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Hi guys and gals,
Questions:
I'm pretty much just learning, and I was wondering if I could use CorelDraw for page layout (like InDesign, or publisher?) maybe???
I need to illustrate and layout a children's book, and I was wondering what is the best program to use. This is my first time doing this, so I have no idea what's best.
Another thing, will there be a problem sending corel files for publishing?
Thanks in advance! :D
The main question I would ask is how many pages are you planning on doing for your children's book? I would never want to layout a large number of pages, but I've done marketing booklet designs with over 12 pages in Draw just fine in the past. As for you second question, I've never had trouble getting a Draw project printed if I publish it to a PDF for the printer.
Good luck.
Thanks for the reply wombat...
I would say around 25-30 pages max.
Is MS Publisher good enough for page layout, or I need to spend big $$ for InDesign?
Hmm, so I need to print it to PDF and then send to the printing place? How about giving them raw data?
Stick with CorelDRAW - its page layout and pdf export features will be more than adequate. :) Most printers will accept pdfs these days.
Also, why not contact the printers who'll be doing the job and confirm what they will take and how best to set the files up for them? :)
I don't think you'll need InDesign. As Eagle said, DRAW is just fine for what you described. You won't need to print to a PDF with it, it has a Publish to PDF with Pre-Press settings. It's what I use when I go to press. I really wouldn't mess with Publisher either. I can't speak for the last few years, but it used to be hard to find a good printer that would support it.
Good Luck to you!
InDesign is expensive and built to stay that way. Not all printers do imposting though the bigger players do. But you have all you need to publish your book in DRAW without a plugin. InDesign requires a plugin to turn facing pages into art ready for a platemaker.
Ask several printers what their requirements are.
CorelDRAW doesn't have a simple option for page numbering, so for smaller books it is alright.
Thanks guys and gals!
I guess I'll stick with Corel for the whole book.
Thanks again!
Good move! :D I stick with Corel for just about everything! ;)
I would advise that if the book is over 40 pages and there are many bitmaps to link the pictures rather than embedding them, that way you can have a longer book without a slow down.
Hi Sally, that's a good advise about linking bitmaps.
I'm thinking of doing all my illustration using CorelDraw. Should I be concerned with file size? can I link *.cdr files to my page layout?
Oh, another thing (for those people who does book illustration for a living) if it's okay to ask. How much do you guys/gals charge per illustration? I haven't done this kind of thing before, the reason I'm asking.
Thanks again.
I would take a trip to the book store and look through a book called The Artist Market. I has tons of information on the business market place for artists, which illustrators fall into. You probably want to make sure you understand Copyright as well. Make it clear to your client as whether or not you're releasing the copyright to your illustrations indefinitely or for a specific print run etc. I'm sure Gary Priester, he's more involved in the Xara Xtreme group, can speak to this as he's located in a area of the world known for artists and such. Speaking from experience, artists need to watch their backs sometimes.
Good Luck,
Yes, I have had my work plagerized and it isn't a good feeling. I have also been cheated out of thousands of dollars in work that was done and received and the check never came.
I may sometimes practice to learn technique by copying another artist's work, however, I never have ever done that for profit. I do things to problem solve, then once I know how to do what I need, I make my own. It is often much more quick to draw from scratch than to try to obtain clipart on line for free and then let CorelDRAW trace it. Then there is time spent to convert it to the right color space and to eliminate lots of parts that are redundant or unnecessary. Quicker to draw in many instances. I go back and forth from DRAW to Xara, Xara italic lines are so very good, then I import it all back into DRAW for the final layout.
There are many business cards down at work and other types of printing, ordered and then never picked up. Lots of wasted man hours. I do like this forum, I talk to other people who are real human beings. Thank you for enduring my rant.
Sally, you can't be too sure we are ALL real human beings, so be careful.
I know I'm a real human being, although I have a few relatives I'm not sure of. :D
Drifter, your Avatar is a floating head . . . are you human? :D
I couldn't resist when I saw your last post.
I have a relative who's a well paid working artist. I can say patrons of the arts are pretty shifty sometimes. Getting terms spelled out in a contract is the only way to protect yourself.
My avatar IS me - not just my head. My wife keeps me in a box. I am just a head. It's kind of hard to work the keyboard, but with Xara it is easy.
Drifter, think out side the box.
Hi
I own a Graphic Design and Print shop.
Use CorelDRAW for doing page layout, InDesign is a waste of money.
We use CorelDRAW X3 and Xara for all our Graphic Design. InDesign takes time to learn and does not publish to PDF very well, Images always seem to have white border lines around them.
My advice forget Adobe.
As my avatar would tend to suggest... ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by raccoon2
InDesign is expensive and built to stay that way. Plus it is complicated where it doesn't really have to be. But it has a lot of things in it that is like Pagemaker. I find it hard to paste things exactly where I want, it offsets. I use it but don't like to.