[Will Hunt]

So lets say a mate of mine in prison has a Macbook Pro and wanted to put together a guidebook of the climbing he'd developed whilst in the nick.

I suppose he'd have two options: online publishing and print publishing.

Advantage of publishing online - very little expenditure, very easy to do.
Advantage of printing - you get to hold it in your hands. Downside being that you'd have to get the scripts written, get some proofs of how you want it to look, and then give it to the printers to sort out. Mucho costo for a guide that will probably have limited interest.

Regardless of which of the two approaches he takes (suggestions welcome Pete, Robin, Dave), he'll need to have a piece of DTP software that he can put together proofs in and perhaps also create the topos in. Does anybody know or have a suggestion of what software this might be? He doesn't mind spending a few fuck alls or a little more.

[Johnny Brown]

I can't see there being a big market for climbs inside a prison so I'd go for pdf.

Most use professional software - Adobe Creative suite - which is expensive though you can rent for a few months. Alternatively there are some freeware alternatives or torrent the good stuff. I daresay a man not afraid of a bit of bird would go for the latter.

You want some either Photoshop or drawing software (Illustrator) for topos, and graphic design (Indesign) for the layout (though you can do a basic job with word or pages).

[SA Chris]

Stick it in a wiki. Make topos using skitch.

[joel182]

I remember finding an article on how to make topos a while back, hope thats of some use!

[tomtom]

Stick it up yer wiki. Make topos using skitch.

+1

[r-man]

Indesign is the pro choice - it will do all the layout and topo drawing, plus Photoshop to tweak the photos or stitch pans. You don't really need anything else, though it's useful to have some word processing software.

Online or print? Great to have a book in your hands, but if you can't see a way to at least make back the printing costs, then online is a good way to distribute the info. I have put topos online before and been amazed to see they have been downloaded hundreds of times, despite sometimes detailing really esoteric venues. Obviously only a fraction of those will visit the crag, but on the upside you can bash out something without worrying too much about the aesthetics because nobody will mind. So if you want to save a few pennies you could use any of the free topo creation tools already mentioned by others. Another bonus of online stuff is that you can keep updating it to add new info or alter the grades.

[abarro81]

If it's somewhere that not many people will visit then just smash a pdf online;either via a method like the link posted above, or just do it in word with a little help from the shapes tool, or paint.

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

For the topos some of the recommendations on this thread might be useful...
http://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php?topic=22079.0
For the DTP/layout, If you would prefer to stay legit but on a budget of FA, Scribus might be worth a look...
http://www.scribus.net/canvas/Scribus

[Will Hunt]

Thanks all. I will give Scribus a go and maybe skitch for the topos.

[Sasquatch]

I can't see there being a big market for climbs inside a prison so I'd go for pdf.

Most use professional software - Adobe Creative suite - which is expensive though you can rent for a few months. Alternatively there are some freeware alternatives or torrent the good stuff. I daresay a man not afraid of a bit of bird would go for the latter.

You want some either Photoshop or drawing software (Illustrator) for topos, and graphic design (Indesign) for the layout (though you can do a basic job with word or pages).

Indesign is 100% worth it.  the adobe rental option means if you have your info/pictures well organized, and can devise your overall theme/layout/etc beforehand, you can do it in 1-2 months.

[jwi]

Indesign

[GazM]

Thread resurrection!
I'm looking for reccomendations for cheap (or ideally free) idiot-proof PC software for making guides and topos. I've done plenty of shit ones in the past using combinations of Word, Paint and Publisher, but looking for something that looks a bit nicer, where its easier to go back in and edit topo pictures, update text etc.

[andy moles]

Have you seen www.topoeditor.com Gaz?

[GazM]

Ooh, is that from the SMC site? Looks very useful. The key for me is being able to go back in a re-edit the topos as I'm always fucking things up, rather than having to start a new one each time.

[andy moles]

It appears to be the same software as the SMC site? Don't know who actually owns it.

[Tony S]

It was created by Nevil Hewitt, a self-taught web dev [-no disparagement intended]

He also wrote the SMC new routes mini-site.