Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe InDesign are the three main options when it comes to creating graphic designs for print. There are pros and cons to each application, but rather than create your entire design in a single app, you should make use of each programme’s individual speciality.
Photoshop is a great tool for working with raster-based images. Use it to edit photos and create awesome visual artwork for the background of your designs.
Illustrator is a great tool for creating crisp vector artwork (line art) such as logos, signage and graphic illustrations.
InDesign is a desktop publishing package with layout tools to create multi-page designs such as brochures, newsletters and leaflets.
When creating a design for print you can often construct a background in Photoshop (don’t forget: 300ppi, CMYK mode), save it as a full size JPEG and Place it into Illustrator. If the project requires multiple pages or long passages of text, then InDesign’s powerful paging features is ideal.
Other software is available, but always ensure that your documents are saved as a PDF or high resolution JPEG.