BellaOnline Forums Computers Desktop Publishing Desk top publishing

I am looking to start up a magazine and would like to prepare my own copy, photos, etc for a publisher to print. I want to give them camera ready material. I currently have Adobe Photoshop 7 for :rolleyes: my photo work. It will be a special interest magazine probably published once every two months to start, eventually monthly. It will take advertising.
Any suggestions for a good Desk Top Pub program that would fit my needs? I currently have MS Publisher but have not taken time to learn it yet as I have my hands full learning Photoshop 7. Will this program suffice for the present once I learn to use it? Any good books, tutorials out there you can steer me to? Thanks for your help.

Hi George
Yes Photoshop is a bear to learn ...and requires a good eye and steady hand, which I personally don't possess. LOL!

AS for a good desktop publishing software. On the low cost end MS Publisher will probably meet your needs as good as any other. When you are ready to "step up" ... Adobe PageMaker is a good companion to the Photoshop program. The other competitor in this market is Quark Express. Both these programs are expensive.

Here is a link that you might find useful for your purposes.
Microsoft Publisher Commercial Printing Web Site
http://office.microsoft.com/publisher/prepress/default.htm This site is dedicated to providing users with technical help for using Publisher in a commercial printing capacity. It has a technical tips area, a search engine, and tutorials.

Not sure what version of Publisher you have but the reference books on this program are sparce especially for 2002 (XP). If you are used to working with MS products, this programs shouldn't be too difficult to learn.

HTH

Hey George,

You may want to also consider getting the full version of Adobe Acrobat. More and more presses are starting to accept PDF (Portable Document Format) documents over camera-ready art.

Acrobat allows you to send the digital file (PDF) to the publisher without having to worry whether that particular press uses Quark, MS Publisher or Adobe PageMaker.

Just a thought.
Connie

George,

Quark's nice of you mortgage your house and Publisher's OK but I have just switched the publication of our village magazine from Publisher to Page Plus 9. Costs around �100 and has definite advantages over P.
A particular one is Autofit which does not work on P. when there are columns or linked text boxes. PP9 always works and it saves me hours of fiddling work. Text box adjusting is easier and the Artistic Text tool is a dream!
Some features like WordArt are nice in P. but they can be copied into PP9.
Good luck!
David.

George,
Me again. Page Plus 9 is by Serif.
David

And again! PP9 also has built in PDF.
D.

Hello

On the subject of Desktop publishing,I am keen to buy it second hand if I can if anyone is willing in the good old UK to sell me it.I run on Microsoft 98 or is there a risk of viruses creeping in by some chance. I hope I am not breaking rules here Please contact me with your snail mail address if possible. My email is [email]Fiona.Johnston@care4free.net.[/email] I am happy to pay by cheque if this is feasible. Thank you

Fiona

Hi Ivarrie,

Desk Top Publisher is my job, I work on a Apple G4 computer with
Quark Xpress, Photoshop 6 and Illustrator, in OS 9.2.
Next to that I have Acrobat Reader, The Office packet for Apple
(Word, Powerpoint and Excell) on my Mac.
If you could afford it I would advise you to thake Adobe Indesign,
Or Quark Xpress. And next to that Adobe Illustrator would be suitable
for your images, Logo's and eventually paintwork.

I started in 1999 on a Compaq computer on Publisher, my Printer laft at me and called it a Mickey Mouse program.
After that I got another place to work plus a Desk Top Publisher course
in which I learned the programs, and the process of Prepress, Postscript, and the combination of Quark Xpress, Photoshop and Illustrator. At home I work in Mac Os.X 10.3.8, and have Photoshop 7.

Pieter

Photoshop is awesome once you learn it...I use an older version of Illustrator for page layout as Quark is way out of my budget. I typically save as a PDF file for printers.
Good luck to you!

Is the PDF file format always suitable for prints, doesn't it reset the
original format into another shape?
I only use PDF files to send as an example or conecpt to my clients
to wait for their response (if the file is suitebale to send to the printer).
Charissa,

yes, Quark is expensive, because I work in a company with 5.000
employees, my employer could efford to buy the program.
At home I only work with photoshop.

Pieter