software help needed

[Chance]

Just got a boatload of pics burned (with the intention of creating my own brochures and business cards) only to discover my current software isn't up to the job.

Can anyone recommend their favorite program for this kind of work? It must be PC-based. If it comes with a built-in photo shop even better.

Chance

[Steven Ragatz]

Some more details would help...

How about PhotoShop since it comes with PhotoShop???

Is your problem some sort of proprietary photo disk?

Steve

[Doctor Eric]

For brochures and buisiness cards, you want to use Adobe Illustrator, you only need photoshop if you want to edit your photos before making your brochures.

[scot]

Chance,
All you need is paint shop pro. If you don't know your photo editing stuff too much, just get this program and layout everything in it. http://www.jasc.com/ .

If you're using photos, I don't find that illustrator is that much better, but if you want to make your text look really good (text wrap etc.), you would use like quark express or page maker --- I don't know the cheaper versions of these, but I bet there are some.

Scot

[Stephon]

PhotoShop has a very flexible and simple to use text wrapping feature. Just FYI.

[Doctor Eric]

"If you're using photos, I don't find that illustrator is that much better"

You'll notice in a brochure.
I should have mentioned that unless you really know what you're doing, or feel like burning all that time to learn, you shouldn't mess with illustrator. With Photoshop and PaintShopPro, you'll print basically what you see on-screen, which is why it's not the best choice for print, with Illustrator, there are a lot of hidden pitfalls because it is a proffessional printing program. PaintShopPro is prob a better choice for you Chance.

[Mr.Taxi Trix]

I like these guys for printing postcards and brochures: all online, quick turnaround, and decent enough prices. http://48hourprint.com/

[Chance]

I should have added that my computer and I have a mutual long standing arrangement: it doesn't crap out on me, and I won't heave it out the window.

Steven R.- No proprietary problems. All the pics are 100% mine, burned by a friend. The problem is that I am an idiot when it comes to computers and software in general, although this winter will hopefully see an end to at least some of that.

Eric- Okay then, you are now siding with Scot and PaintShopPro, as opposed to Adobe Illustrator.

Scot- Arigato

Stephon- Are you familiar with PaintShopPro? How does it compare to PhotoShop, IYHO?

Taxi- It may very well be that if I get too frustrated with this winter project that I end up sending it out. But at least for now I want to keep it as just that: a way to kill time over the winter.

What about now, fellas??

[scot]

Chance,
You can use that company for just printing. You do the design. There are lots of other cheap printers out there.

I don't have a humble opinion about it. Photoshop is more solid, creates better images, is more popular(which comes with a host of benefits) and has more flexibility. Paintshop Pro is easier to get started, has fewer high level features but they both do the basics and they both output raster files. look up raster versus vector on the web to find out more about this.

What eric is talking about is how vector (illustrator) pictures resize perfectly, but if you get a template from your printing company, and you make your file the right colors and right size in the first place, your image can be any format and still print perfectly. I send photoshop files all the time and they come out great.

Plus, if you use illustrator to layout your pages, you still need a raster editor to color correct your images and do photo fixes.

I made my first website using Paint shop pro and Notepad on Windows. They had a free demo version.

http://www.juggle.com/mcj

[Stephon]

Originally posted by Chance
Stephon- Are you familiar with PaintShopPro? How does it compare to PhotoShop, IYHO?

It's been so long since I've used PSP that I don't really have an opinion on it. Sorry