[Woggle]

What I need is easy enough, that's a recommedation of software. What I'm doing is designing a menu, with several to follow, and I need some software that'll let me do this. Nothing fancy, all it uses are two or three fonts a page, one or two column text, a couple sizes and the like, plus a sprinkling of graphics. Will Appleworks do this? I've never been to happy with it, plus if possible, I'd like to be able to Zip the files for the printer.

[SunSeeker]

It appears that you mean a printed menu?

Take a look at CorelDraw 8 LE, its free and if you like it you can step up to the latest full version.
http://www.corel.com/draw8mac_le/download.htm

I don't have a lot of experience with it directly but I never heard anything bad about it or had any problem with the full versions eps output.

Or try the Macromedia Freehand demo, it will work for 30 days

Stay away from Canvas, lots of output problems.

Appleworks should also be quite capable of this, but again, minimal experience and its a low end package so may not feel so polished.

[bluedog]

When I first read your request, I had no clue you meant a printed menu and not computer or software interface menus.

The advice posted is sound. I've only used professional applications used industry-wide, but for your uses these should be approachable and useable for putting together a nice output.

Freehand might be a little trickier to learn if you haven't done other publishing applications (it has many advanced features).

I like the idea of the free version of Corel even though I haven't tried it. It will probably do all what you need and then some. And if not, you could upgrade to the full version for not too much money.

BUT if you are planning on using the software and want to get into the print/production/design business the software that is ubiquitous is Adobe Illustrator for line art and illustration, Adobe Photoshop for photomanipulation and compositing, and QuarkXPress for layout and design. Variations of these include using Freehand for Illustration and small page documents, Adobe InDesign for layout and design.

These applications can take years to master and are not intended for the casual user. The Corel products are unique in that they are used by professionals and casual users with success (although I've not used them in years and don't know how they are in recent versions).

Good luck.

[buchrob]

Most people involved in graphic arts production will tell you to work backwards, and it's very sound advice.

1) What is the final product? Is it a) professionally printed in 4-color process, b) profesionally printed in Pantone Colors, c) run off on a color copier, or d) are you just going to take the 20 or so inkjet prints you produce to a copy shop and have them laminated and scored?

2) if a) or b), ask your printer for a quote ahead of time and ask him what programs HE supports. It's pointless to use a program that doesn't do spot color correctly if the final product is b) and you may end up blowing a big budget if your choice is a) and you don't have a good basic understanding of CMYK and RGB color spaces, or if you and the printer aren't on the same software page. It's especially important to develop a good working relationship if there are more to follow.

3) if your product is c), just ask your copy centre what they recommend.

4) if your product is d), then you can pretty well do what you want.

In the Mac world, QuarkXpress, Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia Freehand are all well-known and well-supported quantities in the professional print community, and InDesign is getting there. Pagemaker also holds not too many mysteries. You will have no problem finding competent suppliers who can deal with these.

If you don't want to pay the price of admission, and are willing to settle for less, then Corel and Appleworks will cost considerably less, but don't expect too much in the way of support from your print suppliers.

[SunSeeker]

I would agree with all of the additional points above.
I will just add, while the printer may not support corel they will certainly support pdf, to get a pdf out of the light version of coreldraw you will need something like printtopdf ( http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/3922 ). Again I cannnot vouch for the quality when sending these files to a printer, although I know it can't embed fonts, but if your needs are simple I imagine it would be fine to follow this route.

Most importantly, Talk to your printer.

Once you make a choice you can look for a product specific forum.

[Woggle]

Hmmm, well, I'll give Corel's product a shot, the most important thing is to create a finished copy on paper, the printer can work from that, should an acceptable file type not be available. Fonts are definately important, so print to PDF won't do the job unfortunately. The final product will use multiple fonts with some clip art, the occasional two column text, all of it in one color.

[SunSeeker]

Fonts are definately important, so print to PDF won't do the job unfortunately.

Thats why I suggested you talk to your printer. The font information will be included with the pdf file and as long as your printer has the same fonts you shouldn't have a problem. You could always provide a sample file with the fonts and characters you may wish to use

Embedded fonts are supposed to help when the recipient of the file doesn't have the right font.

[ 08-29-2001: Message edited by: SunSeeker ]

[Woggle]

-=grumble=- OK, I can't seem to dowload Corel draw, at least from their site, anybody help with this?

[SunSeeker]

Try Versiontracker
http://www.versiontracker.com/morein...043&db=mac

[Woggle]

Change that, got it, only 53.6M of the download came through, but that was enough.

[MikeM32]

plus if possible, I'd like to be able to Zip the files for the printer.

Well Zipping the file is no big issue, Stuffit, Zip it, Make into a Self Extracting Archive. Stuffit Expander is a freebie almost everyone has it. The problem is you may find it rough to find a real good printer that uses whatever software you're going to use to design it in.

For Example Corel Draw 8 LE. This may be a great app. (hey, it's free who could b_tch about that?) You'll likely find it rough to find a real reputable printer that uses it. You might get lucky. The big names in the Printing "bizz" tend to swear by one or all of the following; Quark, InDesign and PageMaker. Where I work it's like 99.9% QuarkXpress, but I hear those on that other coast swear by InDesign or PageMaker (sorry gang, I can see InDesign, but PageMaker? yech!)

As metionned above as-well, your best bet is to just use whatever you have and make it into a PDF. The problem is you may not be capable of doing this from certain app's without a full version of Adobe Distiller (which comes with Acrobat...not the reader). Since something like Corel 8 is a better design app than something like AppleWorks, you might even choose to try that out. Adobe has a free demo of InDesign (or at least they used to) but I can't recall how limited the output capabilities are.

If you can't possibly make a PDF for whatever reason then save it as a PostScript file and tell your printer to make a PDF out of it. To save as a PS file you should be capable of printing to a file. Your'e essentially making a file which contains all the data and font information so it could be printed by a laser printer or imagesetter.

I work for a Big Printing Firm here in the North-East in thier pre-press graphics department. Chances are if we receive a PDF we can pretty-much work with it. Only stumbling points are if there's more than one color (and even then we have a somewhat unique / half-baked way of working with spot colors in PDF's that gets the client what they want).

Post back and let me know how it goes.

Mike

[SunSeeker]

Adobe has a free demo of InDesign (or at least they used to) but I can't recall how limited the output capabilities are.

If you can't possibly make a PDF for whatever reason then save it as a PostScript file and tell your printer to make a PDF out of it. To save as a PS file you should be capable of printing to a file.

Mike

The InDesign demo is an excellent idea, it is fully functional for 60 days (but doesn't seem compatible with classic i n X)

Corel 8LE wont allow postscript or pdf output directly if I recall correctly, but as mentioned above you should be able to print to pdf