image creation software question

[Alex]

hi all,

i'm venturing into web development (mainly dreamweaver and flash-based) and i'm taking a couple courses and learning a lot but it came to my attention that I'm going to need a good image editing and creating software to provide graphics etc for my websites so i'm wondering what you guys recommend:

(as it is i have very limited paint.net knowledge and no knowledge of the other 2 programs)

- fireworks 8 (good integration into dreamweaver & flash... might as well since i'm using the rest of the macromedia suite)
- photoshop cs2 (the reference software but might be too complicated for my simple needs of creating web graphics for websites)
- paint.net (often compared to photoshop, free and easy to use but is it worthy of the comparisons?)

any suggestions are welcome!!! i plan on taking a course soon and learning in-depth but i'd like to decide which software to use before i start investing time and money into this!!

thanks!
:beer:

 

[corkyg]

Not sure about any of those for graphics creation. I would use PaintShop Pro XI now in the Corel stable. Of the three I guess I would use Fireworks 8 - It can create vector graphics. I know Paintshop does not create graphics - it is a very elegant digital image processing package. Never heard of paint.net.

 

[pstylesss]

My experience with Fireworks is that it doesn't offer the ability to create sleek, "high-end" looking graphics. Most graphics I see come out of Fireworks are amateurish. But I guess that mainly has to do with the Artist.

Personally I use Photoshop and couldn't use anything else. If you think that you would want help learning by using tutorials, Photoshop is really the way to go, there are thousands.

Honestly, the only way to know what you will like best is to use it, download the free trial. Both macromedia and adobe (they're the same company now) offer 30 day free trials.

 

[Alex]

Originally posted by: ZeroIQ
My experience with Fireworks is that it doesn't offer the ability to create sleek, "high-end" looking graphics. Most graphics I see come out of Fireworks are amateurish. But I guess that mainly has to do with the Artist.

Personally I use Photoshop and couldn't use anything else. If you think that you would want help learning by using tutorials, Photoshop is really the way to go, there are thousands.

Honestly, the only way to know what you will like best is to use it, download the free trial. Both macromedia and adobe (they're the same company now) offer 30 day free trials.

thanks thats exactly what i did but i'm pretty lost inside of both programs because they have so many options... i found some great tutorials for each of them too but they're pretty complex so i would like to select one before getting in deep

 

[StopSign]

Photoshop's learning curve is about 30 tutorials. That's just to get you started. You'll always be learning new stuff when using it, whether it's tools or techniques.

 

[Alex]

Originally posted by: StopSign
Photoshop's learning curve is about 30 tutorials. That's just to get you started. You'll always be learning new stuff when using it, whether it's tools or techniques.

that seems rather steep but it's definitely a worthwhile investment!

 

[MegaVovaN]

Photoshop. We've been studying it in school using an official book. About 18 chapters got me started

 

[troytime]

it really boils down to what you can afford and how professional you want to be.


Photoshop and Illustrator is the ultimate pair for graphics.
if you're already in the business, the $1000 in software is a business expense.

if you're in school, buy the educational versions

 

[corkyg]

And, like I said, to do graphics creation (non-photographic, vector or bitmap) Photoshop won't do it. That is why Illustrator exists. That's a great team, but a big investment.

 

[Rottie]

I wonder if Photoshop Element works with web design?

 

[Alex]

i'd like to create some vector graphics so I guess Fireworks is the best in that respect... I realize that there are other good programs out there like illustrator, corel, paint shop pro etc but I really wanna narrow it down between Fireworks & Photoshop (or even Paint.NET if its decent enough)

thx!!! :beer: