Inexpensive Illustrator for wedding projects? TLP?

[NicoleWI]

I designed wedding invitations in Adobe Photoshop Elements before I knew that the text wouldn't print well. What I want to do is transfer my images (just solid color silhouettes of flowers) to an Illustrator file and re-do the text in Illustrator. I could use a trial version, but it would be nice to have Illustrator available in case I wanted to use it later for programs and other projects. I'm a casual, non-professional home user and I don't want to spend a lot of money on this. Not sure that $250ish for the older version, CS2, is worth it. I see some options to get Illustrator using a transitional license program. Any insights into how that works and if that might be a good option for me? Thank you.

 

[jimoblak]

A home user (single license) does not seem eligible for any licensing programs. Those are for multiple seats at schools and businesses.

If all you need to do is apply text to an imported bitmap image from PSElements, Illustrator may be overkill. Consider a free app like Inkscape which could probably do this task well.

http://www.inkscape.org

 

[NicoleWI]

Inkscape looks good at a glance. Thank you for the great suggestion! My issue is printing. Will a printer be able to use an Inkscape file to print invitations using simple graphics and text?

 

[jimoblak]

Inkscape makes PDF, EPS, etc... Printer's like that.

Inkscape does not handle CMYK output - - although it has a CMYK color mixer. So you will need to rely on other apps down the pipeline to deal with color consistency. While not ideal, you can export your RGB design as PDF, open in Adobe Reader, and print to your CMYK output device for a crude color proof. If anything is out of whack, go back and edit. (What do you expect for free?)

More info on color at:

http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/InkscapeColor