totally OT: Adobe illustrator vs Adobe pagemaker

I've used Pagemaker to do newspaper layouts when I was a newspaper advisor. I would probably use Photoshop to do a CD Cover.

L> Anybody have experience with either of these two programs? I need to

I own Illustrator, but not Pagemaker (because I started doing page layout with Quark a long time ago, and I don't feel like learning a new trick.) My Pagemaker comments are assumptions based on using Quark and a couple of other programs.

Illustrator is an illustration program. It's really good for things like drawing stuff, editing those drawings, applying special effects to drawings, etc. It can do a little bit with text, but not a huge amount. I wouldn't want to do a 10 page newsletter in Illustrator, for example. I sometimes use Illustrator to design art quilts, especially when I'm starting from a complex photo that I want to trace.

Pagemaker is a page layout program. It probably has some limited illustration capabilities, but they assume you'll do heavy duty illustration in another program and then import it into Pagemaker. (You should also be able to import photos and do a limited amount with them as well.)

HTH!

I am not sure of this but why not try Paint Shop pro to make your graphics then put them into a Word.doc or publisher file. Has worked for me every time, but you made need something different.

Jacquel> Anybody have experience with either of these two programs? I need to

If you want to simply modify photos/graphics that you already have, with some layering and other modifications, but not making something absolutely from scratch, you could try GIMP. It is basically the freeware version of PhotoShop. Much like OpenOffice is the freeware version of MicroSoft Office. It is free for download on the internet. Several of us teachers and many of our students love it.

You can find it at

Steve Alaska

"Michelle" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@news.air-internet.com... Anybody have experience with either of these two programs? I need to buy one to do the graphics for a CD cover. If anyone can tell me the differences and has an opinion on which might be more appropriate to the project, I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

"Michelle" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.air-internet.com:

It depends on if you want to do the graphics or do the layout for the CD cover.

Programs specifically for vector graphic (this is like clip art, cartoon- ish type): Illustrator, Corel Draw , Fireworks, (and others)

Programs specifically for editing raster images, photographs, .jps: Photoshop, PaintShopPro, GIMP, (and others)

Programs for laying out docutments: InDesign, Quark, PageMaker (

Hi Linda, So would I, however, the company that is reproducing the CD and covers, demands the format be in one of the following: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Pagemaker, Adobe In-Design, Macromedia/Adobe Freehand, CorelDraw, or QuarkXpress. Thanks!

Hi Kathy,

Thanks so much for sharing your experience with Illustrator. It tells me that Pagemaker is more likely to be the program I need to use as I want to be able to take photos and text and arrange them on the CD jacket. I don't need to draw. (Can't do very well with a pencil, so I don't think a computer program would help. ;-)

Thanks again,

Hi Jacqueline,

Unfortunately, the company that is reproducing the CD andcovers, demands the format be in one of the following: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Pagemaker, Adobe In-Design, Macromedia/Adobe Freehand, CorelDraw, or QuarkXpress. So I am limited on options. I appreciate the thought though!

Thanks Steve! While I ultimately won't be able to use GIMP because the company doing the CD reproduction and jackets demand that the format be in Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Pagemaker, Adobe In-Design, Macromedia/Adobe Freehand, CorelDraw, orQuarkXpress, playing with it may give me some ideas in the meantime. -- Michelle in NV

Just another thought, Michelle (and your printer has probably already told you this, but just in case)...Any job done in pagemaker generally has to be sent to the printer in pdf form. The artwork probably won't link otherwise, and to imbed the fonts. Sending Pagemaker jobs used to be a nightmare. We'd end up with font subsitutions, and pixelated artwork if they weren't in pdf form.

Sherry

Thanks Steve, in Alaska,

This discussion came just at the right time. My 14 year old grandson came home with a project from his art class to do on the computer. He has been using Paint and is very happy about getting a new program. We are going to down load GIMP and give it a try.

Janet > If you want to simply modify photos/graphics that you already have, with

messagenews: snipped-for-privacy@news.air-internet.com...

"Michelle" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.air-internet.com:

You should consider getting inDesign instead of Pagemaker. Pagemaker is being phased out.

On Jan 25, 4:42=A0am, mini Mini wrote: computer program would help. =A0;-)

Indesign *would* be ideal. But, IMO, Indesign has so many capabilities and is such a complicated and expensive program (IIRC it was around $700?). Seems like an awful big investment for one project. It was really hard for me to learn it, but that's just me. Other people

*love* it, and never went back to Pagemaker. So it must just be my "I-hate-change-of-any-kind" dinosaur tendencies.=20

Sherry

"Sherry" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@m58g2000cwm.googlegroups.com:

If you already have Pagemaker than I think you should stick with it. But if you have to buy a new one than InDesign or Quark, because Pagemaker is basically going out of production. I bought the whole Adobe package (which was expensive) but I didn't price it seperately. Anyway, I thought Photoshop was the most expensive part of the package.

Of note, I just asked DH and he says that GIMP can export in anything you can find plug ins for. It is one of those adaptable open source geekly things.

I would assume that Michelle's company just needs to be able to open it on their system. So as long as they get Adobe format it doesn't actually matter what program the work is done in. ?

NightMist

messagenews: snipped-for-privacy@news.air-internet.com...

Hi NightMist,

Interesting point. I expect you're probably right about that.

Thanks!