As a hobby, I like to design games. Very often, the design of the games will include cards (not the standard playing cards, but cards of my own design). The idea is that I design the card with all of it’s elements (text, pictures, colors, etc.) in a program and then export the image to a graphic file, which I import into Word to print using Avery products (cards, stickers, etc.)
A while ago I bought Corel’s CorelDraw Essentials2. Unfortunately, I am very unhappy with the product. While it will do the basic things I need, I find it limiting and very difficult to use and counter-intuitive.
I can’t see spending hundreds of dollars for a full-fledged publishing program for what is, in essence, a hobby. But there must be a cheaper alternative out there.
Does anyone have any recommendations for a new program for me to use?
PageMangler, er, I mean PageMaker, is not the program you want. That’s a (pitifully bad) page layout program that pales in comparison to either Quark XPress or Adobe InDesign. What you want is a program like Illustrator or Freehand, only cheaper. Obviously Corel won’t do, because it sucks too. Since I work in a professional graphics environment, I have the Adobe products and, unfortunately, can’t tell you a good cheap alternative. However if you Google “free vector drawing program” several show up. I can’t tell you how good any of those are; but you might give one a try.
If a vector-based “drawing” program is what he needs, maybe TurboCAD Deluxe would fit the bill? You can get a free trial (go to www.turbocad.com), and the “Deluxe” version, as opposed to the “Professional” version (which I own), is relatively inexpensive. Of course, due to all the CAD functionality, the learning curve may be a bit steep…
I’m also in the business (Graphic Designer) and I use mostly Quark and my new love InDesign. You’re probably not gonna find too much that would be better than PageMaker if you don’t want to spend a bunch. Didn’t they discontinue it?
Good luck, if you find something, let me know. Otherwise, look at spending $300-600 for a good program. Or you could be a theif and get a pirated version. Not that I’m endorsing it, just giving you your options.
Adobe orginally said they were going to scrap PageMaker once InDesign got going. But they’ve kept around and changed it’s target audience. They don’t market it as professional publishing software but promote it as business application opposite Microsoft’s Publisher.
I had been wondering if any of those Paint Shop type programs that I see in the software stores for $40-60 would do what I want it to. I’m not really looking for software that will do photo-retouching, but rather simply just allow me to place elements on the page, resize them, place text, etc. and then export to a GIF or BMP.
