The four programs, side by side
The table compares what matters to someone publishing a sefer: who the software was built for, how you work in it, what it can do with commentaries, and what you pay for it.
| What is compared | Ariach | Tag | InDesign | Word |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Built for | The Torah book, from a kuntres to a multi-text sefer | Seforim, mainly for professional typesetters | Graphic design and publishing in general | Writing documents |
| Where you work | In the browser, with nothing to install | On a Windows computer, installed | On a Windows or Mac computer, installed | On a computer or in the browser |
| How you work | A text editor, with the typeset pages updating beside it as you type. You can ask the Assistant in plain language | With codes written into the text, and a separate style file | Visual design of text frames on the page | Writing and formatting in the same document |
| Commentaries around the text (multi-text) | Built in: Tzuras HaDaf, up to sixteen commentators, and commentary on a commentary | Yes, it is its specialty | Not built for it. Possible by hand | No. Some add-ons provide it |
| Nikud and taamim | Yes, and the line spacing makes room for them | Yes | Yes, with suitable fonts | Yes, at a basic level |
| Images and tables | Image pages, backgrounds, and an image on the title page. Inside the text, and tables: not yet | Images, to a limited extent | This is where it is strongest | Yes |
| Several people on one book | Several people at the same time. The proofreader comments and suggests corrections | Files on a computer, no shared editing | One editor at a time. You can share for comments | Yes, with a 365 subscription |
| Time to get started | The sample book opens at once | Takes learning. There are courses | Takes learning. There are courses | Most writers already know it |
| Price | Free during the beta | A paid license, and paid add-ons | A monthly Adobe subscription | An Office license or subscription |
What Ariach can do
Ariach was built for anyone who wants a Torah book typeset to a print-shop standard without first learning typesetting software. This is what it does today:
- Tzuras HaDaf and any multi-text sefer
- The main text in the middle and the commentaries around it, with the lines of commentary above the Gemara, a narrow column in the margin, commentary on a commentary, and sides that switch between right-hand and left-hand pages. Choose a ready-made layout, or build one on a drawing of the page.
- Full pages, and a page that explains itself
- Pages and columns end on the same line throughout the book. A page that couldn't be set within the limits you gave is flagged, with the reason and what you can do about it.
- What you set by hand doesn't break
- “New page here” or “Keep with the next paragraph” is anchored to words, not to a place on the page. The text changes, and the instruction stays where it was.
- Hebrew typography
- Nikud and taamim, Rashi script, a styled first word set in a window, catchwords, numbering in Hebrew letters or by daf and amud, and precise limits for justifying lines.
- Proofreading inside the software
- Checks for spelling, punctuation and gershayim, rules of your own, and a check of source references and quotations against the Otzaria library. Search and replace that understands nikud, full and short spellings, and prefixed letters.
- From Word and Otzaria, and back
- A Word file is built into a book with its notes and headings, a commentary from a separate file is placed by its dibbur hamaschil, and a whole sefer comes from Otzaria with its commentaries. You can export the book back to Word, EPUB and Otzaria.
- A PDF for print
- Black only or four colors, bleed, crop marks and registration marks. The PDF is identical to the pages on the screen. The version sent to print is kept, and its PDF can be downloaded again. To go on working in InDesign there is also an IDML export, as a trial.
- An Assistant that does the work
- Write what to change, in the design, the headings, the text or the pages, and it does it. A sweeping change to the text is shown for your approval first.
What a multi-text sefer typeset in Ariach looks like, with an explanation of the layout: typesetting in Tzuras HaDaf. And what you can ask the Assistant: typesetting with AI.
When Tag is the right choice
Tag is the long-established typesetting software of the Torah book world, and many typesetters have worked in it for years. It was built from the start for seforim, for multi-text layouts, nikud and taamim, and an experienced typesetter can get any layout they can think of out of it.
The price of that power is the learning. Work in Tag is done with codes written inside the text, and the interface is unlike any other software. Someone who has mastered it, with scripts and templates of their own, has no reason to leave it for one book. Someone just starting out should count on a course and a period of getting used to it before the first page.
When InDesign is the right choice
InDesign is the software of graphic designers and publishers all over the world. For a book where the design is the main thing, such as an album, a book with many images, an illustrated Haggadah or a cover, it has no rival.
For an ordinary Torah book, with text and notes, it works well in the hands of someone who knows it. The difficulty starts with commentaries around the text: it wasn't built to arrange several texts that depend on each other on the same page, and every correction to the text sends the typesetter back to work by hand.
When Word is enough, and what the add-ons give you
For a short kuntres, a source sheet or a simple book without long notes, Word is enough. Its advantage is obvious: it is already installed, and you already know how to work in it.
In recent years Word has gained add-ons for Torah typesetting, such as וורד תורני, תוסף צורת הדף, עמודה and רב טקסט לוורד. Some of them are free, and some also arrange commentaries around the text. If you want to stay in Word, they are a good way forward. They work inside Word, and so within the limits of its layout engine too.
What exactly breaks as the book grows, and how to carry on from the same file: typesetting a sefer from Word.
When Ariach is the right choice
Ariach is a particularly good fit when:
- The text is already written in Word, and you want to get from it to a book without retyping or re-marking it.
- The book has notes or commentaries, and every proofreading correction moves pages.
- Several people work on the book, and the proofreader needs to comment in the book itself.
- You don't have a computer you can install software on, or you work through a filter. Ariach opens in the browser, and it was built to work through NetFree too.
And when it isn't: when the book is full of images inside the text and tables. Those don't exist in Ariach yet.
