Free software for press advert?

gustav

Hello all,

I have to prepare an advert to go in a magazine, and have to provide the artwork myself.
As its not something i will be planning to do a lot, i dont really want to buy an expensive professional package.
However, it may be something i may do a couple of times a year and so would like to have a go at doing it myself rather than handing it over to a professional to do.
Can anybody suggest a free or cheap package that will allow me to do some basic artwork suitable for using for publication? (incorporate some pictures and text etc)(i think its done using layers?), .

Thanking you in advanvce for replies,

G

jayme1

GIMP is basically free open source photoshop, if that's the kind of program your looking for.

gustav

Yes. Thanks. Had a look at your GIMP suggestion.
Tutorials etc dont seem to suggest how i could use it to create artwork for publication, but will def download for use on photos etc.

GeoffX

If you want free desktop publication software then there is Scribus. Serif's PagePlus seems to be free now as well. Ah, it's a 'Starter Edition'.

googler

Why not get the magazine to do it? Most will.

Marty999

I work for a commercial colour printing company and most people supply print-ready PDFs nowadays. This means you can use pretty much any software you like, such as Publisher or even Word. Then all you need to do is save your creation as a PDF in CMYK format (not RGB).

Owain_Moneysaver

Marty999 wrote: »

I work for a commercial colour printing company and most people supply print-ready PDFs nowadays. This means you can use pretty much any software you like, such as Publisher or even Word. Then all you need to do is save your creation as a PDF in CMYK format (not RGB).

However, Word's (and even Publisher's) typography isn't up to professional standards.

If the advertising space is costing money it would be a shame to diminish the impact of the advert for the sake of a fairly small outlay in getting the advert professionally set.