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program to make posters?
- Thread starter giganten
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giganten said:
I'd say for any layout project you should use Quark or inDesign... They're made for those specific tasks...
Photoshops gets overused in my opinion... Photoshop is for creating and manipulating graphics/photos..not page layout...
If you don't have InDesign, and don't want to spend a fortune on it (or use the 30 day trial for this project), there is a free alternative: RagTime Solo.
i.Feature said:
If it's only a one page document, like a poster, photoshop is fine. Use seperate layers for type, and keep them on top. Illustrator is also great, especially for type on a poster, as is indesign.
Quark is an ugly turd used by old school designers and still preferred by most printers. InDesign is a little nicer and more fun to use. A lot of know it all designers will say otherwise but to poop with them. Anyway, I'd just use illustrator for a single page poster. Use Photoshop for any photo work you need to do. Then throw it in illustrator and do your text, layout, graphics and printing from there. Yeahhh Boyyyyy
you have to think about your final output.
does the printer want Vector art or RGB composite?
Can they print photos? Or just solid colors?
Illustrator for text and solid colors and shapes (best with text and vectors)
and/or
Photoshop for photos. (PS sucks with text but is the only choice if you use photos)
does the printer want Vector art or RGB composite?
Can they print photos? Or just solid colors?
Illustrator for text and solid colors and shapes (best with text and vectors)
and/or
Photoshop for photos. (PS sucks with text but is the only choice if you use photos)
GrannySmith_G5 said:
There is nothing wrong with quark. Indesign is over rated in some aspect. When i can't get an indesign file to print right i export it out and drop into quark.
You can design your poster in anything you want.... Don't forget to add your bleeds if you do it in photoshop or Illustrator.
How so? Every old timer I know uses Quark for page layout. Have been for over a decade. A ton of printers still prefer getting quark files, this I can assure you of. As far as it being an ugly turd...it is, it's hideous. Indesign being "nicer and more fun" is simply an opinion. just kidding..Blue Velvet said:
You are right I have absolutely no clue what I'm talking about. What I meant to say is that quark is the industry standard program for page layout and is clearly the best most reliable software in the field for layout and prepress.
At work I pray everyday that every file I pull off our FTP is a Quark file. If the file happens to be an InDesign file, I'll export every page as an eps and import them into quark. I like it that much. Plus, naturally the rip for our Inca Spyder handles quark files so much better that it's a no brainer.
GrannySmith_G5 said:
Well, in that case I'll leave the decision on repro to you (somebody who by their own words and less than a year ago was: '...running samples in the blood lab at their local hospital all day long.')
...and I'll listen to other experienced print designers on the suitability for their workflow of any piece of particular software.
If you know anything of my posting history, I'm no great lover of Quark not have I been particularly impressed with certain aspects of InDesign but reasons for using a particular layout program often go far beyond features, particularly for larger studios. It's easier for a small setup to retrain and transition.
Personally speaking, we're giving Quark one last shot with Xpress 7 while simultaneously getting some external training with InDesign. Every time I consider what is involved, I pull out our production schedule -- for a dose of cold realism -- which has about 150 jobs on it and covers the next 3-4 months or so.
Ha, not that it matters, but I've been involved in the printing field for over 15 years. My dad owned a shop for 30 years which sold 2 years ago (when I left). I'm back in action now though in a very successful shop. For what it's worth I still work in the blood lab per diem. Nice sleuthing though. Well, off to Quark land I go.
Posters
Look down any street at downtown and I am sure that all those banners are made in Illustrator. Small posters, the ,most may be in Quark followed closely by Indesign. The rest that are in lobby's, restaurant menus etc are made in a cheap computer somewhere in the administration room.
Just be sure that the poster is in cmyk before printing and it is rastorized. Original and rastorized are two different things. So "save as" as u will need your original.
Look down any street at downtown and I am sure that all those banners are made in Illustrator. Small posters, the ,most may be in Quark followed closely by Indesign. The rest that are in lobby's, restaurant menus etc are made in a cheap computer somewhere in the administration room.
Just be sure that the poster is in cmyk before printing and it is rastorized. Original and rastorized are two different things. So "save as" as u will need your original.
I personally use Illustrator. I've never been trained in it, but can find my way around well enough to produce decent looking posters/cards etc. If you're looking for a less "professional" option, then perhaps consider Pages - it has some very nice templates which are highly customizable, or you can just as easily work from scratch.
I usually end up making a couple of posters a year (research work), and I've always used illustrator for these. I have InDesign, though I've never used it. What's the difference between the two? Every time I use an Adobe product I'm sure I start losing years of my life, (4 hours wasted just to get a colour outline for a picture, then have the file crash 
). So Not User Friendly, at least for this user. Is InDesign more intuitive than Illustrator?
). So Not User Friendly, at least for this user. Is InDesign more intuitive than Illustrator?neocell said:
InDesign is specifically designed for page-layout and is a far more flexible and powerful tool than Illustrator for these purposes from its handling of type with style-sheets, master pages, and colour, supporting multi-page documents etc.
Images and illustrations are usually done in Photoshop and Illustrator and these components are linked to and laid-out in a page-layout app like QuarkXpress or InDesign.
Sure, you can do a poster entirely in Illustrator but most print designers would prefer to use InDesign or Xpress.
InDesign is the bowl where all the ingredients are mixed together.
Thanks RideIt and Blue Velvet. Next time I have to make one I'll fire up InDesign and give it a whirl.