Readers Respond: What Kind of Desktop Publishing Do You Do?

Responses: 28

By Jacci Howard Bear, About.com Guide

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I was using Publisher until upgrading to InDesign late last year, and I am absolutely *in love* with ID. Right now all my work is free, as I am building a portfolio for starting my own DTP business. I've done several tri-fold brochures, including one for my church, which has led to a seeminly unending list of more projects ... logo design, offering envelopes, postcards, letterhead, business cards, signs, banners, and website redesign. I also have Photoshop and Illustrator but am not very good at them yet.
—PrincessSacl

I create business cards, and would like to know if the new water resistant technology can be used in card stock. I have had no luck. It only seems to work on special paper not available in 110 lb weight. Can anyone advise?
—Guest loosecheck

I publish 6 times a year a full color, 40 page per issue philatelic journal. I mainly use Bridge, Photoshop and InDesign. Not up to speed yet on Illustrator.
—Guest intrepid09

I started with Printmaster & Print Shop & Adobe Photo Deluxe as a new computer user 12 year ago. Now I have learned to do everything in Photoshop. I'm sure I should learn to use InDesign & Illustrator. I have no concept of what else I could do with them. In PS, I do flyers, brochures, cards & invitations,'this-is-your-life' personalized magazine/booklets; cd/dvd label design; head transfers in pictures for slide shows..etc. Slide shows using other programs; biz cards using Print Shop. Someone said u can't use PS for text. I would like to hear other comments about that. Personally, I find the options for what PS can do with text equally unlimited!
—Guest Shirley

I used to publish a small newspaper and I used Pagemaker to create it. At first I felt so frustrated, then once I learned it, I was in love. I still remember the delight I felt with the window-shade feature. Roll up the text or roll it down -- or click the little box and take the leftovers to the next page. I also loved designing ads. There was something so left-brain and soothing about styling the fonts, adjusting the sizing and moving the text around. I sold my newspaper and now I'm in a rightbrain world -- all text, all the time. My goal is to learn Photoshop so I can get back to being a bit more visual in my free time.
—Guest Susan

Newsletters, invitations, business cards, financial reports, retain membership logs, develop letters for donations, do advertisement, condolences, special holiday exhibits, resumes, develop spreadsheets, to name a few of my tasks.
—della7155

I teach a college business writing class, and although the focus isn't on design, the students do design some documents. They're beginners, and they've had a lot of success simply using Word, usually with the Word templates, such as newsletter, etc. It may not be the most sophisticated desktop publishing, but for beginners, it seems to be easy.
—Guest Jean

I use photoshop for reducing red eye, cropping and numerous other tools. I use microsoft word for any text I use in scrapbooking or card making. It's easy and looks so much nicer.
—khayesrn

I use this to create brochures, banners, iron-on transfers, stickers, holiday window clings, novelty address labels, business cards, greeting cards, flyers, invitations, letterhead/stationery, resumes, certificates, kids' chore charts, you name it! The included photo editor isn't exactly top-notch, but for more advanced photo editing, I use Photoshop, then import the photos into Printshop to add to my project. I love it!
—Guest Natalie

I use Pages (mac) for publishing that I need to print that have a lot of text. Any graphics are done in Photoshop, with the layout done in Pages. So far it's been one of the easiest and fastest ways to make newsletters. I do digital scrapbooking in Photoshop. It's by far the best program. I can edit photos and most downloadable kits are compatible with Photoshop.
—Guest Renee

I'm a newbie to the world of desktop publishing, but so far I've used Photoshop to make business cards on my Mac, and I've been really pleased with it! I think I'm ready to venture out into more complicated projects, like brochures for my new company, and I think Photoshop will help a lot with that.
—Guest Elizabeth

I design brochures, press releases, etc. for local organizations on a volunteer basis. I've also done some work for local businesses. I'm using Apple's Pages software for the mac -- it's part of the iWork program. It's really excellent -- very flexible and not expensive compared to the big ones like Pagemaker or Quark. For web design I've used Freeway (another program for the mac). You don't need to know HTML, and you can produce some really spiffy sites.
—NancyL.

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Jacci Howard Bear
Desktop Publishing Guide