Many of the free desktop publishing software downloads are specialty utilities. They are fine for a specific job — such as labels or business cards — but they aren't full-featured page design tools. However, a few free programs for Windows have powerful publishing capabilities, including page layout, vector graphics, and image editing programs.
Welcome to Scribus, a page layout program for Linux, FreeBSD, PC-BSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, OpenIndiana, Debian GNU/Hurd, Mac OS X, OS/2 Warp 4, eComStation, Haiku and Windows. Since its humble beginning in the spring of 2001, Scribus has evolved into one of. The design platform anyone can master. You don’t have to be a design genius to put together something great. Our intuitive drag-and-drop editor puts the power in your hands. A free online room design application is a great way to quickly design a room or plan a room remodel. You can even plan a design for every room in your home, all right from your computer without having to know anything about home design software.
- Easily realize furnished plan and render of home design, create your floor plan, find interior design and decorating ideas to furnish your house online in 3D. Home Design & FREE Floor Plan Software Online - Homestyler.
- 31+ Best Free Graphic Design Software to Create Stunning Graphic Visuals. No matter whether you want to get started in graphic design or want to take your designing skill to advanced level – you’ll surely enjoy it.
- HomeByMe, Free online software to design and decorate your home in 3D. Create your plan in 3D and find interior design and decorating ideas to furnish your home.
Scribus
What We Like
Familiar interface for Adobe InDesign and QuarkXpress users.
Available for Windows, Linux, MacOS, BSD, and Unix.
Drawing tools more capable than other similar programs.
What We Don't Like
No spell-check.
Steep learning curve for those new to graphics programs.
No support for InDesign and QuarkXpress file formats.
Scribus is free desktop publishing software with many of the features of pro packages. Scribus offers CMYK support, font embedding and subsetting, PDF creation, EPS import/export, basic drawing tools, and other professional level features. Scribus works in a fashion similar to Adobe InDesign and QuarkXPress with text frames, floating palettes, and pull-down menus — and without the hefty price tag. As great as free is, this might not be the software you want if you have no prior experience with desktop publishing software and don't want to devote time to mastering the learning curve.
After you download the free Scribus software, check out these Scribus Tutorials.
Inkscape
What We Like
Similar in capabilities to Adobe Illustrator.
Intuitive interface, especially for those familiar with Illustrator.
Works on Windows, MacOS, and Linux.
What We Don't Like
Can be buggy when working with other file formats.
Documentation is not as organized as it could be.
Would benefit from more keyboard shortcuts.
A popular free, open source vector drawing program, Inkscape uses the scalable vector graphics (SVG) file format. Use Inkscape for creating text and graphics compositions including business cards, book covers, flyers, and ads. Inkscape is similar in capabilities to Adobe Illustrator and CorelDRAW. It's a graphics program that is more flexible than a bitmap photo program for doing many desktop publishing page layout tasks.
After you download Inkscape, learn to use it for desktop publishing with these Inkscape tutorials.
GIMP
Floor Plan Layout Software Free
What We Like
Comparable in features to Adobe Photoshop.
Lots of community support.
Compatible with Photoshop plugins.
What We Don't Like
Table Layout Software Free
Geared more toward creating and editing single images.
Steep learning curve.
Sometimes runs slowly.
Room Layout Software Free
The GNU Image Management Program (GIMP) is a popular free open source alternative to Photoshop and other photo editing software. GIMP is a bitmap photo editor, so it doesn't work well for text-intensive design or anything with multiple pages, but it's a great free addition to your desktop publishing software collection.