Layout Department vs RagTime
Layout Department
layoutdepartment.comRagTime
ragtime.deSide by side
| Figure | Layout Department | RagTime |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 4 |
| Spec score · Desktop Publishing Software | 8.1 (#11) | 7.5 (#20) |
| Headquarters | Leavenworth, Washington, United States | Garbsen, Germany |
| Purpose | Layout Department arranges PDFs into imposed print files for books, zines, and booklets. | RagTime combines word processing, spreadsheets, imaging, and graphs in a page-layout environment for graphical design, prepress, office work, and database publishing. |
Plans
RagTime
- RagTime 7.5 S Full single-user version€1,099, paid once
- RagTime 7.5 M Full multi-user version€4,346, paid once
- RagTime 7.5 L Full multi-user version€8,069, paid once
- RagTime 7.5 XL Company license€29,990, paid once
In their own words
Layout Department
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.