With Adobe InDesign you'll be able to create all sorts of documents, from simple flyers to complete ebooks, as well as labels, brochures, presentations, certificates, newsletters and more. This new version also lets you adds interactivity to your creations by inserting video and sound, and then exporting the result as Flash (SWF) or an interactive PDF.

The latest version of Adobe InDesign includes important new features that will enhance your workflow and boost your productivity. The new simplified object selection, for example, makes it easier to control objects in your document. Also, the perfect integration of Adobe InDesign with the new Adobe CS Review (part of the new CS Live online services) helps you share your work and receive feedback from colleagues and customers in a very easy way.

Like in any other Adobe application, the learning curve in Adobe InDesign is quite a steep one, but the results are worth the effort. The program is thoroughly documented, so as long as you're willing to learn, you'll be making the most of Adobe InDesign in a relatively short period of time – especially if you're used to other Adobe apps, as Adobe InDesign makes use of the same interface style.

With Adobe InDesign CS6 you'll be able to design professional-looking layouts both for printing and digital publishing.

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However, I wish I'd had something like Swift Publisher to help me rather than having to negotiate the complexities of Quark Xpress. Swift Publisher makes it easy enough for even a darts player to produce professional looking flyers, newsletters, brochures, letterheads and more. There are more than 1,000 images, 90 designs and 100 templates to help get you going too, so you don't have to start from scratch.

Swift Publisher allows you to produce documents where text professionally wraps around images and objects, as well as background and foreground layers to help create and edit advanced designs. You can also control transparency, tint images with colors, mask, crop, tile and rotate them. Usefully, Swift Publisher also integrates with iPhoto if you want to import images.

One problem, however, seems to be with PDF documents. For some reason, Adobe PDF Reader handles PDFs made in Swift badly and the quality can look poor. In addition, exporting them seems to considerably increase their file size, although you can reduce this by going into the Options menu in the Export dialog and tinkering around with the filters.

Overall though, Swift Publisher is a breath of fresh air compared to more complex applications such as Quark.

Download Swift Publisher 3.0.1 in Softonic

It allows you to create professional-looking cards, calendars, DVD cases and more. It also includes Photo Workshop, a powerful yet simple to use built-in editor to fix and enhance your photos, and a large collection of photos, graphics and creative fonts. The Print Shop is also integrated with iLife meaning you can import track names and times from iTunes to create album covers, playlists and track listings.

Alternatively, you can import your family photos from iPhoto to create greeting cards, add address labels with Address Book and create poster-size calendars with fixtures imported from iCal. Whatever you're making The Print Shop is packed with templates that do the hard work for you including nostalgia, sport and family themes. Version 2 has been upgraded to include many more templates and clipart images plus greater integration with iLife.

The Print Shop has suffered quite a few incompatibility problems with the latest versions of Windows but Mac users generally haven't been as badly affected. However, The Print Shop is no Photoshop or Quark - it is however more user friendly and more tailored to domestic needs.

The Print Shop is a relatively user friendly desktop publishing software for Macs.

Download The Print Shop 2.0.11 in Softonic

Download Art Text 2.4.2 in Softonic

Nowadays, it is increasingly losing ground to Adobe's InDesign but its continued use in the professional publishing industry is testament to the power and quality of QuarkXPress.

The reason for its longevity is simply because QuarkXPress is a very powerful design and page layout software package but at the same time, retains an intuitive and versatile interface that lets you combine elegant typography with color and pictures. The end result is highly professional web and print layouts.

However, those looking for major improvements in version 9 of QuarkXPress might be disappointed. The update adds a little more power to your elbow in the form of an App Studio for mobiles and iPads allowing you to create your own interactive publications. Beyond this, many of the modifications and updates are relatively subtle, such as the possibility to export to ePUB for the eBook Market, iPad, Sony Reader and NOOK format converters plus an image grid.

Getting content into QuarkXPress had previously been one of it's major bugbears but the developers had already made it far more flexible in version 9, accepting content from products from rivals such as Adobe Bridge, iPhoto or Extensis Portfolio, allowing you to drag content from QuarkXPress to Photoshop, Illustrator, Microsoft Word or the desktop. Version 9 enhances this flexibility to take into account the rapidly expanding eBook and iPad market.

It's hard top sum up all of QuarkXPress's features in a few words but if you've never tried it and you're into desktop publishing, it's safe to say you won't be disappointed although you should also check out Adobe InDesign too before making any decisions.

Download QuarkXPress 9.5 in Softonic

Although it's completely free, Scribus offers some serious publishing power including support for CMYK color, separations, ICC color management and versatile PDF creation. Although the interface isn't as slick as it could be, Scribus Aqua is a port of Scribus using Qt Free so that it looks and works much better on OS X than Scribus in its raw form.

One thing that isn't so easy to master on Scribus is formatting. You may encounter several formatting issues when importing text, as everything has to be done manually. Even just changing fonts doesn't happen in real time - you have to change them and preview how they will look in another window. You can however drag and drop elements with ease as well as export documents in EPS, SVG and PDF format. Importing PDF and EPS isn't so easy however - you need GhostScript to do so and this isn't easy for beginners to scripting.

Scribus has a lot of potential although its certainly not a patch on a Quark and can be very unintuitive to use at times.

Download Scribus Aqua 1.4.1 RC3 in Softonic

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The only real drawback, and it is a rather major one, is that Ultimate Pen doesn't work with the two biggest presentation apps on the market, Keynote and Powerpoint. You won't be able to draw, write or sketch on any of these programs. However, you can still use the Click Through mode to make your sketches visible on top of Keynote and Powerpoint.

Ultimate Pen is a useful tool to quickly draw and sketch on almost any application on your Mac.

Download Ultimate Pen 1.4.5 in Softonic

While in the olden days getting a passport sized photo involved going to a photo booth and taking picture upon picture until something came out that didn't make you look like Frankenstein. PassportPicture is designed to help you print your own identity picture at the exact size needed for the type of ID it's designed for.

In a few minutes, you can import, calibrate and print multiple copies of your identity picture and then print multiple copies on your printer. Until you pay 15 dollars to upgrade, this version imprints the word "demo" across your photos but it gives you a sufficient idea of how it works. If you're in the USA, it's ideal because all the photo ID choices are predominantly American although obviously for users outside the US, it's not quite so useful.

If you have to regularly produce ID card photos and have a decent printer, then PassportPicture can help you save time and money.

Download PassportPicture 1.1.0 in Softonic

Download ImageBuddy 4.0 in Softonic

It allows you to automatically print and export documents to PDF, PostScript, EPS and JPEG multiple InDesign documents with a variety of options. Simply select the documents you need to output, adjust the settings, and BatchOutput will do the rest for you. The developers stress that it is not just a plug-in for Adobe InDesign however - rather it's a "workflow" solution that integrates fully with Finder and doesn't limit your ability to manipulate InDesign documents when open.

The good thing is that BatchOutput works very discreetly in the background. You can keep working with other programs while it processes your InDesign files in the background. The problem is the process can take a long time depending on the type of or length of document you're trying to convert. The best thing would probably be to leave it going overnight.

BatchOutput is an excellent tool for anyone that uses InDesign frequently and needs to convert between document formats quickly.

Download BatchOutput 3.12 in Softonic