Best Format pre-PDF

[Cergorach]

Indesign CS will probably be your cheapest and best solution if you don't already have one of the other programs.

Indesign CS supports tables very well, there would be no need to do something as horrible as making screendumps of tables (Yuk!).

 

[Flyspeck23]

Indesign CS supports tables very well, there would be no need to do something as horrible as making screendumps of tables (Yuk!).

Yeah, I know it's horrible, and personally I'd never do it. I just mentioned it to get rid of my reputation as a layout snob



InDesign is the way to go if you can't afford Quark and still want a good layout program. IIRC it's waaaay cheaper (by that I mean "somewhat less expensive" of course...).

 

[Cergorach]

InDesign CS is the way to go even if you can afford Quark...

 

[Fast Learner]

Agreed. InDesign became "probably better than Quark" with version 1.0, "unquestionably better than Quark" with version 2.0, and "what's Quark?" with CS.

 

[madelf]

I've been laying out my stuff in Serif PagePlus.

I'm quite happy with it, and it even outputs directly to PDF without need for additional software. I'm sure it's not the equal of InDesign or Quark, but I've yet to find something it hasn't been able to do.

PagePlus9 is a fraction of the cost of most other DTP options and you can even get an earlier version (without direct PDF unfortunately) for free to try it out.
It's hard to beat that.

http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/serif/pp/pp5/index.asp

And if you're really stingey...just use the free PagePlus5 and free PDF995
You can make some good looking PDFs with those alone.