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Steven Oppenheimer wonders: <<...what a fairly "standard" set of software
tools would be for laying out a glossy, newsstand, four-color magazine.>>
You need three things:
1. Page layout software: Quark rules the roost, and in particular, it has
"extensions" that let you automate the entire editorial process while
putting together a magazine. They're expensive, but unbeatable if you need
the full monty. InDesign is coming on strong, but lacks the third-party
support of Quark and (last I heard) is still a bit shaky. PageMaker is still
a fine tool, but has fallen way behind in terms of support by the graphics
community and service bureaus (not a trivial factor when it comes time to
solve problems). Frame can certainly be used, particularly if you work via
PDF, but unlike the others, it isn't designed specifically to produce
four-color separations and isn't very popular in the graphics community;
thus, you may have problems troubleshooting obscure color separation
problems. I'm told the new Ventura Publisher is pretty sharp, but I think
it's in much the same position as PageMaker--good, but fallen behind the
others in the hearts and minds of designers.
2. Photo manipulation software: Photoshop is the undisputed king, in part
because of its power and usability, but also because it has a huge community
of users and thus unbeatable support at the service burea when it comes time
to troubleshoot problems with film production. There are many competitors,
but none offers any compelling advantages over Photoshop.
3. Illustration software: Illustrator is still the one to beat, though
CorelDraw and Freehand are close enough behind that it may come down to a
matter of which software best suits your working style. For special needs,
you might want to look into Visio or Canvas, but neither competes with the
big three I've already mentioned as a general-purpose drawing tool.
--Geoff Hart, geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada
580 boul. St-Jean
Pointe-Claire, Que., H9R 3J9 Canada
"User's advocate" online monthly at
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Hofstadter's Law--"The time and effort required to complete a project are
always more than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's
Law."
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