JVisgaitis
Explorer
lmpjr007 said:
Sorry I'm responding so late. It works really well and is a big jump from 7. Our lead artist uses it exclusively and wouldn't use anything else. I highly recommend it.
Layout Programs: What do you use?
- Thread starter lmpjr007
- Start date
Sorry I'm responding so late. It works really well and is a big jump from 7. Our lead artist uses it exclusively and wouldn't use anything else. I highly recommend it.
Professional Designer
One of the perks of being a gamer and a professional designer is the access to the toys after working hours.
The stuff I actually use often, at home and at work, on Macs:
- Illustrator 10 : The symbols features are powerful, if a trifle unwieldy and with a bit of a learning curve. However, once you start to practice with them, they make certain tasks much easier to deal with. Also, once you get the whole idea down of making patterns and fills properly you can create some seamless floor tile designs for miniatures maps.
-Photoshop 7.0 : Industry standard, can't go wrong here. Cost can be prohibitive for independent licensed copies, but enterprising folks always seem to get their hands on copies of it somehow. For those interested in it as a business investment which should therefore stay on the up & up, try finding someone in college who's willing to purchase an educational copy of it with their student ID for you.
- MS Word : 2004 just installed at work, 'X' installed at home. Here's a tip for folks who find themselves easily sidetracked when it comes to getting stuff done on the computer re: D&D planning. Do the work in stages. If you try writing in Quark or InDesign, you'll invariably stop your writing to worry about how the formatting looks, and how the layout is coming along. Don't write in the layout program. Write in the word processor and focus only on the writing task. Then, when the initial draft is done, import the text into the layout program and spend time making it pretty. Even if you don't quite get around to finishing the layout, you've still got the document finished in the word processor.
Other programs I have access to/use occasionally when time permits:
-Painter 9 : With the Wacom tablet, this one is fun but I don't usually have enough time to play with it to its full extent. On the list of things to learn by messing around.
-Quark 6.0 : Industry standard, but speaking as a print professional I have serious issues with Quark's performance and lack of customer support. The only reason it's still around is because it was the first on the scene.
- Adobe Creative Suite (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop) : InDesign is fun and my preferred layout program. However, I'm still self-training on it since work favors Quark when we get documents in. Even in CS I dislike the counter-intuitive nature of flowing text in, but that's just an old dog complaining at new tricks. If you are using Illustrator CS, be aware that there are backwards compatibility issues with regards to their type engine. Up until CS, you could save files down with a minimum of problems (since many of the worlds printers don't quite fully support CS yet) but after CS you run into issues with your text blocks being chopped up upon saving down. Photoshop CS is much better, but if you use nested layer sets, opening the layered file in older versions of Photoshop does some random damage and flattening as those nested layer sets freak the older version out somewhat.
And that's what I use.
One of the perks of being a gamer and a professional designer is the access to the toys after working hours.
The stuff I actually use often, at home and at work, on Macs:
- Illustrator 10 : The symbols features are powerful, if a trifle unwieldy and with a bit of a learning curve. However, once you start to practice with them, they make certain tasks much easier to deal with. Also, once you get the whole idea down of making patterns and fills properly you can create some seamless floor tile designs for miniatures maps.
-Photoshop 7.0 : Industry standard, can't go wrong here. Cost can be prohibitive for independent licensed copies, but enterprising folks always seem to get their hands on copies of it somehow. For those interested in it as a business investment which should therefore stay on the up & up, try finding someone in college who's willing to purchase an educational copy of it with their student ID for you.
- MS Word : 2004 just installed at work, 'X' installed at home. Here's a tip for folks who find themselves easily sidetracked when it comes to getting stuff done on the computer re: D&D planning. Do the work in stages. If you try writing in Quark or InDesign, you'll invariably stop your writing to worry about how the formatting looks, and how the layout is coming along. Don't write in the layout program. Write in the word processor and focus only on the writing task. Then, when the initial draft is done, import the text into the layout program and spend time making it pretty. Even if you don't quite get around to finishing the layout, you've still got the document finished in the word processor.
Other programs I have access to/use occasionally when time permits:
-Painter 9 : With the Wacom tablet, this one is fun but I don't usually have enough time to play with it to its full extent. On the list of things to learn by messing around.
-Quark 6.0 : Industry standard, but speaking as a print professional I have serious issues with Quark's performance and lack of customer support. The only reason it's still around is because it was the first on the scene.
- Adobe Creative Suite (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop) : InDesign is fun and my preferred layout program. However, I'm still self-training on it since work favors Quark when we get documents in. Even in CS I dislike the counter-intuitive nature of flowing text in, but that's just an old dog complaining at new tricks. If you are using Illustrator CS, be aware that there are backwards compatibility issues with regards to their type engine. Up until CS, you could save files down with a minimum of problems (since many of the worlds printers don't quite fully support CS yet) but after CS you run into issues with your text blocks being chopped up upon saving down. Photoshop CS is much better, but if you use nested layer sets, opening the layered file in older versions of Photoshop does some random damage and flattening as those nested layer sets freak the older version out somewhat.
And that's what I use.
Amazon284
First Post
Student versions of software cannot be used to generate income. They sell them cheap to students as learning aids, not to allow businesses to buy them cheaper than they would off the shelf in a PC store. I had to listen to this spiel from the salesclerk every time I bought student software in the campus store. I also had to sign a legal agreement with the college that I would not use the software to generate income or sell it. I assume they were covering their own butts. So either way, pirated copies and student versions shouldn't really be used by companies trying to do things on the "up and up."
I use InDesign CS, Photoshop 7, and Acrobat 6 for my design work. I recently switched to InDesign from PageMaker 7 and the difference is incredible. I'm in love with InDesign, and I don't think I could go back to Quark or PageMaker after using it.
I use InDesign CS, Photoshop 7, and Acrobat 6 for my design work. I recently switched to InDesign from PageMaker 7 and the difference is incredible. I'm in love with InDesign, and I don't think I could go back to Quark or PageMaker after using it.
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Steve Conan Trustrum
Explorer
-Indesign 2 for layout
-Word for writing
-Photoshop 7 and Paint Shop Pro 8 for art
-Illustrator 10 for titles and comic lettering
-CC2 for map design, although I export to DWG into illustrator for labeling
-Word for writing
-Photoshop 7 and Paint Shop Pro 8 for art
-Illustrator 10 for titles and comic lettering
-CC2 for map design, although I export to DWG into illustrator for labeling
Guillaume
Julie and I miss her
For writing, I generaly use MS Word or OpenOffice, which ever is handy. For graphical work and Layout, I use Corel Draw suite v. 11. For maps, its a combination of CC2-pro, Fractal Terrains, and Corel Photo-Paint 11. For PDF, initial pdfs are produced by Corel and reworked in Adobe Acrobat 6 Professional.
Hart-Felt Production
First Post
I use the Adobe Creative Suite and Acrobat 6.0 for my design and layout needs. For writing, I either use Word or compose directly in InDesign. For maps, I use Campaign Cartographer Pro (I have all the add-ons except Dioramas) and Fractal Terrains Pro. For character creation I use e-Tools and Jamis Buck's NPC Generator for fantasy D20 characters. For the HERO System writing I do, I use Hero Designer.
HalWhitewyrm
First Post
Aside: How has e-tools worked for you? How stable is it now in terms of 3.5 rules? I use PC-Gen, but it takes forever to do anything in my computer, and freezes and crashes on me on a pretty regular basis, plus they update so much that I have no idea how stable my 3.5 rules are.
Hart-Felt Production
First Post
HalWhitewyrm said:
It's pretty good. The data files are complete as far as I can tell, they don't update too often, and it's never crashed on me.
FoolishFrost
Hero
Guess I should update.
I'm using PagePlus 10 and GSView for making my PDFs. I also use GIMP for my graphics editing.
All work great!
I'm using PagePlus 10 and GSView for making my PDFs. I also use GIMP for my graphics editing.
All work great!
lmpjr007
Explorer
I just took a training class for InDesign for work and I must say WHOA!!!! This program is a monster and can kick much ass. I am now in the process of coverting over my old Quark files to InDesign. one of the coolest feature I like is the PDF creator that you can have it to all the book marking in InDesign which hcan save a lot of time if you are doing it by hand.
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