Software for Layouting (Desktop Publishing)

**Mykolant** · 12-08-2011, 10:11 PM

Anybody have any new updates on new digital publishing tools (software) for print materials like brochures, fliers, magazines, books, etc.?

I've been using In Design and its good, but I need an alternative for my daughter's class who need to learn lay outing skills, etc. Not everyone can afford a Mac set up with CS5 tools. It should be a free software that can run on both Mac/Windows, and very simple to use, like the old Microsoft Publisher.

Any info will be a lot of help! Tnx!

**Sponsor** · 12-08-2011 10:11 PM

**Ohmme** · 12-09-2011, 10:35 AM

Just checked my Programs . . there is still a Microsoft Publisher, publisher has a lot of templates that your daughter could use without the technical stuff.

**v8designstudio** · 12-09-2011, 11:33 AM

Myk, i'd suggest you stay the course with the CS5 for design tools for your daughter. One way to cut on costs would be to get them on education prices. Your daughter's ID would suffice, and methinks its about 50% off the regular software prices.

Especially since your daughter has that special passion for creativity using electronic media, it just might be worth the spending.

Also, try to guide her little bit at a time into the more expressive creative process of digital art (Vectors, rasters or both). Publishing layout is good, but is easy to learn with books to teach you principles as well as books that break principles and still look amazing. Expressive or creative digital art would be a totally different realm. There are no rules - and plenty of room to make a statement since not many are genuinely gifted with good design imagination.

Adobe's Photoshop and Illustrator are your top picks.

**Mykolant** · 12-09-2011, 11:44 AM

Originally Posted by v8designstudio

Myk, i'd suggest you stay the course with the CS5 for design tools for your daughter. One way to cut on costs would be to get them on education prices. Your daughter's ID would suffice, and methinks its about 50% off the regular software prices.

Especially since your daughter has that special passion for creativity using electronic media, it just might be worth the spending.

Also, try to guide her little bit at a time into the more expressive creative process of digital art (Vectors, rasters or both). Publishing layout is good, but is easy to learn with books to teach you principles as well as books that break principles and still look amazing. Expressive or creative digital art would be a totally different realm. There are no rules - and plenty of room to make a statement since not many are genuinely gifted with good design imagination.

Adobe's Photoshop and Illustrator are your top picks.

I hear you. Its just that, for now, I'm not sure my daughter would want to go into graphic design seriously. I just want her to learn the basics, without much dependence with expensive software. She loves to draw, and is using an app in her new iPad2 that lets her draw with her finger.

Most of her drawings are in charcoal, watercolor, pastel and stuck on her bedroom wall. I usually just digitize them by scanning.

She's in Grade 10, and the reason I asked was because she was in charge of coming up with the souvenir program for their class play. I could teach her the basics using CS5, but due to the time constraint, I wasn't able to really sit her down. So I had to help and do a major part of the work, which I don't mind, coz its not a graded work naman.

I'm looking for a solution wherein students can share and collaborate on the work. I guess the school needs to fund a reliable workstation for this, coz the software, like you said, doesn't have to be too expensive.

And you're right, I'll be the best person to teach her, even if I'm no expert. I just know how to use it.

Thanks for your input.

**stitch** · 12-09-2011, 03:12 PM

If your daughter uses Indesign, you will be doing the printing press a favor when the job goes to print because the workflow will be seamless which guarantees quality printed output. Schools should have computer labs with workstations loaded with Adobe Design Suite. They could easily get educational discounts.

**Mykolant** · 12-09-2011, 04:24 PM

Originally Posted by stitch

If your daughter uses Indesign, you will be doing the printing press a favor when the job goes to print because the workflow will be seamless which guarantees quality printed output. Schools should have computer labs with workstations loaded with Adobe Design Suite. They could easily get educational discounts.

True, stitch, but the simpler route for now would be a .pdf document. But it doesn't have to be fancy, coz the fancier you go, the more expensive it is.

Its a small school, and computer usage is not a priority, even for highschool kids. Its the local version of the school mentioned in this report. So, it'll be a personal lesson I'll have to teach her at home.

But I see your point about the seamless workflow. Maybe she'll have to tackle that later on, when she's at a point where its a necessary task to do.

thanks!

**Zoey** · 12-11-2011, 01:25 AM

Cheaper alternatives would be using iWorks' Pages. Pages is a very respectable layout program. Another cheap desktop publishing software alternative for Macs is Swift Publisher:

http://www.belightsoft.com/products/...r/overview.php

It has all the basic functionality of a good layout program without the huge thousand dollar cost of CS5. Besides in teaching software, one should only teach the fundamentals because in the future, who knows who will be the dominant software for layout. Only about a decade ago it was Pagemaker and QuarkXpress that were the dominant players. Yes I'm aware that Pagemaker was also a Adobe product but Indesign is quite different from Pagemaker in many ways.

As for free, I really don't know any open source layout app that is as good as either Pages or Swift Publisher.