magazine done in Xara

**behzad** · 30 May 2006, 07:09 AM

Hi, I wanted to know if one has to use quark or indesign to setup a magazine (lets say 15-20) pages?

Can all the graphics and text be done in xarax? I know xarax is not a page layout program, but has anyone done this? I guess one can export full page 8.5 x 11 out to quark or indesign or even a spread without the text and then setup the text in quark or indesign?

**Albacore** · 30 May 2006, 08:22 AM

Hi Behzad,
Most of my free lance work is made up from this type of work with smallish companies wanting someone to produce reports and they want a better quality layout and graphics than Word or Publisher can produce. I would never export text from Xara but Tiff files yes to take into ID, I have only CS version of ID so I would not use PDF as an import. I have also used graphics from Xara as a template in ID, and thats about it, as ID has some great tools itself and along with AI most things can be achieved.

**masque** · 30 May 2006, 11:55 AM

Hi
I do a lot of work from menus, leaflets to booklets etc. I use Xara because I'm completely familiar with it. If you are laying out a menu for instance there are no tabs in Xara so you have to find a way round that that suits you and there will be no auto page numbering, headers/ footers etc. but I still use it wherever paractical. You certainly don't need Quark or similar if only because of the price.
If you want DTP software that will do the job with all the bells and whistles that xara lacks for page layout but is still afordable, then have a look at Serif's PagePlus11 ( www.serif.co.uk ). This has the advantage of being able to import editable graphics produced in Xara as a PDF to add to your document as long as you go steady with shadows and bevels.
For a twenty page plus project I would suggest the Serif route rather than Xara alone, if only so you can flow text between text boxes on different pages and edit the document as a whole for consistancy etc.
I could show you some examples if you wish.
Derek

**behzad** · 30 May 2006, 12:19 PM

Thank you Albacore and derek for your comments. It does make sence to use xara for graphics and not text. Maybe headings and such large text that have effects in ID but not formatting text.

I am using xara for everything but magazine and book layouts, so having ID or other programs is necessary for such projects.

**gwpriester** · 30 May 2006, 12:54 PM

You can use a spoon to recreate the statue of David, but a hammer and chisel might be more effecient.

If you are doing a one off and do not plan to do any more, you can create your pages and export them as EPS or PDF files which a printer will print from Quark or InDesign. All the printer has to do is to "place" the EPS or PDF files in Quark or InDesign and create the prepress materials from there.

But, using a program with more type control and page layout features makes more sense if you are going to be doing a lot of this kind of publishing. Both InDesign and Quark (version 7 has just been released), are designed for the publication process and are well suited to the task.

A program that is pretty good at both the design and medium size document publishing is CorelDRAW. I just used it to produce a 24 page color brochure. The benefit of CorelDRAW is the tools work much the same as Xara's (they copied Xara's best features for version 7.0). And CorelDRAW supports multiple page documents. But the more pages you are working with the slower it gets. I ended up creating a series of "reader's spreads" which are facing pages. These were smaller files and actually something that might work in Xara if you do not need to do a lot of sophisticated typography. I used Xtreme to create all the graphics and then imported them into CorelDRAW 12. (X3 is on my desk still unopened). Some of the photographs needed to have transparent backgrounds and I created vector masks for the object in the photo, applied a clip view and exported the files in the correct resolution as PNG 24 + Alpha files. The PNGs worked beautifully in CorelDRAW.

Printers have imposition software that breaks the pages apart and assembles them on the large printing sheet of paper as they will be printed so when the page is trimmed scored and folded, the pages end up in the proper order. The printer would need to do this anyway unless you provided the files imposed for them and then you would be assembling a very large file on a very large page.

If I were to recommend one program for serious publishing, it would be Adobe InDesign. Adobe has put a lot of distance between InDesign and QuarkXPress and now Quark is madly trying to hold on to its dwindling user base.

Gary

**Albacore** · 30 May 2006, 01:01 PM

I would also agree here with Derek about Page Plus which I also use for the smaller jobs and ver.11 now lets you edit your PDF's in place. The only thing I do not like about the above product that it no feature for auto fold or crop marks when you want a proof from the programme itself on your own printer you have to export it as a PDF.

Other good thing is that you can pick up a free copy of the programme, I think it is ver.7 or pay £29 for version 10 which exports to PDF as the free ver. can't.

**behzad** · 30 May 2006, 01:17 PM

Thank you Gary, yes quark is quarky, Indesign is good. I think adobe should buy quark and free them of their suffering.

**toffeeman** · 30 May 2006, 02:26 PM

Albacore - you can get a free version of PagePlus called PagePlus SE from www.freeserifsoftware.com - it's a version of PP9 without the PDF features essentially. PP7 was reckoned to be one of the 'not so good' versions by many regulars!! It was the first version produced with all new code IIRC thus paving the way for the current versions.

There is other free software on that site too including the bitmap editing package PhotoPlus and the earlier ver4 of DrawPlus.

You can find PP10 on eBay for less than 10 UK pounds these days.

Dave

**Jon G** · 30 May 2006, 04:04 PM

Scribus, the open source DTP has been ported to Windows.

Underneath the modern and user friendly interface, Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as CMYK color, separations, ICC color management and versatile PDF creation.

http://www.scribus.net/

I have not yet had time to test it beyond installation, but looks pretty serious.

Serif Pageplus is also frequently featured on computer mag cover discs, I have it as well but been to lazy to activate it (by phone).

**Doug** · 30 May 2006, 06:20 PM

Originally Posted by Jon G

Scribus, the open source DTP has been ported to Windows.

Underneath the modern and user friendly interface, Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as CMYK color, separations, ICC color management and versatile PDF creation.

http://www.scribus.net/

I have not yet had time to test it beyond installation, but looks pretty serious.

Serif Pageplus is also frequently featured on computer mag cover discs, I have it as well but been to lazy to activate it (by phone).

FYI-the link to the Windows version doesn't seem to be active yet.