Homebrew PCBs

Hello to all...  New member here and not real knowledgeable regarding PCBs but am hoping to learn.  If you guys can stand a few "neophyte" type questions for a while, I would be most appreciative.  

I joined because I am wanting to learn how to design and build a few simple, small boards; initially just two-sided, plated hole boards.  Not sure I really want to actually make them at first, may want to just send the design off to a prototyping house to have them made in very small quantities.  

Can anyone recommend a good, but fairly inexpensive, "starter" software program that I could learn to use and would produce the file types (whatever they are) that are compatible for PCB manufacture?  Later on I may need to upgrade to something more sophisticated, but for now, I'd like to keep it pretty simple and not too expensive.

Thanks,
Monte



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