Whats the best software on a small budget?

[Seth M. Drebitko]

I am looking to publish my role play game legends and lore (working title) and would like to know what software I should have. I am thinking the adobe products and Microsoft word are going to be my best bet. These programs are a bit pricey however and I would like some money to be able to spend on art I was wondering if there was any equally as good but cheaper products.

Regards, Seth

[timfire]

Before we get into that, you should read this article: [How to Publish Your Own Role-Playing Game (Cheap)]

Beyond that, we would need to know what your publishing goals are. Free PDF from your website? A printed book? etc.

[timfire]

PS--You should really search this forum. Software has been discussed a number of times, and you'll likely find more info by doing a search than by just asking the question.

[Trevis Martin]

Definately read the article.  And what kind of product are you making?  Book?  PDF?

Good programs to check out are
Ragtime Solo (layout, free version for a personal use)
Open Office (pretty much replaces Microsoft office and can make PDF's (NeoOffice/J for Mac)  free, donations accepted
Scribus layout (there is a working but beta Win32 port, otherwise use it on Linux or Mac) free
Gimp (free raster image editing, comes in Win32, Linux, Mac) free
Inkscape (open source vector graphics editor) free

Trevis

[Josh Roby]

What platform are you on, Mac or PC?  If Mac, Pages is eighty bucks.  If PC... somebody else can help you. :)

[MatrixGamer]

I use both MS word, MS publisher, and Adobe Pagemaker (and played with InDesign). All are fine programs. The advantage of the MicroSoft programs is that you probably already have them on your computer or can get them pretty cheap but as you've been shown above there are programs that are cheaper still.

Whither you want to print your book, put it on the internet or sell as a down load, translating what ever program you use to compose into a PDF file is a good more. I do printing on the side and know I like getting PDFs because I can't mess with them (or mess them up). If there are errors they are the authors fault, not mine. A PDF give the printer all they need and is not dependent on any particular program. So compose in what you like - what is comfortable for you - and don't worry about which one is the best. If you're like most of us, you'll go through many programs over the years to come.

Each time I up grade I am amazed at one much better the program is. Word Star to Word Perfect to MS Publisher to Pagemaker. And having just seen InDesign I can't wait to get hold of it for myself (just lack of money holds me back).

Chris Engle
Hamster Press = Engle Matrix Games

[Victor Gijsbers]

I use both MS word, MS publisher, and Adobe Pagemaker (and played with InDesign). All are fine programs. The advantage of the MicroSoft programs is that you probably already have them on your computer or can get them pretty cheap but as you've been shown above there are programs that are cheaper still.

Microsoft programs are many things, but not cheap. Another problem is that many of them, such as Word, normally save their files to closed formats, making you dependent on Microsoft software for the rest of eternity.

Try the programs suggested by Trevis: I know OpenOffice.org and Gimp, and they are good. If you want to do really advanced graphical manipulation you might need something like Adobe Photoshop, but you can use free, open source software for most of your other needs.

[Seth M. Drebitko]

Thanks for the links they were a great help, I apologize having brought up an old subject, searching the forum slipped my mind.
Regards, Seth

[TheLe]

I am looking to publish my role play game legends and lore (working title) and would like to know what software I should have. I am thinking the adobe products and Microsoft word are going to be my best bet. These programs are a bit pricey however and I would like some money to be able to spend on art I was wondering if there was any equally as good but cheaper products.

Regards, Seth

I have used Microsoft Word 2000 exclusively for each of my 38 pdf books so far. I have gotten great reviews on nearly all of them, including positive comments about it's layout and overall look. Take a look: http://www.rpgnow.com/default.php?manufacturers_id=507

Each product has a free demo, so you can see exactly how I laid things out in MS Word (note the newer books will look better than the older books).

That being said, I think MS word is great for pdf publishing, and has even worked well for my printed books  (Unorthodox Paladins and Headless Horseman). I highly recommend it.

As for pdf, I use the older Acrobat 5.

MS Word 2003 did not work well for me, and I have little desire or need to upgrade my Acrobat.

~The' Le, aka The Le Games.

[Seth M. Drebitko]

Thank you I will have to pick up those programs when I go to the arsenal to pick up my pay, at the moment I am using open office which is not to bad. Your games do look very nice as far as desgin and content keep up the good work.
Regards, seth

[madelf]

I'm rather partial to Serif PagePlus.

The current full version (of a program I believe measures up fairly well when compared with Quark and InDesign) is $129.99
I'll be updating to this version shortly myself (I have PP9 at the moment), as I just recently discovered that they've included the ability to not only export a PDF (which they've been able to do for several versions) but also open and edit an existing PDF.
The list of functions for this program is quite impressive in general. It's worth checking out.

http://www.serif.com/PagePlus/PagePlus11/index.asp

[JoeJohaneman]

I use the following software, and haven't really needed more:

Graphics:
            The Gimp - http://www.gimp.org for 2d graphics (Free)
            POVRAY - http://www.povray.org for any 3d rendering I might need (Free)
            Moray - http://www.stmuc.com/moray/ - Modeler for POVRAY.  Nagware.  Modeler for POVRAY.  Costs 80 Euro to register.  I haven't registered yet, because they only accept cash right now, and I refuse to put cash in the mail.

Word Processing/Layout:
            Microsoft Word

PDF production:
            CutePDF Writer - http://www.cutepdf.com/ - (free) Acts as a printer object in Windows. You just print to the cutepdf printer object, and you have a PDF document.  Requires ghostscript, which you can get also get at cutepdf.com. 

[JoeJohaneman]

Um, duh.  I just realized cutepdf writer is for non-commercial use only.  Sorry 'bout that.  If you want to produce commercial quality PDF's, my recommendation is openoffice.org 

[Joshua A.C. Newman]

Microsoft Word is simply terrible as a text layout application. Just terrible. And before you ask, Microsoft Publisher is a pigmess wrapped in a cowpie.

I'd use just about anything else before I used one of these. They just don't have the level of typographic control one needs to put together a quality text block.

Adobe InDesign is spectacular. Quark is difficult to use without much payoff, though if you can make it work, you can get what you want. I'm curious about PagePlus, but since I can't download a demo, I can't recommend it. Pages is surprisingly good and gives you the bare minimum you need for a decent page of text with images, unlike Word.

You also may want to ask Clinton Nixon what he uses. He uses all Free software and can obviously put text to page in a nice way.

[Kevin J. Brennan]

You can get [url text=PagePlus 9]http://freeserifsoftware.com/software/PagePlus/pageplus9.asp[/url] for about $15, which will also save you money if you later upgrade to the newest version.

Ragtime Solo, mentioned above, is only free for non-commercial use.