Graphic Designer software

[nrobison]

OK, folks.

My wife is an ex-graphic design professional (Adobe suite stuff, really good, convert from Mac, etc.)

She is now the newsletter editor for a Mothers of Twins group hereabouts, and has inherited some gawdawful page layout software that circulates around the group, PrintMaster, I think. - nasty stuff, no kerning, limited fonts, sketchy layout tools, can't read TIFFs, etc. - almost like working in MS Word, but with a gagillion more buttons to hose the project.

So does anyone out there do work like this on $300 or cheaper software that really works (i.e. the "mechanics" of text/image placement function, not a pretty GUI)? I don't expect this small, non-profit group would jump for Pagemaker (Adobe's product) or a Corel app (mortgage the city). Would MS Publisher suffice, because it's familiar?

Thanks for the help.

[element]

Hmmm... PageMaker is specifically aimed at small business to home users while Indesign is their pro package (which rocks by the way, it beats Quark Xpress hands down in features)
So, I would suggest to get PageMaker, you cannot get wrong with, it supports all standards and has exellent pdf support and stuff.
I know PageMaker and the likes are not cheap but it's excellent.

About MS Publisher... well it's Microsoft, if you know what I mean.

A very good alternative and probably your best shot: Serif Pageplus
http://www.serif.com/pageplus/pageplus8/index.asp

For only 85$ you cannot go wrong.

[nrobison]

Thanks, element.

I was much happier with PageMaker than InDesign, back in the day... although compared to my current DOS csv file finite element fiddling and spreadsheet bliss, I must admit I am not unhappy to have left graphic design behind, for the most part.

greenstreet's Publisher 4 was also well-reviewed a year ago, but from the thin Net presence, I'm guessing they failed or MS' lawyers ate them over the software title or some such thing.

I will continue to push for PageMaker (successfully marketing PDF should get Adobe a Nobel, IMHO), but failing that your Pageplus recommendation will do nicely.

Thanks again.

[element]

Yeah, InDesign 1.0 or 1.5 is not that great. Have you seen the PostScript that InDesign 1.5 exports? The colours were all wrong! I still don't understand how Adobe got away with that. Luckily InDesign 2.x made it all good and currently it beats Quark Xpress 5.0 in every way. Way to go Adobe!

For your use PageMaker or PagePlus is probably the best product. I would go for 1 of those. Depends how big of a hole you want to leave in your wallet.