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#1 |
Member
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Northwestern Ontario on the shore's edge of the world's largest freshwater lake.
Posts: 19
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I would love answers, guidance or direction regarding the following information:
1) What exactly is desktop publishing? 2) What range of services is generally offered? 3) What is a good (maybe for a starter) software program? 4) Photography program? 5) Any recommendations as to reading material? 6) Any recommendations as to websites to peruse Thanks for sticking with me this far! Can't wait to get going ... Last edited by ktinkel; 02-12-2008 at 12:18 PM. Reason: Edited from Introduce Yourself |
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#2 |
Member
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 1,036
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In all seriousness, the best advice for you in getting started is to hang around this forum and read the threads. Publishing is a very broad arena. Read some books by Robin Williams, especially the Non-Designer's Design book. Try for starters Paint Shop Pro for graphics and photos (an older version will do fine). Try Serif PagePlus 9 for $10 plus shipping for word processing, but get the disc, not the download. Get a basic commercial printing guide from the library. Don't undervalue learning how to make websites. Try some small projects. Then, reassess your objectives.
George |
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#3 | ||||||
Founding Sysop
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: In Connecticut, on the Housatonic River near its mouth at Long Island Sound.
Posts: 11,187
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Today DTP software attracts all sorts of users, including typesetters and designers, but also many others, some of them producing their own books, newsletters, ads, packaging, etc. Quite a few writers and self-publishers. Others work for customers. Many end up having to create web sites or ads to supplement the printed material. Anything goes, really. Quote:
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Sorry if I seem coy — we need to develop a good current list on these topics. When it comes to the basics — design and typography, in particular — older books are better. They do not refer to computers but to principles of the work; then you hit the computer to find out how to accomplish what you need to do. But for more technical topics — particularly image-editing and prepress topics — the new books have better information. Designers, typesetters, and other mere mortals never had much to do with these topics, and the people who did know kind of passed it along on the job. This thread should produce some specific recommendations for you. Quote:
You will also get recommendations here to other sites. __________________ [SIZE=2][COLOR=LemonChiffon]::[/COLOR][/SIZE] [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] |
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#4 |
Member
Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 134
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First, welcome to the forum. You ask a loaded question when you ask "What is desktop publishing." It's a broad field. There are people doing brochures and flyers and there are people doing full scale magazines. The type of equipment you use depends on what you plan to do. If your intent is to do flyers, brochures, newsletters, etc. on a local level then Printshop is certainly something worth having. You can also use MS Publisher for a few things, but I wouldn't try running any desktop publishing company without also having Adobe InDesign and/or QuarkXPress. Both are versatile and capable of the handling the most sophisticated publishing projects. I wish you the best of luck. I think you are off to a good start by joining a forum like this.
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#5 |
Member
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Ottawa, Canada
Posts: 176
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Welcome from Ottawa,
You might want to consider CorelDraw X4. This package gives you an illustration program, a photo editing program, and you can do page layout. You also get a bunch of fonts, and ready-made clipart and photos to get you going. And hey, you will be supporting fellow canucks: http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satelli.../1191272117978 The high-end types use the Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator package, but this is quite expensive compared to X4 (about $500 versus $1,000). This is well worth the money though if you have the budget. You can also get going for pretty much free if you use "open-source" or "shareware" type software, just read around these forums. You will just have to make sure you are capable of producing "print-ready" pdf files to send to the printers. __________________ Tim. |
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#6 | |
Staff
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 10,088
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Terrie |
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#7 |
Member
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Amsterdam, NL
Posts: 4,894
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Why do you advise to get the disk, not the download? Is there something on the disk that isn't in the download?
__________________ Marjolein Katsma ![]() Occasionally I am also connecting online dots... and sometimes you can follow me on Marjolein's Travel Blog |
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#8 | |
Member
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Northwestern Ontario on the shore's edge of the world's largest freshwater lake.
Posts: 19
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#9 |
Member
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Northwestern Ontario on the shore's edge of the world's largest freshwater lake.
Posts: 19
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Tim - Thanks for the welcome! That Corel thingy looks amazing! I'm thinking that even that is more financially than I want to commit to right now. Something to keep in mind though ...
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#10 |
Member
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Northwestern Ontario on the shore's edge of the world's largest freshwater lake.
Posts: 19
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Thanks for sort of putting some of it in perspective Kathleen.
__________________ Anbeduma |
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