Layout Department vs Megal Publisher

Layout Department turns PDFs into imposed print files for books, zines, and booklets. Choose a sheet size, pages per sheet, binding, and other settings, then export a print-ready PDF. Its documented layouts include Booklet, Perfect Bound, Magic Zine, and Cover; the default Booklet arrangement prepares pages for folding into a zine, and books can be divided into sections or signatures. Printer marks can include trim, bleed, center marks, page numbers, and sheet labels, with options to disable them or choose defaults. PDF processing happens locally on the user’s computer rather than through an upload. The free Community Edition has no time or page-count limit, needs no payment details, and exports without watermarks or downsampling. It includes basic book and zine layouts, page creep adjustment, cover layouts, and full print-file export. The one-time Paid License costs $29 as a one-time purchase and adds resizing, custom trim size, more imposition layouts, sections, multi-fold, and other options; it includes one year of updates. The app runs on macOS and Windows.

Megal Publisher is a browser-based desktop-publishing app for creating page layouts online and saving editable projects in.mpub format. Its editor supports multiple pages, text, images, shapes, tables, master pages, text wrapping and precise object arrangement. Supported Microsoft Publisher.pub files can be rebuilt as editable Megal objects, though fonts and complex effects may need correction. It also imports macro-free Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, with a listed maximum file size of 25 MB. The app advertises more than 9,000 templates. Mail Merge accepts Excel, CSV or TSV recipient lists; the maker says recipient values remain in the browser session rather than being uploaded or embedded in the MPUB. Output options include print, PDF, SVG and images in PNG, JPEG, WebP, TIFF, BMP or GIF. Free users can create and edit publications, open supported.pub files and save.mpub projects, but printing, PDF creation, export and download require Professional. Professional costs $5.99 a month or $59.99 a year. The maker says publication files are stored locally unless account autosave is used.