What is the best, most affordable software for a new graphic designer?

Suzanne --

The industry standard is InDesign. It is the best. It's not cheap, however. There used to be a "starter" app called Pagemaker, but that's now morphed into InDesign. My two cents.

There is of course also Quark:

http://www.quark.com/

but that costs $$$.

I would say Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Indesign are the industry standard in design. But not the most affordable if your are on a tight budget. Photoshop elements has most of major features as the full version of Photoshop but is much cheaper. You can also download a trail version of the Adobe products from Adobe's website for your son to try out.

Also, look in the app store on the Featured page, there is a link on the right, "Apps for Designers". There you can find several image editing and vector programs he could try. There might be a few layout programs as well.

I would say if he is serious about getting into graphic design, Adobe products are the way to go.