free download book publisher app Free Desktop Publishing Software for Windows. Many free desktop publishing software downloads are fine for a specific job, such as labels or business cards, but they aren't full-featured design tools. However, a few free programs for Windows have powerful publishing capabilities, including page layout, vector graphics, and image editing programs. The three listed here are some of our favorites. Professional-level Features: Scribus. Henrik Hüttemann / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0. Familiar interface for Adobe InDesign and QuarkXpress users. Available for Windows, Linux, macOS, BSD, and Unix. Drawing tools more capable than other similar programs. Steep learning curve for those new to graphics programs. No support for InDesign and QuarkXpress file formats. Scribus is a free desktop publishing application 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, but 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 the learning curve. If you do, however, there are many tutorials available to get you started. Flexibility for Many Types of Tasks: Inkscape. Similar in capabilities to Adobe Illustrator. Intuitive interface, especially for those familiar with Illustrator. Works on Windows, macOS, and Linux. 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. You can 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's more flexible than a bitmap photo program for performing many desktop publishing page layout tasks. 10 Best Free Book Publishing Software For Self-Publishing Authors. Here are 10 of the best free book publishing software and self-publishing apps to help with your book publishing and promotion. We all need some help. The following list of ten free book publishing software and writing tools I use almost every day. So I can vouch for how useful they are. There are so many aspects to being a self-published author. It is sometimes hard to count the number of hats you need to wear every day. If you have the best online publishing tools and software, you are one step ahead. My ten best and most useful free book publishing software tools. You have to write, format, design, publish, promote, market, blog, and then find time to connect with our readers. So you need the best publishing software you can find. These free book publishing tools will save you a lot of time to do what you do best — writing a book. 1. Canva. Create your free ebook covers. Images are vital in attracting attention. But you should use unique images and never copy or download images from Google Image Search. Canva is a great graphic design tool that solves this problem with ease. There are loads of professionally designed templates. You can find Facebook headers, social media posts, logos, ebook covers, business cards, and Twitter posts, just to name a few. There is a paid option. But the free version comes with plenty of free images, graphics, icons, shapes, and backgrounds for almost any image project you can imagine. You can upload your own stock images to use with Canva. Then you can create truly unique images for your blog or online magazine and share them on social media. Best of all, it is user-friendly and very easy to use. You can create stunning ebook covers with Canva. Choose from hundreds of templates or create your own from scratch. 2. Shaxpir. You need to write a book. Are you looking for free book publishing software to write a book or novel? Well, Shaxpir really packs a lot of features into its free version. The main feature is the Manuscript Builder, where you can use drag-and-drop tools to rearrange any part of your manuscript. You can also move and change the order of your scenes or chapters. You can set writing goals for your book project and keep track of your progress. Importantly, it lets you take notes about your events, characters, and places. You can collect and save any concept art you find and add your margin comments. There is also an in-built spellchecker. There is a lot of free software designed for writing books. But Shaxpir offers you the widest range of features I have seen in a free version. You can download Shaxpir for both Mac and PC. There is also an option for cloud access. 3. ProWritingAid. Always triple-check your spelling and grammar. Prowritingaid is a fantastic grammar and writing checker. It includes so many checks and reports to help analyze your writing. It is one of the best writing aids for self-publishing authors. The tools and reports dig deep into your text and offer you a huge range of suggestions to improve your writing. You can add extensions for Chrome, Microsoft Office, Google Docs, and Scrivener. There is a free version of ProWritingAid available that offers you plenty of functionality to help you check your online writing. But authors might think about the modestly priced premium version, which includes all the reports and editing tools. ProWritingAid is my number one go-to editing tool when I need to work intensively on book manuscripts. 4. Sonar. You need to research your Amazon keywords. Whenever you publish a book or ebook on Amazon, you need to add seven search keywords. Don’t rush into this because finding the best keywords is vital to the success of your book. There are many ways you can do Amazon keyword research for free. But one of the best free keyword search tools for Amazon keywords is Sonar. Al you need to do is enter your seed keyword and then check the results for the best ideas and related search phrases. You can then click on any of the suggestions to find even more possible keywords for your book. It shouldn’t take you long to find plenty of ideas for your Amazon search keywords. However, because it is a free service, you won’t be able to access search or sales volume for each keyword phrase. If you want to access real-time sales and search data, you will need to use premium software like Publisher Rocket. 5. KDP Wizard. Manage all your KDP books. KDP Wizard gives you easy access to all of your book data and files in a quick and functional format. It works directly in your Chrome browser. The KDP Wizard browser app is the Amazon KDP tool for listing and editing all your book information in one place. There is a Rich Text Editor for book descriptions to make optimized product descriptions simple. You can search & select categories easily, speeding up the listing process. Easy access to keyword profiles, authors, contributors, descriptions, pricing profiles, and more through smart dropdowns. Copy all page attributes from one listing tab to another to save time when creating multiple new books. Check out all the features that are available to manage all your books on Amazon. Best of all, there is a totally free version you can use. 6. Calibre. An ebook editor and much more. Without a doubt, as far as book publishing software goes, Calibre is the number one ebook tool every indie author should have. It does everything you could need to do when it comes to ebook creation. It also a great free tool for converting from Microsoft Word to mobi and epub ebook files. You get an ebook reader, ebook library, and you can sync to e-reading devices. For those with a little technical skill, you can also edit HTML, epub, and AZW3 (Kindle) or mobi. 7. ImageOptim. Crunch your images for faster site loading. ImageOptim is a free software application for Mac and Linux users. It reduces the size of images before using on blogs or websites by using drag-and-drop. Quick, easy, and very efficient. (Windows users can try File Optimizer.) 8. BookCore. Track your book sales. BookCore provides a powerful book sales tracking platform for self-publishers. It’s a fully automated sales tracking and analytics service that generates reports, monitors rankings, and tracks reviews on multiple marketplaces. It’s free to use and works on mobile, tablets, and laptops. 9. GIMP. You always need an image editor. Working with images is a regular task for authors now. But Photoshop is very expensive. GIMP is a free open source alternative that works exceedingly well on all platforms. If you are new to image editing, it will be a learning curve. But no more so than for Photoshop or any other image or DTP software. For Mac users, there is also Seashore. I also use it from time to time for book design mock-ups for covers. 10. Kindle Create. A free tool from Amazon Kindle. Kindle Create is one of the must-have self-publishing apps for all authors. It is the best ebook publishing software for authors. There are all the tools you need to easily create and format perfect ebooks for Kindle. It will also automatically create a table of contents. Kindle Create is very easy to learn how to use it. You will be up and running in no time at all. It’s also possible to use this app to format your print book. You need to download and install the web app on your computer from Kindle Direct Publishing. It is available for both PC and Mac. Note: An alternative free app for Mac users is iBooks Author. However, it is an ebook creator software tool that is best suited to interactive ebooks. Summary. There is a wide range of free book writing software, free word processor applications, and online tools for self-publishing authors. Apart from my favorites listed above, I use quite a few more to help save me time. Not everything is free nowadays. But if and when I am convinced a tool, application, or online service is worth paying for, I will. However, most online writing tools and applications a self-publishing author needs to use each day are available for free. Derek Haines. A Cambridge CELTA English teacher and author with a passion for writing and all forms of publishing. My days are spent writing and blogging, as well as testing and taming new technology. Help Center. Blurb BookWright's easy-to-use features allow anyone to publish custom photo books, magazines, and novels in either print or ebook format. You can download BookWright here. Please note that BookWright cannot be installed on phones or tablets. If you previously downloaded and installed BookWright, there's no need to download it again to get the latest version. BookWright will automatically check for updates each time you open it as long as your computer is connected to the Internet. BookWright. Design e-books, magazines, trade and photo books using multiple layouts and tools, with this powerful and easy-to-use piece of software. BookWright is an intuitive application, designed to offer users a straightforward method of creating various types of digital and print books. It is easy-to-use, as it features a modern interface, making it very simple to access and understand all of its main functions. Can create various types of e-books and print books. You can use this application to design reflowable or fixed-layout e-books, each format suited for text or image-rich content. Additionally, it is possible to create photo paper books, which are well suited for art collections, photography portfolios, cookbooks and many more, as well as trade books and magazines. Design your book, add text and media. You can begin creating your project by designing a book cover. It is possible to generate separate ones for the hardcover, softcover and e-book versions of the book. Next, you can add multiple types of content. You can import various types of image files, then use drag and drop actions to add them to specific pages. The application's Backgrounds function can be used to insert page numbers, background colors, headers and footers or any other type of watermarks or design features. You can insert text by simply drawing a text container and typing, buy it is also possible to import content from RTF files. Additionally, you can add page numbers and customize their placement. Can detect and resolve issues. The application features a built-in spell checker, to make sure no errors are included in the finished product. It offers replacement suggestions and can learn new words that do not exist in its internal dictionary. If BookWright detects any problems with your project, such as low-resolution images, improperly placed text or usage of unlicensed fonts, it can offer suggestions to correct these issues. Overall, this is a comprehensive application, designed to help you create and publish high-quality printable and digital books, with the help of numerous included layouts. MyPublisher BookMaker. MyPublisher's BookMaker is a free photo album maker with a twist: You use it to create, organize, and edit your photo album, and then order online one of several printed photobook options at various prices, which are custom-printed and shipped to you. The choices range from paperback PocketBooks editions costing 10 bucks to coffee-table-style hardcover books that are three times more expensive, as well as calendars, postcards, and greeting cards. While we didn't go so far as to purchase any of them, the examples displayed on MyPublisher's Web site appear attractive and well-made and offer an alternative to traditional prints at a comparable cost. Opening BookMaker's interface includes a Quick-Start Guide in the left-hand panel but also initiates an optional but helpful quick-start video. There's also a full Help menu that includes links to chat and Web-based assistance. The wizard-based guide walks you through each step of creating your book. Clicking an image calls up an Image Toolbox that allows various adjustments. We really like the custom book-jacket-maker feature, which you can use to replace a lost or damaged jacket or create your own custom book covers. BookMaker is freeware certified for Windows versions up to Vista, but we installed in Windows 7 with no trouble. It installs desktop icons without asking and leaves items behind when it's uninstalled but is otherwise a polite performer. It's an interesting concept in publishing that can present your photos in hardbound albums and other printed formats for prices similar to blank albums in a bookstore.