Adobe Pagemaker

[Babylon]

I saw a course on DTP (long distance learning) but it said i needed Adobe Pagemaker to do the course. Does anyone have experience in using it here and is it any good. From the research i've done it's the same price as Photoshop and i know the one i'd rather buy!!!

Thanks :)

[Rick Hall]

Adobe Pagemaker is a DTP program.
Photoshop is a graphics program.

They are very different.

To answer your first question, Pagemaker is an excellent program for the PC and QuarkXpress is the one for the MAC. There is a version of QuarkXpress for the PC but it just does not cut it. Adobe Indesign is the professional DTP program for the PC but is harder to learn than Pagemaker.

[glc]

Unless you are going to be doing semi-professional DTP, you can save a lot of money by using M$ Publisher - it's adequate for most casual layouts.

[Babylon]

Well, hoping to be able to make things as professional as possible :) And i've seen some work done with MS Publisher and wasn't oeverly impressed, but then, it had been used to make a webpage and it just hadn't worked.

I've never used a specific DTP program, but i figured i could have used photoshop to add text to documents etc, and make the graphics, and even make websites (i've done documents, video covers, cd covers in Fireworks before) so i just had the weird idea i'd get away with photoshop over pagemaker!!!

I'll be sure to check out Indesign as well because i'm already having to spend enough to get pagemaker (if i do decide to do the course) so might as well go all the way ;)

[LawyerRon]

If you're serious about DTP as a career, than Pagemaker is an investment in that direction. I was a graphic artist for over 6 years and used QuarkXpress for Mac. Yes, you can use Photoshop to create complete ads but I consider this to be a more advanced application of Photoshop. Indesign was not around back then so I can't comment on that program.

[Rick Hall]

If you want to do professional DTP on a PC then Adobe Indesign is definately the route to go. It also does much better conversion to .PDF than Pagemaker. With Pagemaker you have to use Adobe Distiller (which comes with the Pagemaker package) but with Indesign it is integrated and gives you more control on the output of your files. I personally beleive that Indesign is the top DTP program for the PC. On the other hand, if you plan to make a career out of DTP, then purchase a top of the line MAC (big bucks) and go with Quark software (this is the choice of most professionals).

[glc]

Publisher is not really intended for webpages or professional DTP, I was just saying that for casual home and small business use it does a pretty good job of setting up flyers and stuff like that. It's definitely a matter of "you get what you pay for". I do my business cards in Publisher, for example. It is easy to use and has a small learning curve.

[Nuclear Krusader]

I just downloaded a trial version of PageMaker and are having a hard time with it. Guess I won't manage to learn to use it before the trial expires.

BTW, you can get both Photoshop and Pagemaker. Adobe sells the Publishing collection for $ 999 USD. It comes with Pagemaker, Photoshop 7.0, Illustrator and Acrobat. A nice package I think. I'm saving money to buy it.

[Babylon]

BTW, you can get both Photoshop and Pagemaker. Adobe sells the Publishing collection for $ 999 USD. It comes with Pagemaker, Photoshop 7.0, Illustrator and Acrobat. A nice package I think. I'm saving money to buy it.

I was browsing in Amazon and came accross that actually :) If i ever get the money together it's a definate buy (lets face it, it's not much more exspensive than buying photoshop or indesign on their own).

Saw macromedia studio which also caught my attention (it's no where near as good as the abobe products i know, but it's still a worthy set of tools to have).

Better get a second job and start saving! I was hoping to get a demo of indesign but it's 80MB and i'm on 56k :eek:

Wait, just noticed. They do a set called "Design Collection" which has Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, and InDesign & a "Publishing Collection" which has Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, and PageMaker...

[Nuclear Krusader]

Well, the Pagemaker demo took me over 6 hours to download. I'm on 33.6.

[Babylon]

Ouch! My connection can only download at 4k a second so i'd be about 6 to 8 hours for me to get the indesign demo :( And i just don't have that much online time! (and i dislike download accelerators for many reasons!)

I should just go out and buy it to save my the time downloading ;)

[DilLy]

QuarkExpress is the industry standard right now. Unfortunately it is having problems becasue it isn't compatible with OSX (even the latest version).

A lot of colleges (mine included) are trying to get Adobe InDesign more prevalent in the printing industry, as it is a much better product. It just takes time for the industry to adapt to change, as they would need to make sure the employees know how to use InDesign. Knowing both is a good idea.

Quark on the PC is just as good as the Mac version btw.

[Rick Hall]

I have used each of the programs and I disagree that Quark on the PC is as good as Quark on the MAC and so do many others.

http://www.designer-info.com/DTP/quark_xpress_4.htm

[Nuclear Krusader]

BTW, is there a tutorial for PageMaker available on the web?

[Babylon]

does the installer not also install a .pdf manual

[Nuclear Krusader]

Nope, only a Readme file.

[Babylon]

guesss thats the problem of the getting the demo version :/

[audiyoda]

Originally posted by Nuclear Krusader
BTW, is there a tutorial for PageMaker available on the web?

Check here (http://training:training@training.orangeusd.k12.ca.us/vtconline/intranetlist.htm).

-Craig

[Nuclear Krusader]

Neat!

Thanks, Craig! You da man! :)