iCalamus is the publisher for Mac OS X, by invers Software from Loeningen, Germany. The DTP program can be used lightly as a feather and offers newbies and pros in Desktop Publishing all kinds of freedom to publish their ideas. iCalamus costs 129 EUR. The unregistered version has some restrictions, offering only two pages per document then. But even the unregistered version offers full access to the Photographerbook documents which can be ordered for high-end printout. iCalamus has been developed completely new for Apple's operating system. iCalamus is an excellent choice for all layout purposes from simple posters and business letters over complex layouted magazines up to books and scientific works. Complete Unicode support and the smart PDF import offer easy access to creating and layout work. The reasoned user interface with its low learning curve guarantees for fast success. iCalamus doesn't limit your layout freedom by offering prepared layouts. Its practical tools offer all options for your own creative and productive layout work. iCalamus is a modular program which will grow in future by external modules, even from third-party developers. Therefore invers Software will create an Open Development Area (ODA) and publish the plug-in interface. iCalamus has been developed in Objective C with intensive usage of Apple's Cocoa library.
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />This thing doesn't even have a feature for tables. The topic doesn't even appear in the documentation. Is this a joke? Am I on candid camera or something?
Amazing
Cattus Thraex
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This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />iCalamus has lately been an amazing app: maximally exploits MAC OS X capabilities (that is why its developers clearly state it is and will be a MAC OS X-only app), with an abrupt blast on the market. It has not yet solved some preoccupying issues, e.g. footnotes import (most important to me) and some others things, did not initially run in Leo, but now it does...
iCalamus is just a step from becoming a great app, this is the great temptation of a small company on the brink of becoming a great company. But will European (small) software companies ever become decisive on the market?
quite good, yet...
kunstmaler
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This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />iCalamus runs smoothly on my iMac dual core. the only thing i miss is a decent documentation. a piece of software that costs over USD 100,- should include a decent manual (preferably in a printable version - or as a buying option). OTOH, iCalamus is rather easy to handle if you have some experience with DTP (x-press switchers will find iCalamus a relief!).
some functions are still missing (no PS export; or i haven't figured out yet how to streamline certain tasks: e.g. giving all pages a new background colour in a long document with just a few mouse clicks... these issues are probably due to the rather short history of this piece of software and will be resolved soon... i hope).
the price is a bit steep currently (considering other options), but again: if iCalamus continues this way ver. 2.9 should be a real bargain at this price! its an investment in something that looks good. multiAd Creator light is only 99,-. and can do a lot more than iCalamus - yet it is only really valuable for single page docs... ragtime has stopped its "private" version and is thus unaffordable for the rest of us, so iCalamus has a lot of opportunities.
DTP Application of 2006
Sorin Paliga
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This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />By far, the MAC OS X DTP Application of year 2006. Despite its limits now, by far the best in the field of 'non-traditional, consecrated' DTP apps. I do hope it will not fall into oblivion by being swallowed up by a giant.
Congratulations (no bias, I really do not know who has done this true cocoa app)
Surprisingly good
Cattus Thraex
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This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />Beyond any doubt, a big surprise. I would just suggest that text export is not solved yet and, of course, testing how the app behaves or misbehaves with longer documents.
Not bad
Lou Kash
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This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />This could become a good and easy to use layout app. But after a couple of minutes playing with it I'm already missing:
- Spot colors
- Moving objects between layers
- Deselect all
- Join path
- Zoom/Move shortcuts àla cmd-space
- Quick page preview
- Editing guides
- ...
And there's no Services support. Why? I thought it "just works" in Cocoa?
Not ready yet to replace InDesign 2 (!) which is what I'm still using for my layout work.
Can't believe it:
busybeingborn
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This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />This app still exists! It was one of the main reasons I bought an Atari back in the last century, and I missed it most when I moved from Atari to the Mac.
It looks great (technically speaking), it's fast, it's reliable (so far) - and it's cheap, compared to Xpress & InDesign.