Any equivelent to the adobe CS suite?

[Carlis]

Hi
I recently adopted a program of migrating to legitimate software, since pirated software may infect computers with malicious software and since piracy may eventually be immoral (or what do you think ).

Is there any replacement for the adobe CS suites? I need photoshop CS, illustrator and dream weaver equivalents. I want them to be cheaper or free. As for photo editing, I shoot Raw so there has to be support for that.

/Carlis

 

[timswim78]

You may want to start your research with this thread.
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=1837696&enterthread=y

There are open source vector editors, html editors, and photo editors in there. I'm not sure which ones work with the Mac OS, but you can quickly figure that out.

 

[TheStu]

What exactly do you like about Dreamweaver? There is Coda, by Panic Software, I personally like it quite a lot, it isn't WYSIWYG like Dreamweaver (or at least what I remember of Dreamweaver) but I find it to be really great for web devlopment.

For Photoshop, you can substitute the GIMP. I am not totally fond of it, but I have heard that it is quite decent. The fact that it uses X11 is annoying to say the least, but I hear that it is capable.

And, what exactly is Illustrator? I have never really known

 

[timswim78]

Originally posted by: TheStu
And, what exactly is Illustrator? I have never really known

Illustrator is for editing and drawing vector graphics (meaning that the graphics are made of shapes and fills and do not have pixels), whereas Photoshop and other programs are rasterized or bitmapped (meaning that the images are made up of pixels).

Vector graphics are often used for designing logos. They are nice because they are small in size and can be scaled to any size without pixelation.

Raster images are produced by image capturing devices like scanners and digital cameras. The image is made of pixels.

Here is a good explanation with visual examples:
http://www.logodesignworks.com...er-graphics-difference

 

[Kmax82]

Originally posted by: Carlis
Hi
I recently adopted a program of migrating to legitimate software, since pirated software may infect computers with malicious software and since piracy may eventually be immoral (or what do you think ).

Is there any replacement for the adobe CS suites? I need photoshop CS, illustrator and dream weaver equivalents. I want them to be cheaper or free. As for photo editing, I shoot Raw so there has to be support for that.

/Carlis

Well, aside from the legitimacy of software piracy.. I don't want to open that can.

There are quite a few programs which come close to the functionality of Photoshop and Illustrator. I haven't found anything which does what Dreamweaver does, but then on the other hand, do you really need a WYSIWYG?

I like Pixelmator (http://www.pixelmator.com/) as a Photoshop type clone. And there is also VectorDesigner (http://www.tweakersoft.com/vectordesigner/) as an Illustrator knock off.

I haven't used Coda by Panic, but all their other software is top notch.

In reality, I would buy an educational version of the CS suite and you can use that to upgrade to the full version when CS4 comes out. It's cheaper to buy; yes it's not completely legal in the freelance environment, but unless you're a major designer Adobe isn't going to come knocking at your door. And next Spring/Summer when they release CS4 you will be able to legitimately upgrade to something.

On a side note, I really hope that a competitor comes out of the woodwork to combat Adobe. I'm kind of sick of how much reliance there is in the graphic/web world on their products. But who knows.. maybe someday.

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: Kmax82

Originally posted by: Carlis
Hi
I recently adopted a program of migrating to legitimate software, since pirated software may infect computers with malicious software and since piracy may eventually be immoral (or what do you think ).

Is there any replacement for the adobe CS suites? I need photoshop CS, illustrator and dream weaver equivalents. I want them to be cheaper or free. As for photo editing, I shoot Raw so there has to be support for that.

/Carlis

Well, aside from the legitimacy of software piracy.. I don't want to open that can.

There are quite a few programs which come close to the functionality of Photoshop and Illustrator. I haven't found anything which does what Dreamweaver does, but then on the other hand, do you really need a WYSIWYG?

I like Pixelmator (http://www.pixelmator.com/) as a Photoshop type clone. And there is also VectorDesigner (http://www.tweakersoft.com/vectordesigner/) as an Illustrator knock off.

I haven't used Coda by Panic, but all their other software is top notch.

In reality, I would buy an educational version of the CS suite and you can use that to upgrade to the full version when CS4 comes out. It's cheaper to buy; yes it's not completely legal in the freelance environment, but unless you're a major designer Adobe isn't going to come knocking at your door. And next Spring/Summer when they release CS4 you will be able to legitimately upgrade to something.

On a side note, I really hope that a competitor comes out of the woodwork to combat Adobe. I'm kind of sick of how much reliance there is in the graphic/web world on their products. But who knows.. maybe someday.

Well, Apple has been releasing their own stuff to go against Adobe. I hear many good things about Aperture 2 and that it is quite capable of going head to head against LightRoom. Plus, there are plugins you can get/make for Aperture that give you editing capabilities, eliminating those cursory Photoshop uses.

Honestly, Adobe has just gotten so huge, that they simply don't seem to give 2 craps anymore.

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: Kmax82
In reality, I would buy an educational version of the CS suite and you can use that to upgrade to the full version when CS4 comes out. It's cheaper to buy; yes it's not completely legal in the freelance environment, but unless you're a major designer Adobe isn't going to come knocking at your door. And next Spring/Summer when they release CS4 you will be able to legitimately upgrade to something.

Is that possible? I was under the impression educational licenses were NOT upgradeable, period. Apple has that stipulation as well, but I noticed w/ Aperture 2, the educational version is really just a $20 discount, but otherwise is a full retail version. There's supposedly a $100 educational license floating too (presumable to match the $100 lightroom, which our university offers).

 

[Kmax82]

Originally posted by: randomlinh

Originally posted by: Kmax82
In reality, I would buy an educational version of the CS suite and you can use that to upgrade to the full version when CS4 comes out. It's cheaper to buy; yes it's not completely legal in the freelance environment, but unless you're a major designer Adobe isn't going to come knocking at your door. And next Spring/Summer when they release CS4 you will be able to legitimately upgrade to something.

Is that possible? I was under the impression educational licenses were NOT upgradeable, period. Apple has that stipulation as well, but I noticed w/ Aperture 2, the educational version is really just a $20 discount, but otherwise is a full retail version. There's supposedly a $100 educational license floating too (presumable to match the $100 lightroom, which our university offers).

Looks like you can upgrade but only once you are no longer eligible to buy the educational version, and you have to call the Adobe store in order to make it work. That's just from info that I found online, and people that have had success with it.

As for Aperture, I absolutely LOVE Aperture. I've tried using Lightroom and just can't get used to the interface. But Aperture runs wonderfully on my machine (with a 5000 image library).

And, Adobe doesn't care about their customer support at all. We had some bugs with some Flash development and had to go to their yearly Adobe conference just to get a straight answer. Turns out that even the devs at Adobe couldn't figure out why it wouldn't work, but did offer a solution that allowed us to work through our issues. Either way, they should've been able to give us that support through email and telephone support. We should not of had to go to a conference to get their attention. Awful, just awful. I will be the first to jump on the first bandwagon that challenges Adobe (and does a good job of it).

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: Kmax82
As for Aperture, I absolutely LOVE Aperture. I've tried using Lightroom and just can't get used to the interface. But Aperture runs wonderfully on my machine (with a 5000 image library).

mostly raw or jpeg or even mix? I'm really considering ditching my iMac for a macbook pro... as I could have used it this month. I'm just not certain the few times of portability will be worth it for me. And upgrading the HDD on it is supposedly a PITA, heh.

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: randomlinh

Originally posted by: Kmax82
As for Aperture, I absolutely LOVE Aperture. I've tried using Lightroom and just can't get used to the interface. But Aperture runs wonderfully on my machine (with a 5000 image library).

mostly raw or jpeg or even mix? I'm really considering ditching my iMac for a macbook pro... as I could have used it this month. I'm just not certain the few times of portability will be worth it for me. And upgrading the HDD on it is supposedly a PITA, heh.

Upgrading the HDD isn't too bad, it is a lot of screws to remove, and you just need to be careful to not lose them. Really, you are looking at a 15-20 minute job.

 

[Kmax82]

Originally posted by: randomlinh

Originally posted by: Kmax82
As for Aperture, I absolutely LOVE Aperture. I've tried using Lightroom and just can't get used to the interface. But Aperture runs wonderfully on my machine (with a 5000 image library).

mostly raw or jpeg or even mix? I'm really considering ditching my iMac for a macbook pro... as I could have used it this month. I'm just not certain the few times of portability will be worth it for me. And upgrading the HDD on it is supposedly a PITA, heh.

Raw or Jpeg?: I shoot completely in RAW. I know that JPEG would be better for about 30% of my image library, but I'm just not great about setting exposures and such in the camera, so I'd prefer not to be locked into a JPEG. Maybe when I become a better photographer.

About the HDD upgrade: Well, while it isn't completely tough, it isn't easy either. I think it is a PITA, when compared to other laptops that I have done the HDD switch on. Plus you have to consider that if you do screw something up, your warranty is gone.

I kept my old HDD, as I will put it back in if something screws up on my machine. I know it's a bit dishonest, but they (apple) wouldn't do the upgrade for me, so I was left to my own devices.

As long as you are careful and don't rip and pull pieces, you should be fine. Either that, or pick up a regular MacBook and that's super simple to upgrade.

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: Kmax82

Originally posted by: randomlinh

Originally posted by: Kmax82
As for Aperture, I absolutely LOVE Aperture. I've tried using Lightroom and just can't get used to the interface. But Aperture runs wonderfully on my machine (with a 5000 image library).

mostly raw or jpeg or even mix? I'm really considering ditching my iMac for a macbook pro... as I could have used it this month. I'm just not certain the few times of portability will be worth it for me. And upgrading the HDD on it is supposedly a PITA, heh.

Raw or Jpeg?: I shoot completely in RAW. I know that JPEG would be better for about 30% of my image library, but I'm just not great about setting exposures and such in the camera, so I'd prefer not to be locked into a JPEG. Maybe when I become a better photographer.

About the HDD upgrade: Well, while it isn't completely tough, it isn't easy either. I think it is a PITA, when compared to other laptops that I have done the HDD switch on. Plus you have to consider that if you do screw something up, your warranty is gone.

I kept my old HDD, as I will put it back in if something screws up on my machine. I know it's a bit dishonest, but they (apple) wouldn't do the upgrade for me, so I was left to my own devices.

As long as you are careful and don't rip and pull pieces, you should be fine. Either that, or pick up a regular MacBook and that's super simple to upgrade.

Kmax makes a good point about the MacBook there. When it comes to Aperture, you want the larger screen size of the MacBook Pro, and maybe the ability to output DualLinkDVI, but that is about it really. The MacBook is only a hair slower than the MacBook Pro, and has the same RAM cap, plus is easier to upgrade.

 

[Kmax82]

Originally posted by: TheStu
Kmax makes a good point about the MacBook there. When it comes to Aperture, you want the larger screen size of the MacBook Pro, and maybe the ability to output DualLinkDVI, but that is about it really. The MacBook is only a hair slower than the MacBook Pro, and has the same RAM cap, plus is easier to upgrade.

Yea, if it wasn't for the DualLinkDVI, I would switch to a MacBook. One, it's smaller, and two, it has a user upgradeable HDD. I really need to be able to push a big display, though, and you can't do that with the integrated graphics chip in the MacBook. Maybe one day.

 

[Carlis]

Originally posted by: Kmax82

Well, aside from the legitimacy of software piracy.. I don't want to open that can.

There are quite a few programs which come close to the functionality of Photoshop and Illustrator. I haven't found anything which does what Dreamweaver does, but then on the other hand, do you really need a WYSIWYG?

I like Pixelmator (http://www.pixelmator.com/) as a Photoshop type clone. And there is also VectorDesigner (http://www.tweakersoft.com/vectordesigner/) as an Illustrator knock off.

I haven't used Coda by Panic, but all their other software is top notch.

In reality, I would buy an educational version of the CS suite and you can use that to upgrade to the full version when CS4 comes out. It's cheaper to buy; yes it's not completely legal in the freelance environment, but unless you're a major designer Adobe isn't going to come knocking at your door. And next Spring/Summer when they release CS4 you will be able to legitimately upgrade to something.

On a side note, I really hope that a competitor comes out of the woodwork to combat Adobe. I'm kind of sick of how much reliance there is in the graphic/web world on their products. But who knows.. maybe someday.

Nice!
These to look great and 50-60 usd is a fair price for a piece of software.

Im kind of amazed by how adobe spits out countless design programs with ridiculous price tags.

 

[Kmax82]

Originally posted by: Carlis
Im kind of amazed by how adobe spits out countless design programs with ridiculous price tags.

Yea, i think that the reason why Adobe charges so much is because high end design studios tend to use their apps and they know they can get the money out of them. However, as a freelancer on the side, it's ridiculous to have to pay $2000 for a license to use their Web suite. I think they should cut their cost in half, and make it $500 to upgrade, and $1000 for a full license, and I bet they would have a lot less people pirating their software.

Or they could begin to care about their customers and make a product that works completely before shipping. And then I wouldn't feel so raped when I pay that much for their software. Oh well...

 

[dnuggett]

Originally posted by: Kmax82

Originally posted by: TheStu
Kmax makes a good point about the MacBook there. When it comes to Aperture, you want the larger screen size of the MacBook Pro, and maybe the ability to output DualLinkDVI, but that is about it really. The MacBook is only a hair slower than the MacBook Pro, and has the same RAM cap, plus is easier to upgrade.

Yea, if it wasn't for the DualLinkDVI, I would switch to a MacBook. One, it's smaller, and two, it has a user upgradeable HDD. I really need to be able to push a big display, though, and you can't do that with the integrated graphics chip in the MacBook. Maybe one day.

You can push a 24" at 1920X1200, just fine.

 

[Kmax82]

Originally posted by: dnuggett

You can push a 24" at 1920X1200, just fine.

Does it do the cinema displays? I was under the impression that it couldn't push that high of a res out of it's secondary display, but if that's the case, I might look into to getting one for the shrink in dimensions.

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: Kmax82

Originally posted by: dnuggett

You can push a 24" at 1920X1200, just fine.

Does it do the cinema displays? I was under the impression that it couldn't push that high of a res out of it's secondary display, but if that's the case, I might look into to getting one for the shrink in dimensions.

I have had a 23" Cinema Display hooked up to my MacBook at least half a dozen times.... it looks GORGEOUS! Don't try and watch any high bitrate videos on it, and you will be fine. For static stuff it is great though.

 

[secretanchitman]

im not sure about an illustrator equivalent, and i am sure there are dreamweaver equivalents out there. i DO know that you should/can use aperture 2.0 for editing photos. its also nice because it has photoshop support.

 

[Kmax82]

Originally posted by: TheStu

I have had a 23" Cinema Display hooked up to my MacBook at least half a dozen times.... it looks GORGEOUS! Don't try and watch any high bitrate videos on it, and you will be fine. For static stuff it is great though.

I run into issues with Dual Screen video on my MBP, so once my wife's MacBook comes in, I'll be very interested in seeing how that handles the same content.

 

[DW in UT]

For those seeking a freeware InDesign replacement, check out Scribus. Is going through some growing pains now as they are headed for a major version update.

Current stable version is pretty good, but next version, due in third quarter of 2008, should have much better control of fine-tuning text, and memory management for larger projects.

Available for Mac, Windows & Linux.