Magazine design... (?)

[SonicBooom]

I'm interested to know what Freehand's ability (aided by me:) ..... ) is to
make a small 20 page A6 "magazine"... I'm not that familiar with Quark XPress,
so am interested in alternatives.

What sort of problems am I likely to face? On paper it looks possible without
having any problems, but....?

Thanks

[Armadillo]

> I'm interested to know what Freehand's ability (aided by me:) ..... ) is
to

> What sort of problems am I likely to face? On paper it looks possible

without

> having any problems, but....?

- Adding and arranging pages, viewing spreads - flowing text from page to
page - working with styeles - working with text controls - etc. is more
difficult in FreeHand than in real page layout program.

- FreeHand can't produce good enough justified body text.

- No automatic page numbering in FreeHand.

Just to name a few. - Use InDesign or Quark or even PageMaker.

Jukka

[Dritalei]

Hi!

Freehand can easily handle several pages. Text features are also good. The
only drawback with FH as I see it, is the page numbering. Which doesn't exists.
You'll have to do that manually.

Freehand is the best tool for making illustrations. Much easier to use than
Adobe Illustrator. Illustrator can not handle several pages. In FH you can draw
everything you need, instead of using bitmaps. FH MX can apply a lot of effects
on text, drawings etc etc, and make your magazine look great.

The best part is the Master Page option. You can create one or several Master
Pages which makes the background of your magazine, and gives you a consistent
layout throughout your document. It's just to drag and drop from Library menu.
Export Master pages and symbols ("everything" can be converted to symbols) into
your own library, and reuse or edit next time you make a similar document. I
often create a master page out of pages I'm think looks good, and keep them for
later, for reuse or just inspiration.

Though Quark and Indesign are streamlined for this kind of work, they don't
have the same abilities to create additional artwork to a illustration.
Freehand is a blizz for creating artwork with good text & image flow handling,
on several pages,
with easy editing of all objects.

I use Freehand for making brochures, production manuals, posters, self
adhesives, sublimation printing on polyester, transfers label production, print
plate production for hot stamp and offset press, thermal printing, name tags
for clothing, designing care labels, web graphics and parts of Flash animation.

... Freehand is my "bread and butter" everyday tool, and I would be helpless
without it!
If you learn to use Freehand you'll be able to make almost everything!

but ... if making magazines will be your main task, learn Quark or Indesign.
Freehand is the best vector tool with good text features, Quark and indesign
offers poor vector abilities with excellent text & image handling.

Good luck!

Best regard

Bjorn

Win XP Pro
3.2Ghz
2Gb ram
FH 8-11.02

[SonicBooom]

Thanks for your replies.

The magazine I am designing is a one off. I know Freehand pretty well, and
nearly always use it along with whatever other design software I need for a
project.

I've been sent some adverts to be included in the magazine... a few people
have sent adverts as word documents (just centred pictures and lines of
text)... is there a simple way to put the word document into Freehand?

Thanks

[laihuattan]

Been using FH to handle all sorts of projects even, annual reports with no
problem at all
and it had superb text handling, howbeit "getting old" compared to Indesign.

- FreeHand can't produce good enough justified body text.
Set the "Flash Zone" to 100%.

Hope MM can make FH handle very very long document then it will be perfect.

[den-chan]

Like all of the folks here said you can do your mag in freehand. Once you start
getting up to a very large number of pages then Quark or Indesign would be your
tool. The main thing I always submit for future features in freehand are
updating its text options and abilities. For example right now we only have
right, center, left, and force justify...well the force justify needs just a
few more options that are in dedicated page layout programs. You know like
adding force justify with last line left, center or right justified. Just
simple things like that to make things easier instead of having to do it
manually each time. Page numbering is a big thing also..heck even word can do
that. =)

[Odysseus]

In article <c97keo$aa6$1@forums.macromedia.com>,
"SonicBooom" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote:

> I've been sent some adverts to be included in the magazine... a few people
> have sent adverts as word documents (just centred pictures and lines of
> text)... is there a simple way to put the word document into Freehand?
>

None that is completely painless; I often end up extracting text and
images from M$ Word files in order to rebuild the layout in another
program. But if you have Acrobat Distiller it's pretty easy to turn Word
documents into PDFs (assuming you have all the necessary fonts used and
there isn't too much reflow. Under Mac OS 9 I get better results in Word
output using the AdobePS print driver than I do using Apple's
LaserWriter. Once you have a PDF version of the ad, FH should be able to
open it.

--
Odysseus

[SonicBooom]

This is probably a stupid question, but...

Whats the best way to set out pages in Freehand if I was to be making a 24
page A6 magazine?

I'm worried that when i send the file(s) of to the printers that they wont
understand how iv got them set out!

Thanks,

Alastair

[Martin Gamache]

Alastair,

Best advice is to talk to your printer and find out how they want it. More
than likely if you give them a press quality PDF they will be able to run
that through their page imposition software and print your job without any
problems.
mg

"SonicBooom" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:c99ru1$nnc$1@forums.macromedia.com...

> This is probably a stupid question, but...
>
> Whats the best way to set out pages in Freehand if I was to be making a

24

> page A6 magazine?
>
> I'm worried that when i send the file(s) of to the printers that they

wont

> understand how iv got them set out!
>
> Thanks,
>
> Alastair
>

[Odysseus]

In article <s1%tc.3586$Yd3.2636@newsread3.news.atl.earthlink. net>,
"Martin Gamache" <alpinemappingguild@earthlink.net> wrote:

> Best advice is to talk to your printer and find out how they want it. More
> than likely if you give them a press quality PDF they will be able to run
> that through their page imposition software and print your job without any
> problems.

I agree that the printer should be consulted. If they have FreeHand they
may not need a PDF. As for the layout, I'd just make sure that the pages
are numbered in the correct order; FH will then print them sequentially.
I don't know about other types of imposition software, but I can attest
that our Farrukh Imposition Publisher has no problem with FH8 files at
least ... except that (not relevant to a magazine) it fails to recognize
different page sizes in a document that's printed all at once; for
example if I have a stationery package in one document I have to write
the letterhead(s), envelope(s) and business card(s) into separate PS
files for them to be handled correctly.

--
Odysseus