Software for making flyers/posters?

[heinakuu]

can somebody help me ? I need recommendation about the software which is best to make posters and flyers. Or if this has discussed recently, please point me to the right thread. Which one are you using and why?

[Lauren_]

I use Quark Xpress and photoshop, but I don't think that much power (or $$$$) is needed for the usual flyers and posters.

I've noticed that an awful lot of people seem to have photoshop, and considering it costs as much as a typical costume, that surprises me. Maybe there's a light edition (LE version) that's cheaper? It really is the best for preparing photos.

A lot depends on what kind of design you'll be doing. If you're mainly looking to arrange some photos, illustrations and words on a page, then you're looking for page layout software. Quark, InDesign, Pagemaker were the standards when I was in the business, but there are lots of others, like microsoft publisher. Some people even use Word!

If you're looking to produce really image-heavy work (small amounts of text over lots photos) then you'll want a photo/paint program. Photoshop is the highest standard, but there are others, like CorelPaint.

The other consideration is what you'll do with your finished files. If you're going to print them yourself, you can use any software you like. But if you're going to send files to a printer, you'll need to either be using high-end professional products OR make sure you have the ability to save your files as a PDF or jpeg format. Most printers can't/won't work with files from Corel, Microsoft Publisher, Word, etc.

[asim1]

Originally Posted by heinakuu

can somebody help me ? I need recommendation about the software which is best to make posters and flyers. Or if this has discussed recently, please point me to the right thread. Which one are you using and why?

Word (or, if you're looking for something free, OpenOffice) will allow you to place words and text more than sufficiently for a poster, with patience and a few hours of study. Microsoft Publisher will do it a little more easily, but I'm not certain it's worth the additional cost. I'd avoid doing it in a image program like Photoshop unless you've got experience with the app, or are working with someone who does.
Honestly, the software doesn't matter so much as your experience in working with images and text. Find someone with some experience in the matter, or read up on some basic graphics design; I found doing so really aided my poster designs, as well as my web site work. :)

[sabrinabellydancer]

the industry standard for print design software is InDesign
http://www.adobe.com
http://www.adobe.com/products/indesign/

if you or someone you know has a student id card, you can get the software at a very low price. it is quite intuitive if you know how to create documents for print.

if you don't, check out the community college and their continuing education department. ours here in san diego has tons of free computer classes covering the most popular applications. you may have something similar in your area. if they have InDesign installed in the computer lab, you can use it there for free.

i recommend InDesign, because you will be able to create your files in a manor which the printer requires, and not have to pay them for a lot of extra fix time [like if you use word]. additionally, i have learned from experience that it is important to use the best tools we can. they ultimately make the job much easier.

because these fliers will represent you professionally, i understand the importance of this decision.

best of luck.
- sabrina

[bethsoren]

I use Print Shop because it is what I have at the house. However I am probably not the best judge on ease of use since I have a heavy "computer design" related background. I was a computer cartographer in my pre daughters and pre belly dancing life.

[resullivan]

I use print shop, too (I've loved it for years, since when it came on the really floppy floppy disks) and Paint Shop pro.

I know others have used Word or Powerpoint. It depends on how big a file you can deal with and how fancy it needs to look.

[Nat242]

I've always used Microsoft Publisher. I've used it to create advertising flyers for both belly dance and open house inspections (when I worked in a real estate office!). I've also used it to make posters and fancy booklets for university assignments.

[deelybopper]

If you want free alternatives to those mentioned above, there's a great image manipulation program called 'the Gimp' - you can download it here: http://www.gimp.org/

Also, a desktop publishing program called 'Scribus', which you can find out more about / download here - http://www.scribus.net

I've used Gimp a little, and it seems good, although I'm no expert! I've downloaded Scribus, but haven't had much chance to play with it yet, although I've heard good reviews of it - it does produce PDFs that can be used by commercial printers, which is a bonus.

I'm not familiar with Photoshop or Quark, so can't say how these free alternatives compare...other than on price

D

[Emma]

I use Photoshop Elements, which came with my laptop. I found it fairly easy to get to grips with, and I think I've had some nice results. I don't know what the full version has that this one doesn't, but it does everything I need it to do.

[danidance]

It depends on how sophisticated you want to get. Word will make a flyer with images - if you have good fonts + right images, you can use that.

I use Adobe Indesign and Photoshop and think the Adobe Suite is the best, that's of course my personal preference. Photoshop is not a layout program per se so while you can use it to create a flyer, it's much easier in InDesign once you've done your image manipulation in photoshop, of course.

If you are a student (or perhaps have a student in your family), you can get great prices on software through college bookstores. For example, my price as a full time student for Adobe CS3 (the bundle) is $300 which is crazy savings.

If you're an alumni you get a discount but that varies school to school.

Heinaku, of course that may not be the case in Finland, sorry.

[reina]

I use publisher, it's super easy and came with my computer. I've made brochures, booklets, invitations, flyers, business cards, and calendars mostly for work but also for belly dance.

[heinakuu]

Thank you everybody, now I have a huge list of suggestions. You know I used to ask someone to do it for me, but always there is something what I do not like in the final version but I have to accept it because there is no way to explain exactly what I want - now I can try on my own. Thank you so much for sharing your experiences!