Homebrew PCBs

re. negative images - If you can output gerbers, you can get almost 
any manipulation of the impage you want via the various gerber 
utils.  I wouldn't bother with a layout package that cant do that.

I am an Eagle user,  Its powerful, I like it and have gotten used to 
the interface but it is *very* non-intuitive, especially if you are 
used to using Windows Software.  Every command is a little different 
(some do right click, some dont, for example) and some operations are 
a lot more complex than they need to be (move multiple objects 
and "clip board" operations, for examples).  But the free package is 
quite capable and worth spending the time to learn.

Phil