What's the best way to design informative posts?

Although PS is really good at designing almost anything i find it unnecessarily painful to design anything that has lots of words and i feel there are other more reliable options out there to design things like this…any suggestions ?

Infographics. A picture displaces 1000 yawns.

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PS, as in Photoshop?

For dozens of different reasons, Photoshop isn’t a tool for this kind of thing. Photoshop is primarily a tool for editing photos, scanned illustrations and making things like certain web graphics.

For layouts, use a layout tool like InDesign or Quark XPress. For infographics, Illustrator is great, but InDesign would work for what you’ve posted too.


Re-reading your post, are you asking about graphics for posts, like here or on Facebook or something similar?

If so, I wouldn’t use Photoshop there either; it’s just too unwieldy for that sort of thing, and it lacks the appropriate tools for adequately dealing with blocks of text. Again, Illustrator would have worked better. Then if you needed to open it in Photoshop to save it for the Web, fine.

Good catch Mr-B. I think I misunderstood Zex’s meaning of the word “design.” Probably should have used the word “produce” instead.

Ditto to what @Mr-B said. Use the right tool for the job. Phtooshop is to “shop” photos, not deal with layout or design. Use InDesign or even Illustrator for more manageable results.

I would use Indesign to produce this. Illustrator if I had to. Not Photoshop. Ever.

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what if the design consists of a background and a few pictures with a description below or besides every picture.
thanks for the answers. i will give indesign a try. i am amateur and only used Photoshop so far and this is the first time i attempt to design something like this so i wasn’t sure how to do it. it was a good decision asking instead of suffering unnecessarily.

This is exactly what Indesign was made for! Photos are adjusted, styled in PhotoShop, illustrations drawn in illustrator and they all come together using Indesign, the layout program.

And this is exactly what QuarkXPress was made for: Photos can be adjusted and styled in QuarkXPress (all non-destructive), directly in the layout. Illustrations can be imported and made editable in QuarkXPress if needed and it all comes together in QuarkXPress and can be directly controlled and adjusted there.
:wink:

There are always other/better/different tools for one task.

Yes Mathias, we know you are a Quark rep. :wink::smiley:

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You are saying I’d be more credible if I’d use an avatar? :wink:

Let me think about it… No. I believe in openness and transparency (live and unflattened :smiley: ).

I am also working in the graphics and print industry since 1993. Platforms and tools come and go. Some stay longer, others shorter. And the real skill is to know how to use design to convey a message, how to properly output media etc.; and IMHO not to master one specific tool.

So this was just meant as a short reminder to now and then evaluate other tools. They might be better.

So, you mean to say I used Quark before you began? :wink:

Agreed. Tools are tools, and tools come and go. Some might say your favorite tool has come and gone. Some might say my favorite tool has come and gone.

However, the opinion that one or the other is a “better” tool, is simply an opinion - and more often driven by personal preference than it is by some perceived superiority.

Probably. I started working at a prepress studio in 1993 where I first used CorelDraw, Freehand, Illustrator, Photoshop, QuarkXPress and all the other goodies. Before I was just a programmer and having fun with upcoming networks.

Exactly. I am also into photography and woodwork and there it is the same: Users defending their tool/brand though they have never seen any other (or maybe decades ago) and still defend theirs as being better for them.

I learned Quark before Indesign, and while I was studying, I think Quark had a good share of the industry. However, I haven’t used Quark in about 10 years. I curious what the market share is these days?

Getting back the original topic, one thing that isn’t just an opinion, is that Photoshop is not a substitute for a layout application, whether it is Quark, InDesign or, even, MS Publisher.

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