Hi Lenora,

I think Google Sketch-up is a wonderful program for doing 3-D work, site
plans and so forth. Sketch-up Basic is free, and it is probably all you
need. The pro version is about $500. It would not be a good choice for
interpretive panels, though. If you are not familiar with 3-D programs, it
will take you several days to become proficient, but you can do amazing
things with it.

I don't like Photoshop for this purpose as much as some of the other
respondents to your query. I think Illustrator and InDesign are far superior
for combining text and graphics of all kinds. You can write in Word if you
want, then cut and paste. I think Illustrator provides you with much greater
flexibility and choices than Photoshop does, which is really designed as a
photo manipulation application--and it does a great job at that. I prefer to
use Illustrator for panels and InDesign for longer works. But they are not
free. They are expensive. So, I agree with Christian, if you want cheap,
maybe you should just stick with Microsoft Word. You can do a lot with it.
But if you want to add photos and other graphic design work to your panels,
you might have to use programs like Photoshop and Illustrator in the end,
anyway.

Good luck.

Tom

Thomas A. Woods, Ph.D.
President, Making Sense of Place, Inc.
1521 Grandview Ave.
Oconomowoc, WI 53066-3422
[log in to unmask]
262-569-1698
Fax: same as phone

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