Resources for Designers

If you haven't already, head on over to Adobe's website and check it out. Adobe is by far the undisputed champion of the publishing industry, and it's products are second to none. One exremely useful link is the download page, where you can get 30 day trials of all its software. I recommend its Creative Suite package which absolutely lacks nothing if you need to get a newsletter/magazine or anything else out the door in 30 days or less.

Image catalogues and vector graphics are two items that designers always need to have handy in case there is extra white space to fill in their production. A good free image library can be found at Morguefiles. There is also PictureSandbox. Some very nice vector graphics can be found at Garcya Design.

Are you designing a newsletter from scratch? Don't do that when you can use templates, aka the friend of every designer. Indesign templates can be found at allstocklayouts.com.

Stuck with Microsoft Word? One nice thing about the Office suite is that they too have tons of nice templates.

Before sending off you finished design to the printer, it's best to convert your file to PDF. If you can afford to buy the Adobe Acrobat, then ensure you distill the file using PDF/X-1a settings . Or take a look at Primopdf.