Hi Everyone,
I was hoping that any of you who do desktop publishing might be willing to share what software you like to use and why you like it.

I have MS Publisher 2007 and I also have Photoshop Elements. Both of which have the capacity to save as a PDF.

I also have heard that most commercial printers will only deal with PDF files and Publisher is not a preferred program to be using.

I know that there are other stronger programs out there which graphic designers use. I'm really only planning on starting out with doing desktop publishing stuff but am wondering if I need to start considering using something other than Publisher.

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Kimberly
Facebook Marketing Magic!

I have always used Microsoft Publisher. In my experience, most commercial printers prefer .pdf or .jpg just because they are the most common formats and they will have the appropriate software to be able to open the documents and also because they can't edit the documents and be blamed for misprints, but most commercial printers will have Microsoft Office as well.

I created my business cards in Publisher and just saved the file to a disk and took it to Kinko's. They helped me format it in a way that I could get 12 cards to a sheet instead of 8, which reduced the number of cuts they had to make, therefore giving me more cards for less money (Kinko's charges by the cut).

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Rebecka Melson ~ Virtual Business Services

In my opinion, Publisher has a lot of limitations.

I did some research on this and the higher end ones are Qwark and Adobe PageMaker but they are VERY expensive. I tried to find one that was less espensive and found one that I feel was a reasonable price. It's Serif PagePlus and you can buy it for $9.99. It's not the newest version, it's been out for 3-4 years. Once you buy it, then you can upgrade it to the "X2" version which is newer and has a lot more templates. It has some REALLY great tools that Publisher doesn't have. The cost of the upgrade I think was $40-50.....if you buy it outright, it's over $120.

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Kari Thevenot, Virtual Assistant
www.yourlefthand.net

Rebecka/all, I also use publisher to design business cards. A tip on the printing of business cards. I don't know about where you live , but here where I am in Canada most universities have a printing shop close by and are more resonable then anywhere else I found. I had 1000 business cards printed $25.00! Plus they accept emailed files and will call you with any suggested changes. (sorry I know that was a little off topic but the kinko's caught my eye - they wanted to charge me a fortune!)

I use the Adobe Master Suite Collection. Very expensive, but then I have a certification in Computer Design, so I stick with what I know. However, if you take a courses at the local university or design school, you should be able to get student discounted, full-featured discounted software for a fraction of the price.


Hope this helps.

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Lisa George
Remote Admin Services
Web:http://remoteadminservices.com
Blog:http://remoteadminservices.wordpress.com