Courses on DTP?

[dust]

Hi everyone
I am making a monthly magazine and occasionally use Xara. However since I am mostly working on MAC my use of Xara is limited. This is a question concerning studying more on DTP.
I am quite often faced with my lack of knowledge concerning DTP publishing. For example i just created a 36 page magazine which turned out quite nice, except that the colors are too pale.
I lacked knowledge on preparing the pictures in a professional way. It was not a real problem as the overal mag looks OK, but it should have been better.
I have always just followed what seemed to me the logical way of doing things rather then learning it the official way. I would like to follow an online course which is good and affordable in price. Does anyone know of any course they may recommand so I can simply have a more professional approach to the work I need to do?
Thanks so much for your time
greetings Dust

[gwpriester]

Hello Dust and welcome to TalkGraphics

Part of the problem with the images might have been the printer and not the files you created. It is hard to tell without more information. But the printer may have set a average setting so your images overall were not too light or too dark.

But after spending most of my life in the business, here is where I come out. Are the images convincing to someone who did not know how they were supposed to look? Most people looking at pictures in a magazine accept the images as they are unless there are glaring issues such as flesh looking green, etc.

The best thing to do at this point is talk to your printer and see if there is a way she or he can make the images darker.

In the old days we used to have press checks where we could tweak the final output before the printing was done. Of course we were printing in large quantities and paying top dollar so this was an option. But if your printer is any good he or she should be able to help you get the quality and look you want.

[mwenz]

Hi dust,

First and formost, become a collector of printed matter that strikes your eye for any reason. To me, what has been printed is "real world" examples of what clients pay for. Then deconstruct those pages--how and why did they do what it was that pleased your eye. Then remake a page or two in whatever applications you need to rebuild an example of the page. Compare them. Did you improve the design, not improve it, faithful to it, can it be improved--if so how and in what way. Part of the practical side of design college will basically be that type of substance. But there will be original work expected of you. Often, this work will be over-designed as regards clients you will be attracting or working for.

In other words, one can be too creative and turn clients off. This type of over-designed work is what i have seen from students fresh out of design college more often than not.

There are a few places on line that center on design and typography as well. Some cost, some don't. A couple of my favorites would be:

For pure design aesthetics:
http://www.aisleone.net/

For designm, layout, typography:
http://www.bamagazine.com/?Click=99441

For some layout tutorials, designing, etc.:
http://vector.tutsplus.com/
do note this is an Adobe-centric web site. However, it is easy enough to "translate" for use in XDP

Lastly, an on-line school *that I have not used*
http://www.sessions.edu/

Take care, Mike

[dust]

Thanks so much for the helpful answers. So much to learn and so much to do, but it is an exciting and wonderfully rewarding work. I will check all the links. The problem with talking to the printer is simply that the printer was a friendly contact, in Spain, and I live in Holland. But I am happy to look into the info I got.

[Albacore]

Do you use a DPT programme on the Mac apart from Xara? I have tried "I Work, Pages 09" and found it OK to use as a DTP programme and if you have an Apple shop near you you can go along where they have workshops on the subject.