This discussion is now closed.

Check out other Related discussions

Magazine Layout

pedy1986

I somehow managed to volunteer myself to put together the school paper/magazine, but anyway, I always just used publisher as it was simple and looks 'alright'.

I was wondering, is there any better program to do the layout that can give a more professional look? If so, where can I get it and how hard to use is it.

Cheers.

Reply 1

amexblack

corey

Hmm, Quark XPress is very good. Perhaps you could get your school to fork out the cash for it. I've used it a few times and it's not that difficult, and is pretty much the industry standard for this sorta thing.

Reply 2

Joey_Johns

amexblack

Isnt it good going to a private school :smile:

I was in Winchester on Sunday, I will have you know.

Reply 3

musicbloke

amexblack

Yeah Quark is great and can be very complex - my mother teaches quark skills on a journalism MA. The only problem is that the newest version will probably cost more than your computer. It is over £1000. I suggest finding yourself a cracked version :wink:

Reply 4

loftx

I'm not sure better software would be much of a help if the problem is with design. I don't know much about professional page layout, but it probably takes ages to learn. I think the best thing to do is just to find some templates you like the look of or copy the layout of a professional publication.

Reply 5

amexblack

Joey_Johns

Isnt it good going to a private school :smile:

I was in Winchester on Sunday, I will have you know.

You like Winchester? It is supposed to be something like 5th worst city in England. Architecturally, I suppose its a very nice city and there are a few goods shops. The cathedral grounds, if you ignore the pot smokers, are quite nice. The high street is crap though, and it's too violent at night. I don't suppose you've ever been there for a night out though.

Reply 6

rover

Use publisher. :smile:

OR fron page but that becomes an arse wen u eant to pront it out

Reply 7

Joey_Johns

amexblack

My girlfriend likes Winchester. It has querky shops apprarently. Yes we went to the Cathedral and what is left of that castle.

No I have never been out at night there. Sounds pretty similar to Scumhampton then. During the week its a nice place to go out, as soon as it hits the weekend you get all sorts of townies and layabouts out at night causing trouble.

Reply 8

amexblack

Joey_Johns

I think about the only part of Southampton I like is Oxford street. Night life is better in Winchester than So'ton I'd imagine ... there is one fairly good vodka bar, and on the whole it's too expensive for the absolute townies. But everywhere closes down @ 1 because it's a religious city :frown:

Reply 9

Joey_Johns

amexblack

I live pretty close to Oxford street. Yes, it is probably the niceset place to go out, i've been to practically all the resturants on that row, and by god there is a lot.

There is a couple of really cool bars with premium whisky nearer the town centre though which are good. I have also slummed it in Wetherspoons on a few occasions on all dayers, you cant beat the place for quick cheap food and cheap booze, and the fact that it opens at 10 am makes it very appealing for afternoon drinking. Different place at night though, packed with townies.

Kaos the nightclub is quite frankly the dirtiest place I have ever seen. But my girlfriend lets me go there because she knows I wouldnt dare touch any of the townie scum in there despite the fact they wear practicly nothing. They actually have STD badges on :smile:

Reply 10

Egan1

I have a deep, deep loathing of Publisher and a great love of Word, so I'd use that, though obviously if you want to use default templates etc it wouldn't be the best option.

How 'professional' are you intending this magazine to be? What will be in it? Will it be colour of grayscale-print?

My school's 'magazine' normally comprises of a few boxes, columns, articles etc (not forgetting the laughable 'hot or not' section for students) simply laid out on varying amounts of A4 paper and stapled together. -Printed in grayscale on coloured paper.
I suggest you ask your school about their budget for it, it may well have an effect on the content and design.

Reply 11

amexblack

corey

There is actually a relatively new product by Adobe called InDesign which is supposed to be quite good. It has the advantage of being able to create PDF files with no additional software. It caters to the market not needing the power of QuarkXpress yet still has alot more to offer than Publisher. It's more than twice as cheap than Quark also.

Reply 12

Vyse

Well to be perfectly honest, you probably don't need an expensive DTP package - although you may be able to find an older single-user copy of Quark or Pagemaker going for a song.

Is the table handling within Microsoft Office really that bad? I doubt you'll need the more advanced features of a professional DTP package - you certainly won't need to distill your documents and it doesn't sound as if you need any advanced colour management options. Your information is a little vague - what do you hope the program to achieve?

Nevertheless, your first step should be to check out what the big two are offering ... Internet connection speed permitting:

QuarkXPress 6 demo (PC) - http://www.quark.com/service/desktop/downloads/details.jsp?idx=516

QuarkXPress 6 demo (Mac) - http://www.quark.com/service/desktop/downloads/details.jsp?idx=517

Adobe product demo's (PC/Mac) - http://www.adobe.com/products/tryadobe/main.jsp

You probably don't need to go splashing out lots of cash. My advice would be to draft in someone from the art department - it's all about making best use of the resources at hand.

Reply 13

dazmanultra

Word can be made to do all the things that publisher can do, but is better.

QuarkXpress on the other hand is the industry standard, and has been now for at least a decade if not more. It costs mega bucks though... for a simple school magazine, a good use of word will suffice. All it takes is good design skills/imagination - upgrade to Quark when you find you want to do something that Word simply cannot do...