Making professional looking brochure/magazines and other web design tools

[YS2003]

I have been using MS Publisher on my Dell & HP notebooks for creating the brochures, sales campaign promo materials, news letters, and etc. I am interested in getting the "suite" of programs which include good page layout programs, publishing software, animation tools for presentatation (in conjuction with PowerPoint or Keynote), graphics manipulation tools, among others.

I looked up Macromedia Studio MX and Adobe CS Pro/Standard. It seems Adobe CS has more complete set of tools. But it does not have the flash program (as it is made by Macromedia) in CS. This may change as Adobe bought Macromedia recently.

Studio MX 2004 has Freehand in the bundle. Can Freehand handle page layout, magazine/brochure/newsletter publishing? Its website says it has page layout features; but, I am not sure if it can be used for creating magazines, publications, and multi-page newsletters. I heard Freehand competes against Adobe Illustrator. But, I am not sure Freehand can also be used for publishing jobs (like Adobe's InDesign).

This is an elementary question, I think. But, I thought I can get the info from this forum quicker than I googling around.

[Blue Velvet]

Freehand can used for simple layout but I wouldn't recommend it for anything larger than 4-8pp.

I suggest downloading a demo from Macromedia and giving it a whirl. It'll last for 30 days which is long enough to discover whether it will do what you want.

[decksnap]

The Macromedia suite is basically just a web suite- while the adobe suite is more of a mix. However, a lot of people prefer Macromedia Dreamweaver to Adobe GoLive for web layout. For serious printed publications you are going to want either inDesign or Quark- these are the industry standards.

freehand is not a true page layout program- it is a vector drawing tool that competes with Illustrator, but having a vector drawing program is also invaluable in print design.

[iToon]

To be honest, Quark's the industry standard tool for brochure work, etc, but the price tag is quite frankly ridiculous. A lot of designers I know are switching to InDesign as it's much cheaper (and a lot consider it to be better). You'll have the benefit of being able to import and export files between all the CS applications more easily, and if you get the CS suite, then you'll have pretty much everything you'll need if print is all you need.

Furthermore, with the projected Adobe takeover (if it hasn't happened already), it makes sense that Adobe will probably streamline its apps. I read somewhere that the only thing Adobe will drop may be GoLive in favour of Dreamweaver, and unless they continue to sell under the Macromedia banner, you may get both print and the best of the web apps in one package - or at least 2 seamlessly compatible bundles with legacy capability.

That said, i'd personally opt for Adobe's package, if you can only afford the one - makes sense given recent news.

[Les Kern]

Adobe Creative Suite is the way to go. No other set of tools does so much, and does so much together. Working with InDesign is a pleasure. The interface is intuitive, Pre-Flight is awesome, etc. GoLive, while not producing as clean a code as Dreamweaver, has all the tools you'll ever need.
Flash? Who cares. Buy it seperately.
Quark? I used to love it, but it does only... Quark. And the PRICE. Holy cow! My EDU discount is $400.00. My EDU discount on the entire Adobe Suite is $175.00.
Great article HERE on the subject

[djbahdow01]

Double post. Sorry

[djbahdow01]

Originally Posted by Les Kern

Quark? I used to love it, but it does only... Quark. And the PRICE. Holy cow! My EDU discount is $400.00. My EDU discount on the entire Adobe Suite is $175.00.

Where have you found this 175 EDU price. I have been looking for it and the lowest price I have found is 379. Thats the lowest ive seen for the suite. Also ive found Quark for 180 as well.

[Les Kern]

Originally Posted by iToon

To be honest, Quark's the industry standard tool for brochure work....

BUT it's losing market share big-time.
HERE is the best article I've ever seen on the subject.

[Les Kern]

Originally Posted by djbahdow01

Where have you found this 175 EDU price. I have been looking for it and the lowest price I have found is 379. Thats the lowest ive seen for the suite.

I run a high school district. This is NOT the same as a personal purchase through an EDU supplier, like a college. I do most of my purchases through CDWG. Office 2004 is 48 bucks. PainterX is 71.00. You see, Adobe is SMART. Give the schools these tools at a price point that won't kill them, and make an army of Adobe users. Seems to be working! Quark? Bah.

[iToon]

[QUOTE=Les Kern]BUT it's losing market share big-time.[QUOTE]

Yup - couldn't agree more. Basically, I think the cost of Quark reflected their monopoly on page layout software at the time. Designers had no choice but fork out for it, unless they wanted a much more inferior product. The great thing about InDesign is that it's really stirred things up in the industry.

When I say Quark is the industry standard, it is amongst the majority of designers who have got used to it being around, but it's great that there is realistic choice of options for them, finally.

Indeed, Computer Arts magazine (a tidy mag we get over in the UK) rated InDesign over Quark when the previous versions were released. I'd be interested in seeing how Quark's tried to address this in their latest release. They've got to start justifying that price tag now.

[Blue Velvet]

I think Quark 7 will be released within the next 6 months with substantial discounts on upgrades and site licences -- the way things are going they'll virtually have to give it away for free.

For me, this will be their last opportunity to get it right.

[djbahdow01]

Originally Posted by Les Kern

I run a high school district. This is NOT the same as a personal purchase through an EDU supplier, like a college. I do most of my purchases through CDWG. Office 2004 is 48 bucks. PainterX is 71.00. You see, Adobe is SMART. Give the schools these tools at a price point that won't kill them, and make an army of Adobe users. Seems to be working! Quark? Bah.

Ahh i see I agree with you on the Adobe Indesign vs Quark. Adobe reall has the school thing down.