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Which graphic software is best? (Photo, Illustrator, Dimensions, InDesign CorelDraw)

Q

qacwac

Senior member
I'd like to mess around a little bit with computer graphics to see how I am at it and if it interests me.

I've got Microsoft Photodraw and play around with it but I can get a really good deal on most of the Adobe stuff (Photoshop 6.0, Illustrator 9.0, Dimensions 3.0, InDesign 1.5) and Corel Draw 10.

So my question is what is the best thing for me to be able to create graphics, drawings, etc?

So please give me your opinions and explanations. You just saying doesn't make sense unless you explain.

Well Thanks.
 
Photoshop is the industry standard for editing photos and creating most graphics.

Illustrator is the industry standard for drawing vector based drawings.

Dimension is a program that adds effects to movies. (I think, never really used it before)

InDesign is the replacement for Pagemaker, used to produce layouts for magazines, newsletters and the like. Think Quarkxpress is the industry standard in this area.

CorelDraw is similar to Illustrator.

If you just want to mess around with computer graphics, just grab yourself Photoshop and a bunch of plugins. If you have some more cash, Illustrator would also be a good buy...
 
CorelDRAW includes CorelPhotoPaint and a few other things I think (I have an older version and I'm too poor to upgrade) and is probably the best value. I stress value because, in my opinion, unless you are doing professional work you don't really need to have Adobe products (ie. Photoshop, Illustrator). Where I live, you can buy CorelDRAW and PhotoPaint for around 1/4 the price of Photoshop and Illustrator. And, to be honest, their capabilities are quite similar, although die-hard Photoshop fans will try to convince you that no other product comes close to Photoshop. For someone who is not an expert, it will make very little difference--however, hundreds of dollars will make a difference for most of us.
 
To go beyond what Maverick said, the Dreamweaver4/Fireworks4 combo is a good thing to have for webpage/graphics. But it never hurts to have Photoshop. 🙂
 
Dimension isn't for effects 😛
that would be After Effects.

Dimension is to create basic 3D shapes/models


Fireworks is ok...but if you're gonna use Photoshop (wich u should really do), Image Ready's integration with PS is excellent, works alot better I think than with PS/Fireworks.
 
Photoshop: Very good program. Professional. Backdraw: very expensive.

Paintshop Pro: Also a very good program (version 7.0). Semi-professional. Advantage: much cheaper than Photoshop, but still has most of the functions of PS.

I'm using PSP 7.0.
 
Photoshop is the best graphics app around. Plus, it comes with image ready which I know like better than macromdia's fireworks for webstuffs. 🙂
 
fireworks is crap compared to photoshop for everything but graphics optimization and animated gifs. Even then, Photoshop does those fairly well.

I don't think many of our designers/production crew at the web company use dreamweaver. Some still use fireworks for image optimization, but I find photoshop's methods easier to use and generally more practical. We photoshop/flash/illustrate our way around, and hand code like bastards.

But almost all of our design is handled in photoshop, from mockups to production.

If you're wondering, we did the nike techlab site.
 
If you want to make pictures from Scratch, Paintshop Pro is a Lot better than Photoshop. Then you use Photoshop to polish it off with effects and stuff. Paintshop Pro has a lot of tools for "Drawing", Photoshop has a lot of tools for "editing" and "polishing"
 
I have CorelDraw 10 and it is very similar to CorelDraw 9 except for a few tweaks and menu changes. They packaged a Flash generator program with it this time that works pretty good. Corel Rave 1.0 - I design real estate publications for a living and we use CorelDraw in our office. So yes I would be considered a professional designer and I use Corel. I also have Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash 5, Dreamweaver 4 ultradev, that I use. I have been using CorelDraw for a long time and actually prefer it over the other programs. I guess I'm one of those who is not a die hard Adobe fan.
 
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