[Lasting Designs]

To be frank, sod getting the software and use the money to buy creative experience that will provide a ROI. Don't forget that your time is money too. The tools that you need if you want to be creative is a pad and pencil along with a design brief, trust me that will be your money better spent.

[reggiemental]

It's probably worth mentioning that whichever software you end up choosing you'll need to make sure your workspace is set at 300dpi, and actual size for the job. (This is not necessary in Illustrator, or InDesign).

If all your designs are going to be printed in a 4 colour process, (CMYK), then the Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro type of pixel-based programs are ideal.

Make sure the 'mode' is set for CMYK, not RGB! Very important, unless you are having your designs produced digitally.

If you're intending to design your own letterhead for instance, and just want to use 2 spot colours, to keep costs down, then you'll need a vector program like Illustrator. The pixel-based programs, (PS, PSP etc.) can only output in 1 colour (greyscale), or 4 colour process, (CMYK). (Not strictly true, but best to stick by this rule).

Also, don't forget to allow for 'bleeds'. This is where the artwork goes over the edge of the page. You will need to extend the artwork by 3mm wherever it touches the page edge.

e.g. Say you are designing an A4 leaflet, and the artwork goes over all 4 edges. An A4 sheet is 210mm x 297mm. You'll need to set your working space to: 216mm x 303mm which gives you the extra 3mm required on each side.

Tip! Steer clear of any web graphics, as these are generally 72dpi and although will look great on a monitor, will often print very badly.

Also, if you do have 300dpi images you want to import into your design, keep these at actual size, or smaller, to preserve the resolution.

Paul

[Entro]

Does Gimp output in CMYK without loading an extra plugin? Don't know about the latest versions but it only used to convert CMYK to RGB.
This will be a limitation if you want to go to print with ads etc.

[michaelbraganza63]

Photoshop shop cs3 and coral draw is one of this software which is used mainly in Graphic Design it gives more clearly and easy for Graphic Design you can set the resolution and give the command to print it gives moor clearly and good Quality.