designing posters

[what..the?]

hello aber's

when I first started on computers in the mid to late 90's, I used to spend a lot of time editing photos and messing around with an adobe package I got with my pc at the time. It had make your own cards/posters/menu's etc all sorts

I have a poster to design for a local event. These days I am quite used to just Google images and cutting and pasting images into MS Word to accompany writing in a nice font style and size.

Just wondered though if anyone recommended a free software which allowed me to make up posters, something that might look extra special. I am an artist as well and have a good eye for design, do you find posters made within software packages look naff is it best just the do it with my own eye 'freestyle'

Thanks in advance

[RATTER15]

Yes, do them yourself if you know your way around a PC and you sound like you do. so many pics on Google images etc, that's where I get all my pics for posters and then use MS Word.

[TTG]

Open Office Impress is good. Similar to Microsoft Powerpoint except Open Office is free.

[venator]

MS Publisher is pretty versatile

[what..the?]

thanks everyone