My dad is having trouble with iWorks beind able to print large pictures (he uses it to layout sheets of photos for his business), in that printing larger pictures (in size) results in horizontal lines of darker and lighter ink. Its not a printer problem (have tried with other printers with same effect) and I'm looking for either a fix for this or, more likely, an alternative application to use. iWorks' Pages application is just templates right? We don't like templates!
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Apple Works alternative
- Thread starter joseph2166
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Believe it or not, Microsoft Office is probably one of the best Word processors among other things out there. I would get that, and I did.
As much as I hate Microsoft, I agree with CoMpX. Ninety-something percent of the world uses Office so to be able to read the documents they produce accurately, and generate your own that they can read you need to be using the same software.
The Word compatibility in alternative word processors like Nisus Writer and Mellel is next to useless for anything more complicated than basic text.
The Word compatibility in alternative word processors like Nisus Writer and Mellel is next to useless for anything more complicated than basic text.
Well we have office - but for laying out pictures? Dad wants to be able to place them wherever he wants, without to much fuss, and be able to resize them. he uses word for word processing, and graphics converter for the actual editing of the photos, and normaly Apple works when laying out the photos to print them off - and putting text boxes underneath the pictures - but he doesn't need it for sharing the pictures.
Pages is certainly not just templates! You can start with a blank page or create your own templates. Anything you want.
I would suggest printing to a PDF file or a preview. If you see the printing issue there, possibly the issue is Pages (first I've heard of a problem printing from Pages), or possibly with the print driver or something else.
Otherwise, Pages is the better option for laying out graphics compared to Word. Even people who tend to prefer Word for writing usually say so.
I would suggest printing to a PDF file or a preview. If you see the printing issue there, possibly the issue is Pages (first I've heard of a problem printing from Pages), or possibly with the print driver or something else.
Otherwise, Pages is the better option for laying out graphics compared to Word. Even people who tend to prefer Word for writing usually say so.
I wish apple would make it clear on their site that it wasn't just templates! There's no trial is there without getting it on a new mac? And thanks for the pdf idea i'll try it and see if the problem stays - aand the problem is with appleworks, i was woundering If i should get pages or another application as an alternative.
I often need to produce two-up photo pages with captions for reports. I used to do this in InDesign, which was always overkill and not particularly easy. With Pages, I was able to create a template with placeholder graphics for photos and captions. Now, this task is a simple matter of selecting the template and dragging the photos onto the placeholders. With a single click on the placeholder caption graphics, it selects and is replaced when you start typing. I can add as many pages as I need. This is easily the cleanest solution to this problem I've ever seen.
joseph2166 said:
You can change weather it starts up with the template screen too. Though I love pages with a passion, I'd also reccomend Swift Publisher, if pages gives you trouble.
well the printing problem definatly isn't apple works now - if I export it to a pdf from apple works the pdf is fine, but when its printed out its still got wierd light/dark lines. it must be the printer - wiill update drivers etc. Thanks for all the suggestions - I might try pages myself as I found a trial on dad's.
Clarification
Just to clarify, because your wording is all over the board here.
AppleWorks is what you're using that's giving you trouble, correct? Not Apple iWork (Pages)?
AppleWorks is great in its ease of use for things like this, but Pages will give you better graphics. It is, after all, capable of producing print jobs for professional presses.
Pages is definitely capable of much more than the templates that come with it. It would be pretty much worthless if you had to use those for all of your projects. However, nice templates are easy to market, so that's what you see on Apple's web site.
That said, would iPhoto do what you need? I'd assume that you can print a page of photos from it with the comments showing? Anyone know? I've never tried it. There has to be an easier way to lay these out than AW or Pages.
Just to clarify, because your wording is all over the board here.
AppleWorks is what you're using that's giving you trouble, correct? Not Apple iWork (Pages)?
AppleWorks is great in its ease of use for things like this, but Pages will give you better graphics. It is, after all, capable of producing print jobs for professional presses.
Pages is definitely capable of much more than the templates that come with it. It would be pretty much worthless if you had to use those for all of your projects. However, nice templates are easy to market, so that's what you see on Apple's web site.
That said, would iPhoto do what you need? I'd assume that you can print a page of photos from it with the comments showing? Anyone know? I've never tried it. There has to be an easier way to lay these out than AW or Pages.
I am using APPLEWORKS which is great yeh - and now I know its not the reason for the printing dificulties I will countinue with it. Pages I don't know well enough but it seems good - I want more freedom than iPhoto gives me in printing books and things...
Sounds like you need a proper publishing app to me. Try something like Adobe Indesign (or was it Illustrator?) for true freedom in layout. Won't be as good for adding large amounts of text though. Word is the best as far as word processing goes, but is a dog when it comes to layout issues.
I try not to touch any adobe products anymore - it seems to me any company who charges hundreds of pounds for a product like photoshop (which afterall would sell much better if they charged less) just doesn't deserve my money.... anyway we're fine and dandy... just trying to install these damn printer drivers
joseph2166 said:
The reason they charge that much for it, is because its a pro-app and people are willing to pay that much for that kind of software. Many photo-editing suites have come and gone and not one has threatened the position of photoshop.
I personally hate it
I just wish there was a good alternative like Jasc Paint Shop Pro (win only) for the mac!The GIMP is a good alternative to PSP.mfacey said:The reason they charge that much for it, is because its a pro-app and people are willing to pay that much for that kind of software. Many photo-editing suites have come and gone and not one has threatened the position of photoshop.
I personally hate it
Also, you can always use OpenOffice. Give it a go, it's freeware also.
always go for the daddy of DTP, Quark Xpress. Pretty much industry standard for DTP. Microsoft Word is a text editor, you need to be using a decent DTP app.
OpenOffice isn't OSX native.
InDesign (and Quark) is huge overkill (in terms of price, learning curve and functionality) for simple photograph layouts.
Pages will do what you need. Try the demo, but get that printer issue sorted first.
InDesign (and Quark) is huge overkill (in terms of price, learning curve and functionality) for simple photograph layouts.
Pages will do what you need. Try the demo, but get that printer issue sorted first.