DTP Features

Here is a brief comparison between a few closed and open source vector graphics programs. Good luck finding one program that does everything you want! Please note that I have no access to InDesign, Quark, or Illustrator, and limited access to Affinity, so the estimation of the capabilities of those programs might be totally wrong. They are based mostly on browsing video tutorials for them.

If you see something wrong in the chart, please send me updates, or post on the issue tracker. You might also check out this page about vector graphics editors in Wikipedia, this dtp comparison on Wikipedia, and also a plain list of such software.

* Hover the mouse over a block to see what version the feature first appears in, if known, plus other relevant notes.
* If a spot is blank, its status is either not known, or the devs might be vaguely thinking about implementing it some day.
"partial" means the feature exists, but leaves much to be desired.
"planned" means actual coding has begun on it, but it is not yet functional.
"plugin" means that you can do it in the program, but you need a third party plugin.

Imposition Features	Laidout	Scribus	Inkscape	Affinity	InDesign	Quark	Illustrator
Impositioning (at all)	Yes	No Scribus -- No You can use use Laidout in limited circumstances to impose Scribus documents. This is done with a Scribus script that calls Laidout. See here for more info. A different plugin was being developed during Google Summer of Code 2007, but it seems to have never been completed. Other relevant links include making booklets from Scribus, and the imposition bug report, in which there is much discussion. Other info here and here.	partial Inkscape -- partial Inkscape's multipage functionality allows art board layouts, and they have a template for the 8 page Zine accordion imposition using clever page cloning. This method could be used for a variety of imposition types.	partial Affinity -- partial Only as an option in the print dialog, you can select Single, Tiled, N-up, Book, Booklet. An Macs, these are under Document Layout, and on Windows under Layout.	partial InDesign -- partial It seems the built in impositioning of InDesign is quite limited. It can do left/right booklets, and fold out style imposing, which is simply several pages placed side by side. You need to get plugins for more thorough imposing.	No	No
Folding signature based impositioning	Yes	No	No	partial Affinity -- partial Only single fold booklet, selected from the Print dialog	partial	No	No
Mobius strip impositioning	planned	No	No	No	No	No	No
impositioning involving non-rectangular pages	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
Spreading page contents over several pieces of paper, so you can print out a really big layout from your small printer	Yes	partial Scribus -- partial Scribus is set up to handle several papers right next to each other in a grid. In the file, there are PageSet sections. You can copy that and insert new PageSets. This allows spreading objects across many papers, but suffers from each page having to touch each other exactly, which leaves you with gaps if your printer cannot print to the edge of the paper. As of 1.3.5svn, There does not appear to be a way to edit these page sets in the gui. You have to edit the file manually.	Yes Inkscape -- Yes Using mulipage features to cover contents	Yes Affinity -- Yes via selecting Tiled in the Print dialog, with option to set overlap.	Yes	partial	Yes Illustrator -- Yes Appears to be auto laid in a grid with one overlap value, accessed from the Print dialog.
3D polyhedron unwrapping, such as for a packaging template	Yes	No	No Inkscape -- No Though there is a Box template under Extensions ->Render -> Foldable Box
Page foldouts	planned			Yes
N-up duplication, aka step and repeat	Yes
N-up with stacking	planned
Shape packing, such as packing many arbitrarily shaped stickers on one sheet of paper	planned
Work and turn	planned
Signature spine alignment marking	planned
Automatic creep calculations	planned
Ability to impose random PDFs	planned
Registration marks	Yes	Yes
Cut marks	Yes	Yes
Color bars	Yes	Yes

Infrastructure Features	Laidout	Scribus	Inkscape	Affinity	InDesign	Quark	Illustrator
Math calculations in input boxes	planned	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Plugins or scripting	planned Laidout -- planned Since Version .09, there is a very rudimentary command interpreter. It can process simple math and a few commands like Open(), Reimpose(), and Export(). Future versions will have variables, looping, and much more access to objects.	Yes	Yes	planned Affinity -- planned Allegedly they have javascript based scripting features in development	Yes	Yes
Master pages		Yes	partial Inkscape -- partial Inkscape is primarily a single page editor, but you can fake master pages to some extent via cloning	Yes	Yes	Yes
Non-destructive object filtering	partial Laidout -- partial Since 0.097, via the Object Filter node system, but needs some ux work	No	partial Inkscape -- partial Via the very compact SVG Filter Editor. You can also try out the Inkscape extension included with Laidout that lets you edit the SVG filters with Laidout's node editor.		No	No	No
Non-destructive transforms of image objects	partial Laidout -- partial via the Object Filter node system, but needs some ux work	Yes	Yes
Non-destructive transforms of vector objects	partial Laidout -- partial via the Object Filter node system, but needs some ux work	No	Yes
Object blurring		partial Scribus -- partial Images can have a blur Image Effect. Objects can Text can have blurred drop shadows.	Yes	Yes		Yes
Metafont-y erase brush, aka a knockout "color" or knockout groups		partial Scribus -- partial Not a layer, brush, or color per se, but masking achieves similar results	partial Inkscape -- partial Not a layer, brush, or color per se, but masking achieves similar results	Yes Affinity -- Yes Set layer mode to erase, but you must also invert the color for knockout
Fill applied to stroke		Yes	Yes
Variable path width	Yes	No	Yes Inkscape -- Yes via Powerstroke live path effect	Yes
Editable text wrap path, independent from the actual object		Yes	Yes Inkscape -- Yes via Subtraction Frames	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Editable clip path	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Use objects as mask (softmask in pdf speak)		Yes	Yes			No
Color separations		Yes	No	No		Yes
Color system capabilities flexible enough for any number of spot color inks	planned	Yes	No Inkscape -- No Default is RGB, but CMYK is under development. No explicit spot color support.	Yes		Yes
Color management, whether ICC color profiles or other system	planned	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Autotrace images		No	Yes	Yes		No
Spread editor, that gives an overview of all the pages and lets you rearrange them easily	Yes	partial Scribus -- partial Default view shows everything, but rearranging page order is not so easy	partial Inkscape -- partial While built mostly as a single page editor, the art board style multipage feature shows everything at once		partial
Overprinting/trapping		Yes Scribus -- Yes Options are "Overprint" and "Knockout"	No			Yes
Undercolor removal and/or black generation		Yes	No
Rotate whole page view on screen by arbitrary degrees, not just portrait/landscape	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Preflight verifier	planned	Yes	No	Yes		Yes
Collect resources	planned	Yes	No	Yes		Yes
Record macros to automate common tasks		planned	No	Yes		No
Guides that are arbitrary paths, not just vertical and horizontal lines.	planned	No	Yes		No	No	No
Aligning groups of points, text, and/or objects to paths	partial Laidout -- partial Only objects can align on a path, not points	partial Scribus -- partial Only objects (not points). Straight line guidels only.	Yes
Pressure sensitive drawing tablet support	partial	No	Yes Inkscape -- Yes Pressure support for relevant tools, but each input is same tool	Yes
Long document support, such as one document's chapters in separate files.	No	No	No	No
Batch exporting, where you can export areas to different resolutions or formats at once, for instance	partial Laidout -- partial You can hack it via command line scripting	No	partial Inkscape -- partial You can set up multiple export targets, but it is hard to apply specific sets of settings to multiple predefined areas. You can also hack it with command line scripting.
Command line processing, such as for automated batch processing	Yes	Yes	Yes	No Affinity -- No There is non-command line batch processing.
Download and use the software without having to sign in or submit email to anything	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No

Non-text Objects	Laidout	Scribus	Inkscape	Affinity	InDesign	Quark	Illustrator
Images	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Linear, and circle color gradients	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
On canvas gradient color spot editing	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Patch gradients (aka mesh gradients)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
Image mesh distortions	Yes Laidout -- Yes Since .03, Functional, but very slow.	No	No	Yes	No	No	No
Lines/polygons	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Ellipses, arcs, chords	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Engraver fill	Yes Laidout -- Yes See this demo on Youtube, for instance	No Scribus -- No but there is a "Hatch" fill style, for a couple different line patterns	partial Inkscape -- partial There are several ways to make a series of hatchings in Inkscape. One is the nearness guide, where nearby lines are detected and when you draw a new line, it is drawn at a certain distance away. Another way is the Interpolate extension, which interpolates between two different lines, creating a field like effect.	partial Affinity -- partial Affinity 3 has a Hatch Fill with limited dashes, but it seems like it is currently (November 2025) just for straight lines.			plugin
Beginning and end arrows (aka markers). Bonus points for middle arrows.	partial Laidout -- partial You can hack it with Object Filter nodes, but it really needs a dedicated interface	Yes	Yes	Yes		Yes
Repeater tool along path	partial Laidout -- partial You can hack it with Object Filter nodes, but it really needs a dedicated interface	partial Scribus -- partial only works with paths, Path Tools->Path along Path	Yes	partial Affinity -- partial Using the Artistic Text Tool along a path, and pasting in other objects
Cloning objects, optionally with link backs to original objects	Yes	partial Scribus -- partial Symbols come closest. See Scribus bug 1704.	Yes	Yes Affinity -- Yes They are called Symbols in Affinity
Shape Builder, where you can construct new paths from a sort of bezier net	planned	No	Yes	Yes

Text Features	Laidout	Scribus	Inkscape	Affinity	InDesign	Quark	Illustrator
Text. Any text at all. I mean, come on!	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Text on a line	partial	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Text flowed across linked boxes	planned	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Color fonts via layers (one font file per layer), text editable as if it were a single font	Yes	No Scribus -- No With some effort, one could can fake it manually with layers	No Inkscape -- No With some effort, one could can fake it manually with layers	No	No	No	No
Color fonts via OpenType	partial Laidout -- partial With current libcairo, OpenType color fonts are technically renderable, but not well integrated in Laidout, for instance their colors cannot really be configured currently.	No	planned	Yes	partial	Yes	Yes
Opentype feature support		Yes	Yes	Yes
Variable font support	planned	No Scribus -- No See for instance this feature request	Yes	Yes			Yes
Mixed right to left, left to right		Yes	Yes	No Affinity -- No But you can use third party software like RTL Fixer, or import svg/pdf from something else.	Yes InDesign -- Yes Complicated history, but looks like CC supports this. Non-cc from CS4 can use the World Ready Composer, if you can find it.
Vertical text		No	Yes	No
Text streams in separate files, comparable to images not being embedded		No	No	No
Convert Text to editable path	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Math equations support		partial Scribus -- partial As of 1.3.5 anyway, you can render formulas in Scribus Render Frames, then copy the frame, then paste the frame while inside a text stream, from within a text frame. Pasting while in story editor will paste a bunch of xml data that is used as text rather than as an image. Suffice it to say inline graphics needs a bit of work.	Yes Inkscape -- Yes Via Extensions -> Render -> Formula	No	plugin
Story Editor, something that lets you edit text away from how it is arranged in boxes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
Tabstops that lie on arbitrary paths, not just vertical and horizontal lines. Someday will be gone the days of rigidly defined and poorly accessed tabstops!		No	No	No	No	No	No
Tables		Yes	No	Yes		Yes
Automatic Hyphenation and justification		Yes	No	Yes		Yes
Insert sample gibberish text!! Yeah!		Yes	Yes	Yes Affinity -- Yes They call it "filler text"	Yes	Yes
Numbered and unnumbered lists		Yes	No	Yes
Generated table of contents		Yes	No	Yes
Generated index		No	No	Yes
Footnotes		No	No	Yes Affinity -- Yes The Notes panel has footnotes, sidenotes, and endnotes

Export	Laidout	Scribus	Inkscape	Affinity	InDesign	Quark	Illustrator
To image	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes		Yes	Yes
Html	Yes Laidout -- Yes Internally, it renders to svg, and then also parses templates to generate an index html file, and one html file per spread.	No	partial Inkscape -- partial In the sense that SVG, Inkscape's native format, can be embedded and/or controlled in html	No		Yes
PDF	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Scribus	partial	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
SVG/Inkscape	partial	Yes	Yes	Yes
OpenDocument ODF	No	No	No	No
Laidout	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
EPS or Postscript	partial Laidout -- partial The PS and EPS export feature is not well maintained, and probably cannot export many newer image types.	Yes	Yes	Yes		Yes
TeX/LaTeX	No	No	partial	No	No	No	No

Importing	Laidout	Scribus	Inkscape	Affinity	InDesign	Quark	Illustrator
Multiple images at the same time	Yes	plugin Scribus -- plugin These plugins allows you to dump in images potentially to multiple pages, but you are restricted to a grid of 4, 6, or 12 images per page. If python programming doesn't scare you off, you could modify it to be more adaptible.	partial	partial	Yes	partial	No
Html	planned	partial Scribus -- partial Using the "Get Text" option in a text frame. CSS not supported yet. Text is pulled from the body element, and you can use these tags: div, a, p, br, h1, h2, h3, h4, ol, ul, li, pre, code, b, u, i, em, strong, sub, sup, del, u.	No	No		partial
PDF	partial Laidout -- partial If you "expand subimages" when import images, pdf pages will be rendered to individual images. More reasonable import is in development.	partial	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Scribus	partial Laidout -- partial Scribus import works with mixed results. As of .092, master pages and text variables are importable. As of .091, linked text and table frames stay linked, even in tiled impositions. The best way to use the importer is for reimposing. For this, import all data as mystery data, and all that data (other than master pages) will be passed through on export. If you do not import all as mystery data, please beware that images whose frames do not match exactly with their image boundaries are not handled correctly. This will be handled once proper clipping is implemented.	Yes	No	No
SVG/Inkscape	partial Laidout -- partial .098: filled paths with gradients, powerstroked paths, meshes. .09: images and groups only	partial	Yes	Yes
OpenDocument ODF	No	Yes	No	No
EPS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes		Yes
TeX/LaTeX	No	partial Scribus -- partial Scribus render frames, in addition to TeX/LaTeX, also allow importing many other formats, like gnuplot, lilypond, mathml, as long as you have a renderer installed somewhere that can convert those things to an image format or PDF that Scribus can import. You can edit the source text within Scribus, then have the render frame re-render. The TeX input has a fancy symbol selector, which is convenient.	No	No
Laidout	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
Externally rendered formats (for instance, Scribus render frames)	planned	Yes	No	No

Last updated Sat Nov 29 19:10:41 2025

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