Hello everyone, It's me again. I have been away for a while. My daughter is traveling on a premier soccer team and I have been busy with that. Her team consists of 13 and 14 yr olds. My daughter is 10 and starts everygame. Her goal is to play in the World Cup some day.

With that said, I have been dabbling in DTP for awhile now. Every one I know says that I should put more time into it. I think I am ready to take on this endevor except one thing.
I have been struggling to use Illustrator now for two months. I actually hate it. I know how powerful it is I just can't get used to it. I feel so at home with PS7.
My question to you is could I get away with using PS7 only for all of my DTP needs???????????

Please helpppppppppp!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I miss have missed you all and hello to all of the new members while I have been away..

Rich Worell

Bacardi

How can we know when we don't know your needs? [confused]

Rantin Al

Hi rw and hullo.

Stick in with Illustrator, you'll get there. You'll find it a great companion to Photoshop.

What sort of DTP do you intend doing? A dedicated DTP package like InDesign gives you a lot more publishing power, rather than doing it all in Photoshop. It's ok doing single page stuff in PS but you don't have the editability for anything more than basics.

Al

wbiss

Hi rworell!

[confused] Obviously, if we don't know what your DTP 'needs' are... it's a difficult question to answer.

But, if I can be 'assumptuous', I'm guessing that you mean strictly from an imagery point-of-view! And, if so, I would have to say yes. If you create/design at a ppi of 300 (sized for print), you'll have no problems using these files (saved as tiffs) in Quark or whatever DTP package you use.

BUT, if you want to re-size "up" (for example, reproduce a logo on a billboard) then the answer is NO, for the obvious reasons!!!

I've produced and supplied many graphics in PS for commercial printers. They were all designed at 300 ppi and scaled to print size.

stickdiesel

You limit urself if only use one sort of software for dtp. Photshop is a key and fundamental program but not enough. You cant have as much control on text elements for print (copy) etc as opposed to say in quarkxpress. To control bleeds etc, I think you are best importing a design into quark and adjusting when export as pdf.

Illustrator is a great program and put simply, the master of vector editing imho. I love it. Lets say you have a client who wants a logo designed, it would be best to do this in illustrator (unless requires bmp image, in which case, depending on the design you could prob design main elements in illustrator and leave bmp section for when doing specific job, ie. remove dummy bmp, resize, export to PS, insert bmp) so you can resize it etc to fit whatever design it goes with. Then use quark to compile final product, manage copy, etc.

You can try indesign as opposed to Quark. I havent tried yet, but will be learning soon. Either way, stick at it. In the long run you will be better for it. If illustrator is too much, try Macromedia Fireworks. Thats a great proggie too.

I guess that I forgot to mention that I am very fluent in Pagemaker. I have used Indesign but very little.
I mostly to busness cards, brouchures Logo redesign and grahpics for the web and also web design layouts.

Sorry I forgot the details, Your help would be mostly appreciated!!!!!!!!!!!

thanks again ,
Richard Worell

stickdiesel

Pagemaker....urghhhhh }P I didnt like that proggie hehe Especially the way it handles images. Adobe have replaced it with indesign havent they? I have pagemaker 7, but have used it like...hmmmmmmmmmmm 3 times maybe. Think last thing i did in it was a couple of wine labels. Although did most of the work in illustrator and PS.

So what exactly is troubling you with illustrator, I might be able to help a little.

Bacardi

InDesign is indeed the truck, where Pagemaker is the van. But it all depends on your needs, and the time you want to invest in it. I followed a course in InDesign last year, and I loved it from the first start. Yet, as I don't really do DTP, I didn't add it to my tools, and I would have to invest time to get the knowledge back to the surface. But the way it integrates with PS is fabulous. No more clipping paths: straight transparancy from PSD. etc etc etc...
But to come back to your initial question: a vector app is indeed needed.
The advantage with Illustrator is that you can use the clipboard to go from PS to Il. and vv.
problem is that neither is made for brochures, catalogues or magazines.

Being on PC, I use Xara X as vector app. Very fine, with tools that were envied and copied by "the great three", but I finally save as a TIFF in it and go to PS for the pdf. (I don't have Illustrator, perhaps unfortunately)