Laidout
Laidout is an open-source desktop publishing and vector graphics editor software for Linux. It specializes in creating technical documents and has advanced tools for diagramming, math typesetting, and technical illustrations.
desktop-publishing
vector-graphics
diagramming
math-typesetting
technical-illustrations
Laidout: Open-Source Desktop Publishing and Vector Graphics Editor for Linux
Laidout is an open-source desktop publishing and vector graphics editor software for Linux. It specializes in creating technical documents and has advanced tools for diagramming, math typesetting, and technical illustrations.
What is Laidout?
Laidout is a free, open-source desktop publishing and vector graphics editor software designed primarily for Linux operating systems. It specializes in technical documents creation and has a wide range of advanced features tailored specifically for diagramming, mathematical typesetting, and technical illustrations.
Some of the key features of Laidout include:
- Intuitive WYSIWYG editing interface for creating complex page layouts
- Support for SVG, PostScript and PDF formats for importing and exporting documents
- Advanced typographical tools like hyphenation, ligatures, formatting for multi-page documents
- Diagramming tools to easily create flowcharts, UML diagrams, networks maps etc.
- Math typesetting using LaTeX expressions and equations
- Graph plotting to visualize scientific, statistical or financial data
- Tools for illustrators to create technical illustrations
With its specialized toolset aimed at STEM documents creation, Laidout serves as a good open-source alternative to expensive commercial software like Adobe InDesign or Microsoft Publisher for Linux users. The active development and user community around Laidout also makes it a stable production-ready software.
Laidout Features
Features
- Vector graphics editing
- Page layout and typesetting
- Diagramming and flowcharting
- Math typesetting
- Technical illustration
- Scriptable using Python or Scheme
Pricing
- Open Source
Pros
Free and open source
Cross-platform (Linux, macOS, Windows)
Powerful technical illustration tools
Advanced typography and math typesetting capabilities
Extensible and customizable via scripts
Cons
Steep learning curve
Limited user community and documentation
Development seems stagnant
User interface not very polished
Official Links
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