard —
whatever is
there can be
accessed from
any page
Pasteboard:
can set size of
pasteboard
is page-specific
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No, but has
many
shortcut
buttons on
button bar
Yes
Pasteboard:
51. Can zoom in/out in any
percentage, rather than at fixed
percentages.
no pasteboard
area
Pasteboard:
No, only
preset
percentages
are available
Yes, and has
Navigator
box for easy
access to
portions of
the screen
is page-specific
limits.
? outstanding
feature
52. Has keyboard shortcuts to quickly
zoom in/out
No
Yes
19
PubCom n Executive Summary: Software Analysis
Basic Desktop Publishing Tools and Features
Adobe
Framemaker
Adobe
InDesign
Adobe
PageMaker
Corel
Ventura
QuarkXPress
53. Can print color “splits” on laser
printer to simulate actual color
separations
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
54. Has built-in preflighting tools to
check fonts, graphics (eps, tiff,
cmyk, rgb), linked graphic files,
printing settings, etc.
No
Yes:
“Preflight”
utility
Yes: “Save
for Service
Provider”
plug-in
Yes:
“Prepare for
Service
Bureau”
utility
Yes: “Collect
for Output”
utility
55. Collects graphic files and font files
to send to the service bureau
No
Yes
Yes, but…
Yes
Preflighting
? outstanding
feature
Yes
? outstanding
feature
only when
making a .prn
file
Basic Desktop Publishing Tools and Features
Adobe
Framemaker
Adobe
InDesign
Adobe
PageMaker
Corel Ventura
Quark Xpress
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes,
Yes
Electronic Distribution
56. Has built-in Acrobat PDF creation
? outstanding
feature
57. Can export to HTML
Yes
Yes
default or
custom
conversion,
numerous
controls. Can
also save as
Corel Barista
file, which
converts file to
Java
programming
language
58. Can import and export XML for
Internet publishing
Yes
59. Can import and export SGML files
Yes
Yes
No
No
Export only.
Can’t import
XML files
No
No
No
No
20
PubCom n Executive Summary: Software Analysis
Features for Books and Long Technical Documents
Adobe
Framemaker
Adobe
InDesign
Adobe
PageMaker
Corel
Ventura
Quark Xpress
60. Allows several users to access
files (multi-user features)
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes, through
its “book”
feature
61. Automatic footnotes at bottom of
columns (like word processing)
Yes,
automatically
maintains
footnotes
No:
endnotes
only
No:
endnotes
only
Yes,
automatically
maintains
footnotes
No
62. Endnotes
Yes, but
does not
automatically
maintain
them
Yes:
Endnotes
are set at
end of the
document or
publication
Yes:
Endnotes
are set at
end of the
document or
publication
Yes
No
63. Paragraph numbering
Yes
No
No
Yes
No
64. Paragraphs of text can be easily
rotated inside the main body text
columns
Yes
Text frames
can be
rotated, but
Text frames
can be
rotated, but
Yes
Text frames
can be
rotated, but
not paragraphs
or selected text
within a frame
not paragraphs
or selected text
within a frame
? outstanding
feature
not paragraphs
or selected text
within a frame
65. Equation editor for setting
complex math & scientific
equations
Yes
No
No
Yes
No
66. Indexing (user places index
markers in files and then
generates index)
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
67. Table of Contents (generates
TOC with page numbers based
on styles in stylesheets)
Yes
? outstanding
feature
? outstanding
feature
Yes: TOC is
automatically
updated.
Yes
Yes
Yes, by using
the Lists
palette
Yes
Yes
Yes
? outstanding
feature
68. Cross references across chapters
in a publication
Yes
69. Book management tools
(combine several individual
chapters into one “book” for
printing, copying files, indexing,
generating TOC, synchronizing
stylesheets)
Yes
70. Centralized stylesheet (can use
one central stylesheet for all
chapters in a book)
No
Yes
? outstanding
feature
? outstanding
feature
Yes
Yes, but…
(awkward to
use, copies
stylesheet to
other chapters)
Yes
Yes, but…
Yes
minimal tools for
books
? outstanding
feature
No
Yes
Yes, but…
? outstanding
feature
(awkward to
use, copies
stylesheet to
other chapters)
21
PubCom n Executive Summary: Software Analysis
Features for Books and Long Technical Documents
Adobe
Framemaker
Adobe
InDesign
Adobe
PageMaker
Corel
Ventura
Quark Xpress
71. Can copy stylesheet into new
publication or chapter
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
72. Can maintain links with external
word processing files (so that
editors can edit text without
launching the publishing program)
Yes
Yes, but …
No
Yes
No
upon updating
the link in
InDesign, all
formatting and
editing done
there will be lost
as revised text
comes in.
? outstanding
feature
Features for Tabular Material
Adobe
Framemaker
Adobe
InDesign
Adobe
PageMaker
Corel
Ventura
Quark Xpress
73. Can import data from
spreadsheets & word processing
tables
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
74. Can import data from databases
Yes, with
delimited .txt
files
Yes, with
delimited .txt
files
Yes, with
delimited .txt
files
Yes
? outstanding
feature
75. Maintains the “cell” construction
from spreadsheets & WP tables
(rather than making it all tabbed
like in plain WP)
Yes
Yes
No, although
Yes
Yes
76. Uses real tables with individual
cells (rather than tabbed like word
processing)
Yes
Yes
Yes
Forthcoming
free extension
will provide this
feature
Built-in
database
publisher to
directly access
databases, and
also with
delimited .txt
files
Yes, with
delimited .txt
files
maintains cell
construction
when “Table
Editor” module
is used—
awkward to use
Yes
Yes by using
“Table
Editor”
external
module, but it
? outstanding
feature
saves table as a
graphic and it
then must be
imported into
PageMaker
77. Can wrap long sentences of text
inside a table cell
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
22
PubCom n Executive Summary: Software Analysis
Features for Tabular Material
Adobe
Framemaker
Adobe
InDesign
Adobe
PageMaker
Corel
Ventura
Quark Xpress
78. Can have multiple paragraphs
inside a table cell
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
79. Can have shading & rules on
individual table cells
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
80. Can place graphics in cells
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
81. Can designate the table’s column
heads and footers, and have
them repeated on each page
(multi-page tables)
Yes
No
No
Yes
No
82. Can rotate text in a table cell (for
column heads)
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
83. Can straddle or merge several
table cells
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
84. Sort data in a table
Yes
No
No
Yes
No
85. Create formulas and calculations
in a table
Yes, extensive
No
No
Yes, extensive
No
spreadsheet
functions and
matrix operation
spreadsheet
functions
Learning to Use the Software
User Interface
QuarkXPress
Adobe
Framemaker
Adobe
InDesign
Adobe
PageMaker
Corel
Ventura
2
5
5
5
4
Instructional
tour
Multimedia
“tours” and
tutorials
Instructional
tutorials
Instructional
tutorials
No, but
1.5
4.5
5
3
4
on a scale of
1=lousy, 3=okay, 5=great
Tutorials that come with software
Learning Curve
(on a scale of 1=difficult, 5=easiest)
several
instructional
tutorials are
available online
at
www.quark.com