hartmanr1

I'm the new Tech Editor assembling our annual yearbook/magazine for my social / research group. I'm a iMAC owner and I've looked at using PAGES, the Apple software but I'm going to pass on it since it had trouble reproducing quality photos & getting our PDF's to reproduce accuratly.

Now, "Microsoft Publisher" does not have a MAC format, so I am thinking of using MS Word for this job and also using iPhoto to "improve"/crop the photos used . Any Suggestions ?

FYI > These attached photos have been reworked using iPhoto

Clouds to remember


Last Autumn Leaves


Giant Frame at local Art Center

fotogk Loc: Tuftonboro, NH

I would use adobe InDesign

hartmanr1

THANKS for your reply. Please tell me the features prompting you to select Adobe InDesign for my yearbook/magazine project AND what is its cost ?

sloscheider Loc: Minnesota

I can't speak for the latest versions of MS Word but in the past it has not worked well when you get a lot of photos inserted, downright unstable.... I'm not saying it wouldn't do the job but I suspect you would experience some grief...

OSusanna44

If you can afford it, I would highly recommend using the Quark XPress software program. It is great for page layouts. I used it regularly while working for a healthcare magazine in the past and was pleased at the results. It is quite costly though, so your idea of going with Microsoft Publisher might work out better in your case.
I am a Mac user, too, and prefer to use Photoshop (CS4 or Elements) to edit photos rather than IPhoto.
Good luck and welcome to the group!!!

fotogk Loc: Tuftonboro, NH

Indesign is a page layout program, meaning it is used to layout out magazines, books most items you see in print form have gone through Indesign or Quark. I have not use quark in a few years it was falling out of favor as a page layout program, but perfectly fine for what you have to do. Both programs are on the pricey side , but save you on the cost of labor and getting the work to come out exactly the way you want it. If you where to use publisher most printing companies will not except the file. They will take a pdf and can not adjust or make corrections. The other option printing companies do when they receive publisher files is relay it out and charge you for the time. If this is something you will be doing a number of times a year well worth the money.

Ann B Loc: Northeast Indiana

I worked for a small publishing company with very old equipment (still using the paste-up method for the newspapers) but we did a lot of the smaller jobs in InDesign. When we got files in MS Publisher they were always a pain in the neck to get ready for the press since we had to change all the photos to make them work with our equipment to make sure the dot pattern was correct & they didn't turn out as big black blobs on the pages. PDF were almost worse, but with Acrobat Professional we were able to make adjustments as well. My point is, talk to the publisher and see what they need before you spend the money on a new program and see what works the best for them. With InDesign you can do a Package for the publisher that includes all the photos and fonts as well as the layout you have designed so they have all the links. Not sure about Quark, but I'm sure they must have something similar -- Adobe even had that back in the PageMaker years ago. Also, publishing businesses usually have the most current copies of the programs & can usually open previous versions of their products so you wouldn't have to worry about upgrading every time an update comes out. (Unless of course you want to take advantage of all the updates.) As I recall, they can open Quark pages as well, or least they used to be able to do that.

hartmanr1

THANKS to one and all. I'm been thinking about this for a long time and playing around with sample pages from PAGES, etc. Just how expensive is ADOBE imDESIGN. PAGES J'm told PAGES is user friendly while Abode inDESIGN has a "long learning ckurve. What say all of you?

Have a Healthy and Happy New Year.

Ann B Loc: Northeast Indiana

Yes InDesign is a costly program. If I didn't have it from work, I couldn't afford it. There are several versions -- something like Basic, Standard, & Premier -- ranging from several hundred $ to a couple of thousand. And it does have a learning curve to it. I've been using it since it was first introduced & haven't had any trouble, but I was using Adobe PageMaker prior to ID. I would suggest, if the price doesn't scare you off that you download a trial version of the program to see how you like it. I believe they have student/educational prices that are substantially lower if you are a student or teacher, or have someone in your family who would qualify for that. Check out their website at Adobe.com for further information. They also have lots of good tutorial for learning it at their website.
You might also try a Google Search for desktop publishing software & see if there is something that looks good to you in your price range.
Hope I didn't scare you off with the comments I made about it being a pain in the neck at the publishing company when people send in things done in other programs. It's just that it was easier to handle things done in ID. And most companies don't have to worry about the problems we had with our old system. I'm sure most now go straight from computer to press & don't have to make the plates to go on their presses.

fotogk Loc: Tuftonboro, NH

ID is not as hard as people say. Have been using and teaching it since aldus pagemaker AKA Indesign was first introduced.

Ann B Loc: Northeast Indiana

fotogk, I think it is pretty straight forward too, but made the mistake of telling someone that it was easy to use & they had a horrible time with it. I think if a person is used to any DTP program, they will find this one an excellent choice!

RMM Loc: Suburban New York

Spare yourself! Performing page layout with Word is like performing brain surgery with an axe.

QuarkXpress and InDesign are the "pro" page layout programs. i use both, and spent much of the past several years on a 700-page book with a client. The two are similar, both have tons of features, great control, and steep learning curves. The good news is that you can do basic layout without having to learn everything.

InDesign is usually less expensive than Quark. You don't need the high-end version of either one for what you're describing.

Both use text and picture boxes to control layout, and both link to images. When you're ready to go to press, you either collect for output (print document, fonts and images) or generate a press-ready PDF (single file). You should talk to your printer to get recommendations for image resolution (e.g., 300 dpi), what they want to receive (collected output or PDF), etc., and you should TALK TO THE PRINTER before doing anything else.

Will you need a table of contents? Index?

fotogk Loc: Tuftonboro, NH

Just been showing people for years, and most grab the the basics of placing text and pictures within 10 mins. The advance stuff like kerning and tracking takes a longer time. Also with most of this just like camera, photoshop and the technical part of the camera is the easy part cut and dry. Composition the creative part is the difficult part with the much longer learning curve. As we know anybody can take snap shots but few take works of art. Still trying to master that.

hartmanr1

THANKS to all those who replied . I certainly got my topic answered !

Have a Great New Year !!