Magazine layout software.
 

What program or software is the best for putting together a magazine layout?
Any recommendations, warnings, personal experience?

Adobe Indesign. :thumbsup

Care to give me some reasons, insight, experience or what ever you know about that software that makes it your first choice?

I've use Adobe Pagemaker in the past. It was the standard.

I'm guessing that InDesign is now the upgraded Pagemaker?

Quark hands down.

Would love more information if possible in regards to these products. What makes them stand out?

Contrary to popular belief Adobe does not make the industry standard for magazine layouts.


Quark IS the industry standard.

YARGH! or whatever the fuck that silly pirate would say.

Indesign kicks the shit out of Quark. :2 cents:

Indesign is used for layout work. You can prep the files in Photoshop (or another editor) and lay them out in Indesign. 90% of the people I know that layout magazines or booklets use Indesign. Also, the learning curve is minimal so you can start laying things out in no time.

i worked 2.5 years in a prepress company - Quark IS the industry standard, even when Adobe tries their best to change that.

InDesign is not that bad - but since people worked sinces ages with Quark, and the whole workflow is dedicated to Quark I doubt it will change.

What is the learning curve of Quark?

I will admit that the industry standard is Quark but my personal opinion is that Indesign is better and is also easier to learn.

Also, Quark is only available on Mac (I could be wrong). Either way, both applications are great for what they're made for and it's really up to the designer's personal preferences.

Err is that true about quark and macs?

no - it also exists for PC - it's just that the whole workflow (agency, prepress, print) used to work with macs. and in the past, that made the exchange of files easier when everyone had the same OS. second problem is fonts - PC and MAC fonts used to be not always compatible. Agency did a Quark file on a Mac which turned out to look weird in Quark on a PC - although it was supposed to be the same. but if you layout a magazine in Quark on a PC and send PDF files for print it should be no problem

and regarding the learning curve.. well, if you have a basic knowledge about print and graphics Quark is pretty easy to handle. the proper handling of stylesheets is the most important part

Ever have that feeling when you are driving that you may be heading into a curve way to fast?

yeah, especially one time when i fell asleep, drove about 500-600 yards sleeping and woke up in the curve when i saw some trees coming closer quite fast...

It was a metaphor. :winkwink:

yes, i know :winkwink:

but i had no other witty answer at hand :(

The suggested retail price for QuarkXPress 6 is $1,045 (U.S. dollars).
Purchase through the QuarkStore and save $100!

Holy gapping assholes batman!

thats cheap - the latest version (6.5) costs me $1500 as wholesaler price over here :1orglaugh

QuarkXPress what else?

Haven't used it, but I know a few printing companies that use Quark.

quark is the way to go . . much better than adobe

Industry standard is either Quark (MAC) or Adobe PageMaker (PC). I used to teach classes in PageMaker so I am partial to it.

you call that Witty??:1orglaugh :1orglaugh

Standard means one.

Quark. Period.

plenty of major magazine companies use adobe indesign nowadays..

Ya got em all mentioned in posts so far... but Quark is #1 :thumbsup

Does anyone who has a licenses legitimate copy also have the ability to outsource a few issues at a reasonable price if all ad material, copy, and so forth is provided so that I can at very least see if I can generate enough local interest around my city to see if I can make this idea float before dropping that kind of cash and trying to learn what appears to be a massive program?