Software

[Colin]

WE have recently set up a copy center but do not have a
full time graphic artist. WE are looking for suggestions
as to what type of software we should look at for doing
business cards and newsletters etc. WE do not intend to
at this point to provide any heavy duty graphic type
design service.
Any suggestions

THanks
Colin

 

[°°°MS°Publisher°°°]

Colin I do any and every type of work with Publisher 2003 and Serif PagePlus 9.0
Both programs together are still only around 25% of the biggies and I do everything from junk flyers to business card and complex layout work to 300 pages books that are professionally published.

Publisher and PagePlus both have their weaknesses and strengths, but between the two programs will allow you do anything and everything you will ever need. Both programs have PDF capability, both programs handle CMYK if you need to send work for offset printing.
Serif as Microsoft here have newsgroups and forums to give you any assistance you may need with their product.
Serif also have web forums here:
http://www.serif.com/forum/default.asp

The other advantage of these two programs, as that they are the majority of the formats that clients are likely to bring work into your business other than PDF or MS Word.

If you need any further information, don't hesitate to e-mail me at:
abcdaus at the hotmail company

--

 

[mact]

If you will be accepting files from others to print, then you will need to
acquaint yourself with the applications your customers use. This will likely
run the gamut from old copies of Word to Quark, mostly Windows versions.

If you plan to keep everything internal, then you get to choose.

For complete flexibility, I'd recommend Corel Draw. Not the best choice for
heavy text oriented documents, nevertheless it can do the job. If you buy
the Suite, you'll also get Photopaint which is the only serious competitor
to Photoshop plus enough fonts to keep you busy and an excellent font
manager. Next thing to buy would be either MSPublisher or PageMaker to
handle text heavy jobs that can be troublesome in Draw.

Regardless of the applications, you will need to learn what you are doing.
Relying on prepackaged templates and not learning to handle font management,
printing terminology and technology, and how the software really works is
going to trip you up big time.

 

[Mike Koewler]

Mac,

Though not well known, Serif offers an entire suite of products that
include a heavy duty DTP program, a photo editing program that is
top-notch and a drawing program. The entire cost, without even trying to
negotiate a lower price is $202. That's less than half and it also
includes fonts, some wizards, etc.

Mike

 

[mact]

Mike,

I am well aware of Serif Page Plus; i think i even have a v5 stuck away
somewhere. You and I have even had discussions about it. Nice program.

In my 14 years of doing output, though, I have never had a customer who used
it or ever heard of it.

 

[°°°MS°Publisher°°°]

The new and current version 9 is great - awesome actually.

It is very easy to see why it does not get more acceptance.

--

 

[Mike Koewler]

Mac,

Alas, I've only been accepting files half as long as you, but except for
employees who did some ads for me, I haven't received a file either!
Serif really needs to figure out a way to promote the product more.

Mike

 

[mact]

<<The new and current version 9 is great - awesome actually.

It is very easy to see why it does not get more acceptance.>>

It is?

 

[°°°MS°Publisher°°°]

Oh yes, sure is - real simple.

--

 

[Guest]

-----Original Message-----
WE have recently set up a copy center but do not have a
full time graphic artist. WE are looking for suggestions
as to what type of software we should look at for doing
business cards and newsletters etc. WE do not intend to
at this point to provide any heavy duty graphic type
design service.
Any suggestions

THanks
Colin
.
Buy anything but microsoft products! they are as the name

suggests, micro and soft! go with Adobe or quark!

 

[Budget Print Center]

Are you Going to print directly to your copiers?
Are you going to be accepting walk-in files from your customers?

if so then microsoft office suites w/publisher may be the only way to go. if
not...