What Product is best for a restaurant menu?

[Chai_Ploentham]

What Product is best for a restaurant menu?

I'm now using Photoshop now and wonder if anyone else in the industry use something different and easier.

[Barb Binder · Accepted solution]

Photoshop is meant for photo editing. While some may choose to use it to create a menu, you would be way better off using InDesign, which was intended for document design/page layout. InDesign CC 2017 even has menu templates available for a jump-start.

[happie_97]

I agree with Barb, InDesign is the best tool to use to create a menu, especially of it has multiple pages.

Now one could argue that Illustrator is just as good, and it is. Especially if it is just a one page menu.

Either tool will get the job done well. Semantically, one was created for layout and the other was created for vector creation.

[Ussnorway]

unless you want a online restaurant in which case Muse (or Dreamweaver)

Muse example = Bakery | Konditori Lyon

[Nancy OShea]

I assume you want high quality printed menus, so I recommend using Illustrator for your vector graphic artwork and then bringing the artwork into your InDesign layout or template.  

Nancy

[Trevor.Dennis]

Blimey.  InDesign, Dreamweaver, Muse and Illustrator.  Poor Chai won't know if he is coming or going.   Would it help if we knew what the intended end product will be?

[EDIT]  Just a thought, but if a website is intended, could you get away with using Portfolio for something like this?  Would be within the terms and conditions?

[jane-e]

Yes, blimey (what does that mean?)

I would suggest Illustrator or InDesign. Both are easier than Photoshop.

Why Illustrator? Because if you are going from print to web, it has awesome export to css and asset export that InDesign does not have. Here is a very small sample.

Also, yes, there are lots of menu templates for Illustrator available at Adobe Stock.

.

[Nancy OShea]

If this is for the web, I'm not recommending a menu be output to image.  That's a horrible user experience.  If a restaurant can't print their online menu in real text, I can't be bothered using their site.

In my world, MySQL databases and PHP scripts will do what's needed for the web site and the printer.  It takes some know-how to set things up initially but once it's in place, you can update the database, automatically update the site and generate an XML file to import into InDesign for print purposes.

Nancy

[jane-e]

Nancy, was your answer to me? (I can't tell.)

If yes, I never said to output a menu to an image. I said that Illustrator has awesome abilities to export to CSS and also to export assets. Then I gave a very small sample of its awesomeness. I agree that turning text into a jpeg would be a horrible, terrible, no-good experience, and that is not what happens!

Here is another very small small sample as to how it creates the CSS for text. So you have to be consistent with your style names, such as "head1" in this example, but you can format it right here in Illustrator and let Illustrator write the code. Notice that this text has an opacity of 60%. If I change that, the CSS will update.

Best,

Jane

[Nancy OShea]

I just tagged on to the end of yours, Jane.  Sorry for any confusion.  

The OP mentioned Photoshop and we still don't know if they want this for print, web or both....  So , like you, I'm covering all bases.

jane-e  wrote

I agree that turning text into a jpeg would be a horrible, terrible, no-good experience...

Another crime against humanity is online menus in PDF.   Slightly better than JPG but not by much.

[Trevor.Dennis]

jane-e  wrote

Yes, blimey (what does that mean?).

It's a Brit expression of surprise.  Not exactly Cockney, but probably becomes so when prefixed with 'Cor'.   In fact 'cor blimey' might be used to describe an over the top imitation of an East Londoner, as in Dick Van Dyke's portrayal of a Cockney in Mary Poppins. (He's a bit cor blimey')  It's derived from the phrase 'God blind me' which becomes Gawd blimey.

Come to think of it, starting a sentence with 'Blimey' is often a prefix for sarcasm, the same way I believe Americans might start a sentence with 'Gee'.

[EDIT]  Hah!  The forum swear-bot just moderated Dick Van Cor-Blimey's surname!

[Nancy OShea]

Dick Van LGBT