Desktop Music Publishing on a Mac

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 22 Jul 2008 3:10 pm

What's a real good page layout program for creating a songbook on a Mac?

Cal Sharp · Post by **Cal Sharp** » 22 Jul 2008 3:57 pm

Same's on Windows - Quark Express or Adobe InDesign, pro apps. Expensive, but they're real good. If you wanna save some bucks get Adobe PageMaker 7.5 or 8 (can't remember the final version). Should be available on Ebay or some such real cheap, since they don't make it any more, but I'd make sure it would run on your version of OSX. Anything else would be like a Sho~Bud Maverick. You could also check out Pages, part of Apple's iWork 08, but I can't comment on it, as I've never used it.

Jeff Agnew · Post by **Jeff Agnew** » 23 Jul 2008 4:55 am

Xpress and InDesign are really overkill for creating a songbook. And last I remember a full version of Xpress is around $800. PageMaker only runs in Classic mode (and not well at that), so if you're running Leopard, that's out.

Pages is part of the iWork suite (about $80) and is simple but will probably be fine for what you need. I've got the '07 version and I'll use it for quick stuff if I don't want to fire up Framemaker on the Wintel box. Also, depending on what you mean by "songbook", these might prove of use:

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/28042
http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/programs/SmartScoreSE_mac/
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/22302 (ignore the targeted audience comments)

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 23 Jul 2008 7:03 am

Thanks for the links, Jeff. It needs to be real page-based layout, because I'm talking about a book. I'm hoping to be able to copy/paste staffs of music from Logic and add chord symbols, lyrics, etc.