# What's the best desktop publishing software to use with databases? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 8, 2005, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-desktop-publishing-software-to-use-with-databases/311595 "2005-07-08T15:17:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pokey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ebca7d/32.png) [@pokey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pokey)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2005, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-desktop-publishing-software-to-use-with-databases/311595/1 "2005-07-08T15:17:01Z")
I have to lay out a nice catalog from a huge database and I need to use something that will let me import from a database. I have never used Pagemaker and I suspect it’s what I’m looking for but is there a cheaper alternative that will allow me to do that? ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2005, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-desktop-publishing-software-to-use-with-databases/311595/2 "2005-07-08T17:02:22Z")
It is usually straight forward to get the output from a database into excel format, so any desktop publishing software that can do a good job with excel formatted data should be fine. I must state though I know nothing about desktop publishing, just lots about moving data from database to database and database to displayable formats. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2005, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-desktop-publishing-software-to-use-with-databases/311595/3 "2005-07-08T17:19:15Z")
What platform and what database? If you’re in FileMaker, most people go with Quark (even though it’s outrageously expensive :() because you can generate AppleScripts from within FileMaker to auto-generate the Quark documents, specifying the size, the bleed, trim, and safety margin-lines, the images, their resolution and orientation, text boxes including content, font, color, size, & placement, and so on. Quark is so AppleScriptable its almost scary. ---
**Author:** ![pokey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ebca7d/32.png) [@pokey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pokey)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2005, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-desktop-publishing-software-to-use-with-databases/311595/4 "2005-07-08T18:15:30Z")
I’m using Windows and it wil be Access. I have Quark but when I looked at xtensions to use with databases they were all extremely expensive. Even more than Pagemaker 7 which has it built in to do database publishing. I am toying with the idea of doing each page in Excel with the fonts I want, and then just importing them page by page into my Quark project as objects but it seems like I will spend so much time doing it that way that I may as well get Pagemaker. I just wonder if there is some obvious and cheap alternative that I don’t know about. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2005, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-desktop-publishing-software-to-use-with-databases/311595/5 "2005-07-08T18:26:05Z")
Just curious, can you define “desktop publishing” to me? ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2005, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-desktop-publishing-software-to-use-with-databases/311595/6 "2005-07-08T21:00:19Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > Quark is so AppleScriptable its almost scary. …and InDesign is so AppleScriptable that it makes Quark look downright retarded. ---
**Author:** ![initech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/439d5e/32.png) [@initech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/initech)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2005, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-desktop-publishing-software-to-use-with-databases/311595/7 "2005-07-08T23:24:20Z")
InDesign also has facilities to build pages from XML data, although I haven’t played with it. Quark is so 90’s…