There are many programs, both paid and free, designed for electronic folding of books, newspapers, magazines, booklets and other paper products. The choice of a layout program depends on the goals and objectives of the layout designer, as well as on his experience and personal preferences.
Instructions
Step 1
The most popular and feature-rich program is Adobe's InDesign product. To date, its 6th version has been released, which is called InDesign CS6. If you have to work a lot with pictures and columns, for example, when typing newspapers, illustrated magazines and books with complex structures, then InDesign is your choice. It has all the features you need and is fairly easy to learn. The whole layout boils down to the fact that you insert text or graphics into frames (such kind of "squares" and "rectangles"), and then arrange them on the strip in the desired order. This is very handy, especially if you use the guide lines and master the hotkeys.
In addition, Adobe offers many programs that greatly simplify the life of a layout designer: the same Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Photoshop. And the latest version of InDesign introduces a "fluid layout" that greatly simplifies the layout of pages with different formats.
In addition, InDesign is increasingly being used in website layout.
Step 2
Adobe PageMaker is another product from Adobe. Of course, using PageMaker nowadays is a step back from using InDesign, as PageMaker has been out of support for several years due to the advent of InDesign. PageMaker is its forerunner. But some companies continue to use it - either because of habit, or because of "weak" computers, on which "cooler" software simply won't work, or for other reasons. PageMaker, like InDesign, has good functionality and a user-friendly interface, the main thing is to master the "hot keys", and the work will boil.
Step 3
For hyper-complex documents and technical books with a huge amount of forms, tables, graphs and other visual information, it is better to use Ventura Publisher, TeX or FrameMaker. With their help, it is easy to automate the design of text information.
Step 4
For the layout of color booklets, announcements, posters and other "visual" information, in which the main thing is the quality of the picture, and the text is secondary, it is appropriate to use the good old Photoshop or CorelDraw. They are designed specifically for graphics. However, if you are publishing a glossy catalog or a multi-page advertising booklet, it would be unwise to typeset it entirely in a graphic editor. It is better to lay out individual elements, save them as a graphic file and only then place them on the strip, using, for example, InDesign.
Step 5
Some people typeset "the old fashioned way", that is, in MS Word. This is, in principle, acceptable if you do not want to install additional software, and your book is as simple as an orange and does not have many elements. However, he considers such an approach unprofessional among layout designers. In addition, Word is a program, first of all, for typing and editing text, and it is unlikely that it will work to produce high-quality printed products with its help.
