Tuesday, February 20, 2007

PDF mags

From Screendumps

Had another idea... Always been a fan of magazines... from The Face in my past to Relevant in my present... and, if I can find it, Monocle in my future.

When I hook up with The Soos - we always hit the magazines. Great source of inspiration.

I've always wanted to create a zine. Something underground and special... a newspaper for my community... my culture. Loved Grand Royal as a record label... magazine... and, perhaps more importantly, a sub-cultural focus point. I always dreamed of doing the same... representing my culture... capturing its ideas in music and visuals.

But... let's face it... I don't have the bank roll of cool folk like Tyler Brule. Thats why I love the concept of PDF mags - it is a site that showcase fab... underground... zines produced in Adobe's PDF format for easy distribution.

It doesn't need a wad of cash to produce... I just need the right skills and, more importantly, content. I am inspired to create a PDF mag that represents me and mine... my culture... my faith... my love for Jesus and my family and my friends and my iPod and design and art and all the pieces of the headphonaught puzzle.

I would love to get Photoshop... and then learn how to use it. It is expensive and there is a open source equivalent but I'm not skilled enough to make it work.

...but I like this idea. Will give it some more thought. Any ideas or comments?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

You could get The Gimp instead - it's a free alternative and some graphics bods think it's as good as Photoshop.

Might as well save a bit of cash :)

Anonymous said...

I love this idea, Thomas.

If you are a student, Adobe's education pricing is pretty affordable. Also, if you go to Adobe's site you can get a beta of CS3, and there is a crack to take the time limit off to allow for proper evaluation (Adobe give you 2 days - like you can evaluate something like PS in 2 days) -that would get you going at least, and it's free. Shoot me an email if you want any more info on that.

I tried Gimp - I liked its price tag but I just couldn't get on with it - feels too much like a windoze app, for me at least - though many people rave about it.

But go for this Thomas - it's an excellent idea, and don't let lack of PS stop you, seriously.

Anonymous said...

Given your preference for the Mac platform, I can't give you as many recommendations for packages as I could on Wintel, so all I can suggest is the GIMP for picture editing and an application called SCRIBUS for DTP with PDF output.

While not as flexible as a dedicated DTP package, you might be able to get by with OPEN OFFICE, and do your layout etc. in there and output to PDF.

My preference (as a rank amateur) is to use Serif's software - PagePlus, DrawPlus and PhotoPlus, which can be bought cheaply or got free from magazine covers and from the www.freeserifsoftware.com site.

I used this combo to produce a "who's who" printed brochure and PDF for my department last year.

J

Anonymous said...

Hey Thomas, I've got the CS2 version of Photoshop if your wanting it.

Also if your looking around I found that Macromedia Fireworks was just as good as PS ... Infact I've felt it was more user friendly than others that I've tried.

Well If your wanting Photoshop I'll give you a copy on the next meet.

- 'Big' Chris

Anonymous said...

I've got Photoshop CS, Macromedia MX2004, and other stuff that may help you get going - if you don't see Big Chris anytime soon. Geez a shout.

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