Printworks is a new desktop publishing option for Macs

In the nearly ten years that Apple has been offering Pages to users of OS X (and since 2010, also on iOS), the company has always sought to make a balance between what the Mac should offer by default, both for the tasks of word processor as well as for diagramming and making more elaborate publications. Today I see his option for these segments in the middle ground: it serves both the majority of cases where users need to write formal documents and the occasions when they want to release some of their creativity in print media.

However, it is common for more experienced users to want more complex tools at their fingertips. In terms of word processing, today we have Microsoft Word on offer for a reasonable price both through Office 365 and in perpetual license on Office for Mac. desktop publishing, tools like Adobe InDesign absolutely reign around the world.

But a new 100% native option for the Mac has gained notoriety in the past few weeks: it’s Printworks, by Belight Software.

Printworks

The application stands out for making it easy and quick to perform very conventional DTP tasks, but without losing its professional appeal and flexibility. We had the opportunity to evaluate it for a few days and were very satisfied with the quality of the product.

A good starting point

Printworks offers a huge variety of templates to quickly start simple publications, designed to impress. There are more than 400 of them, separated by 24 categories in 6 different types of documents.

Printworks

The user immediately gains an arsenal to start working easily with pamphlets, catalogs, cards, calendars, posters and much more. If you want to start from scratch, the application has quick tutorials to familiarize those more experienced in document structuring, as well as the correct content diagramming in the creation process.

In addition to templates and quick familiarization with the main editing features, Printworks users will also have a good starting point with resources to add to their publications. More than 1,000 symbols, clip-arts are provided by default with the app and, if you wanted more, you can add up to 40,000 example figures for just $ 10 (via In-App Purchase).

IWork style

The application has some features of the structure that Apple has defined to present its available editing tools, such as a centralized inspector that combines all the commands in the right sidebar of the application window.

Although it is not context sensitive as in the case of Pages, it is not difficult to interact with it. At the top of the document are the editing tools and a layer editor, in which it is possible to separate the structural elements of a document from its content, for example.

Printworks

The application also supports formatting styles and pages master (master), like other products in the category. Also noteworthy are its calendar functions and bar codes, accessible from the toolbar.

Preparing for distribution

When publishing, Printworks supports the OS X native sharing menu, where documents can be sent as attachments in Mail, Messages and via AirDrop with other users. On social networks it is possible to publish covers via Facebook and Twitter.

It is also possible to save files in iCloud and export them as JPEG and TIFF images, in addition to encapsulated PostScripts and, of course, PDFs.

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If you were looking for an app for electronic publishing, it is worth taking a look at Printworks, it is on sale promotion, with 40% discount.


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