Topic awaiting preservation: About to embark on full blown graphics gig soon... advice?

Hey gang,
I've been coming here for the past few years and have had more then my share of helpfull advice given to me. I was presented with a chance
to take over a graphics department for a major company, I am pretty solid with programs like Photoshop, Pagemaker, not the best with Illustrator
or any kind of vector design programs.

I feel like I'm in serious need of upgrading my software as Pagemaker has since fallen of the face of the earth. What would be the hottest app now?
I'm guessing Quark as it seems to be the relative standard.

I have to do a basic presentation of the companies product in a week or so, and want to be prepared to work with whatever they send me!

Any recomended reading? Stuff I should consider? Am I over my head?

Well I would go with "Adobe's creative suite pro" it includes: Acrobat, InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, and GoLive. That should provide you with the majority of tool you would need for print work. Acrobat is becomeing critical for suppling ads for magazines and newspapers.

In a professional enviroment, one where you excepting work comming from the outside. I would also suggest QuarkXpress, it still is the defacto standard in many places. I would also consider Corel Suite/Draw depending on your client base.

Some other tools that you may want to look, depend on the type of work. PitStop Pro is invaluable, it's an Acrobat plug-in that add many useful editing functions. Helpful if you have incomming PDF's from a client, that contain imbeded RGB image or you need to support a MS Publisher or Word -->PDF-->Postscript Work flow.

In a window's work flow, Crossfont & Transmac are useful. Most of the designers I work with, supply files from a Macintosh. So conversion of fonts and files is necessary.

J. Stuart J.

(Edited by jstuartj on 11-04-2004 06:25)

(Edited by jstuartj on 11-04-2004 06:27)

in over your head? maybe, but that makes it fun

i second the use of indesign, quark is dying a slow painful death (at least i'm hoping they do). they basically ignored their customer base for years because they were the only show in town and they could, then indesign has come on the last few years and picked up a lot of customers who were fed up with quark's lack of customer service.

on the other stuff, listen to jstuartj, the man knows his stuff.

chris


KAIROSinteractive | tangent oriented

Well I already bought a previous "production suite" a couple of years ago that had Photoshop, Illustrator, and Pagemaker. So would it be safe to say that InDesign is the new pagemaker? My main concern was exactly the problem with font conversions, and coloring. I've had a problem with Pagemaker exporting files to pdf. Never worked properly.

I will look into all those recomendations! Thanks J! BTW, I forget if I sent the rest of the images to you. Just let me know if you still want them!

This endeavor looks to be really fun! To me that's the main thing. I mean really, getting paid to do what you love is every persons dream! I just don't want to do
it half a$$ed.

All image received as far as I know, I received about 65 images that's enough for me. I happy I could help, I don't get much chance to do Illustrator project any more and it's one more thing for my portfolio. I hope the project went well.

Yep, InDesign is the new PageMaker. Thou I would avoid using the transparence features, (ie. embeded PSD files with transparent backgrounds.) unless you do some testing first. Transparency seam to still cause issues with some devices and workflows. Many times it's better off using clipping paths or other work arounds.

By the way, here is some useful info on font transfer:

http://www.asy.com/files.htm & http://www.asy.com/fonts.htm

Enjoy, happy to help.

J. Stuart J.

I have always preferred FrameMaker from Adobe. I have been using it since it was owned by FrameTechnologies.

I have not had a chance to use InDesign. I think Adobe is planning to replace PageMaker and FrameMaker with it. I have friends who use it and it has some really nice features. Of course, the feel of the interface is what makes a page layout program , not the features.

I have used Quark a little. I prefer FrameMaker. I have friends who use Quark and the company's insistence that you buy a full priced copy each time they create a new version and a dramatic decrease in the quality of their technical support in the last two years is causing many people to leave Quark and start using InDesign.

InDesign is new enough that it should be here for a few more years until Adobe decides they need to make more money by selling everyone a new product.

I really like FrameMaker and hope Adobe continues to support it for many years to come, but they seem to be trying to get rid of it the last couple of years.

-- not necessarily stoned... just beautiful.

I'm a fan of Illustrator and InDesign. I know a few ad execs whom have transformed their graphics departments to use InDesign from quarky QuarkXpress despite the training costs.

I also suggest using Adobe's Classroom in a Book books to brush up on Illustrator and InDesign.

yeah when i first started using photoshop i bought their classroom book for it, only thing was that it was a volume 1 book and the disc was a volume 2.... oh well,
although I've learned way more here then from any book to be quite honest! I think we should all come together and create the "Asylum's Guide to Photoshop"
(sorry, off topic)

I'm probably going to order the Adobe Creative Suite Pro - Premium, can get it with a Wacom tablet and mouse for $600+ with academic pricing. Perfect opportunity for my son to get into design eh?!?

I've grown really familiar with Photoshop / PM layouts and if In Design is anything like them, it should be a breeze. I REALLY need to get into Illustrator much more though. One step at a time I guess.