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3 Recent versions have brought in functionality for working with 3D designs, though the program still primarily garnishes the most respect in its photo manipulation and post-production ability. What Do All of the Adobe Programs Do? Adobe creates a lot of programs, many of which I found myself unfamiliar with until recently. Most people know about Flash, Photoshop and Adobe Reader. But those aren t the the only programs Adobe develops. Here s a quick guide to understand some of Adobe s software programs. What is Adobe Photoshop? Photoshop is the go-to image editing and manipulation software used by almost everyoe in the industry. Photoshop excels in working with raster (bitmap) graphics and is capable of producing highly detailed compositions. While originally intended to be a photo manipulation program, Photoshop has been taken up by digital painters and design professionals in both the classroom and workplace. What is Adobe Illustrator? Illustrator is the Photoshop of vector art, also known as resolution-independent graphics. By comparison, Photoshop is used to create raster art, also known as bitmap graphics. Raster vs. Vector The key difference between the two is that vector has less detail but can be resized larger infinitely without loss of quality. Vector is also comprised of lines, curves, and geometric data. Whereas in contrast raster graphics are composed of individual pixels. Illustrator is typically used to create logos and graphics for business cards, infographics, clipart, and icons. Because vectors are not size dependent, a design could be used on a small card but then scaled to the size of a billboard without a loss in quality. Another thing to note is that vector can be easily converted to raster, but it is a one way transfer as raster cannot be converted back without difficulty. What is Adobe InDesign? InDesign does page layouts. It allows you to produce and preview documents for magazines, both in print and online across mobile and desktop platforms. It offers more precision with typography than Photoshop, but less in the graphics department. InDesign is made for publishing. Ideally projects rendered are newspapers, posters, and other marketing material. The way InDesign works allows content producers to easily piece together the layouts for multipage magazines and documents. InDesign operates seamlessly with the rest of the Adobe suite, to enhance creative ability. The latest version incorporates interactive HTML within documents to allow web publishing. Overall, if you need to create a layout for something with a lot of text and graphics, InDesign is just about the best software out there for it. Untitled-1.indd 3 20.11.2015 13:05:28
Adobe Photoshop What is Photoshop? The most important thing to know about Photoshop is that it is a pixel based program. Photoshop was primarily created in the beginning as a photograph enhancing tool and not so much anything else like it is used today. Adobe has recognized that many users were starting to use Photoshop to create elaborate UI designs, web page graphics, banner ADs, text effects and more. Adobe then started rolling out features that help designers create images for print, web, motion graphics and so on. However, again, the problem is that there are certain times when Photoshop is not needed (gasp!) to create certain projects. Photoshop is generally used for: Photo enhancement/photo color correction Software/Web/Mobile UI design Web graphics Motion graphics Special effects Common mistakes/misconceptions One common misconception is the idea that it is good to use Photoshop to create stationary systems and logo s. For the sake of yourself, please take this idea outside the window. Let s talk about business cards as an example. There is an alarming number of tutorials online that shows you how to create business cards in Photoshop. These are what I call bad tutorials that teaches you the wrong way of creating a business card. Despite the result and outcome of these tutorials being amazing, or perhaps you can even get it printed and it will look fine, it is a bad practice to get into an habit. Just because the result looks fine don t mean the practice is the best way. Illustrator superior in print First off Illustrator type is by far superior in print output than Photoshop is. Yes Photoshop can output type, and even in vector paths. Yes Photoshop can bring in vector objects as smart objects. Yes Photoshop can draw paths using the pen tool. But the most Untitled-1.indd 4 20.11.2015 13:05:28
5 important thing out of all this is that IN THE END, it is outputted as pixel data. Yes I am aware that it also depends on the file output. For instance,.tiff does not output vector data but does output layer information and transparency. But.EPS does support vector output, yet it still doesn t mean this is the best practice to do so. So should you never use Photoshop to create business cards? There are times you actually want to use Photoshop to create business cards. When to use Photoshop for business cards If your business cards contain any textures, photography, special effects, blurs (not that I am encouraging to CMYK. Again, you will regret not switching color modes to CMYK after you send it off to the printer. Your result will look significantly different than you hoped for. Do not use Photoshop for type For the love of all things that you love, do not use Photoshop to set type in your print projects. It is important to note that I am not saying you should never use the type tool in Photoshop. I am stating that it is not a good idea to use it in print projects. Never use Photoshop to create logo s. The obvious reason is because pixel data cannot be enlarged without distortion. If you create the logo in vector format, your logo will be scalable to any size forever. this), or any type of pixel based design, Photoshop is obviously the best way to go. However, remember to output ANY pixel based art work in 300 ppi resolution with CMYK color mode. Do not output it RGB. If you have Photoshop filters in your artwork, changing your work to CMYK mode, or even applying certain filters in CMYK mode seem to look desaturated or not look too good. CMYK and RGB The work around to this: Create all your special effects, filter effects, etc in RGB mode. Flatten the work (merge layers) after you feel that your work in Photoshop is complete, and change the color mode Untitled-1.indd 5 20.11.2015 13:05:29
When to use Adobe Photoshop Plain and simple, Photoshop is for creating and editing photos and raster (pixel) based art work. The program was originally developed as a tool to enhance photographs, but over time its functionality has developed to the point where it can be used to create: User interface designs Web pages Banner ads Video graphics Editing pictures for print Because there is so much information about Photoshop out there in the form of tutorials and guides, some people feel that it s all you need a one stop shop. This couldn t be further from the truth. The problem is that there are instances when you don t need to use Photoshop, and should in fact be using Illustrator or InDesign. Don t create logos in Photoshop Do not create logos with Photoshop It s a bad idea that will do nothing but cost you time and money. Again, Photoshop is pixel, or raster based. If you create a logo with it, the files that it creates can not be enlarged or manipulated in the same manner that an Illustrator-based logo can. Untitled-1.indd 6 20.11.2015 13:05:29
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Adobe Illustrator What is Adobe Illustrator Well as the program states, Adobe Illustrator is a vector based drawing program. It is primarily used to create vector graphics that require to be scalable in print and for future uses. Adobe Illustrator is very similar to drawing programs like Adobe Fireworks (Macromedia Fireworks in the early 2000 s), and Corel Draw. It is superior in creating logo s and logotype, and has an awesome type setting system within the program. Adobe Illustrator does one thing Photoshop can never meet up to its standard, and that is vector output. Whatever you create in Illustrator is scalable to the infinite power. Illustrator is generally used for: Logo/Logotype/Monogram/Insignia design Type setting for stationary systems/print campaigns Web graphics Motion graphics Vector paintings/illustrations Common mistakes/misconceptions Although Illustrator can be used to create websites in the fullest degree, Photoshop is still ideally the best program in creating UI designs and other graphical elements for your website. Of course it will not be as harmful as creating business cards in Photoshop, but you will quickly find that the snapping feature in Photoshop is much precise in terms of pixels than Illustrator is. No animations Illustrator cannot do animation. If you are looking to do flash animation, Illustrator will not do this for you. The best practice is to create graphics in Illustrator and bring them into Flash for the principle animation. Illustrator filters do not work the same way as Photoshop filters. You will be surprised in how many people Untitled-1.indd 8 20.11.2015 13:05:29
9 think the filters work the same way as Photoshop. This is false. Aftereffects support vector data to a certain degree during production (continuous rasterize). The prime time to use Illustrator As stated above, Illustrator is excellent for logo design, trademark design, logotype, type setting stationary systems, and creating greeting cards or wedding invitations. After the release of Illustrator CS4, it is now possible to create simple to complex brochures, annual reports, and even books in Illustrator CS4 and up. The only draw back to this is that it does not have master page utility in Illustrator like Indesign. It also does not support book templates and page numbers like Indesign. Although Illustrator CS4 and up has support for multiple artboards to create pages, it is simply there to create short page brochures, or when you want to output multiple PDF pages of your design variations to show your clients. Illustrator and After Effects Illustrator also has cross platform compatibility with Aftereffects. Importing.EPS files that contain text drawn in Illustrator is essentially better than importing.tiff files that contain text drawn in Photoshop. Untitled-1.indd 9 20.11.2015 13:05:30
Illustrator Adobe Illustrator is an advanced vector-based software. So, unlike Photoshop s pixel-based format, it uses mathematical constructs to create vector graphics. In Illustrator, a line is composed of two dots connected by a computer algorithm, instead of just a line of pixels. Because of this, Illustrator is used often to create logos or anything that may need to be printed or displayed at different sizes. A vector graphic will never lose its quality if it s scaled up or down. Illustrator will also give you a better print output since it s not resolution dependent. A drawback of Illustrator is that it can t be used easily to modify images that are already created, since there are limited filters and image editing tools available to you. When to use Adobe Illustrator Illustrator, as its name suggests, is for creating and editing vector based illustrations such as logos and brand marks or other design elements. Vector graphics are scalable images that can be sized as small or as large as you need them to be, and still maintain their resolution and clarity. Not for multi-page documents While it is possible to create multi-page documents with Illustrator for items like brochures or annual reports, there are a few drawbacks to using the program Untitled-1.indd 10 20.11.2015 13:05:30
11 in this way: Illustrator doesn t have a way to setup master pages the way that InDesign does. This is a necessary tool when you re building documents that use templates. No page numbers Illustrator doesn t allow you to automate page numbers. This is another feature InDesign supports, which can be especially useful when dealing with larger documents. Untitled-1.indd 11 20.11.2015 13:05:30
Adobe Indesign There isn t much confusion making when it comes to Adobe Indesign. Since Adobe Indesign itself is pretty specific in terms of what it can do and what it doesn t do, while Photoshop and Indesign both share similar tools, interface, and abilities to create web graphics to in almost identical level. Indesign is generally used for: Editorial design Book design Multiple page brochures Annual reports Interactive PDF documents Common mistakes/misconceptions Although it is possible to draw objects in Indesign, it is not superior to drawing as it is with Illustrator. You should not draw elements in Indesign, but instead, use programs such as Illustrator or Photoshop to draw out the elements and import them into Indesign. Indesign also does not have filters like Photoshop. Creating a logo in Indesign is next to impossible. Better layout Although there isn t much misconception with Indesign, there is much wide spread debate about Illustrator having better layout support than Indesign. Indesign however has better layout support, if not, identical to Illustrator. Untitled-1.indd 12 20.11.2015 13:05:30
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InDesign Now that you know the difference between Photoshop and Illustrator, there are a few other Adobe graphics software that you probably have wondered about, like InDesign. InDesign works best when it comes to making multipage layouts with a lot of written content, like magazines or books. It s still best to stick with Photoshop and Illustrator to create graphics and then send them over to InDesign if you re working on a book or PDF, since you ll have more options and control over your creations. But don t worry, InDesign will preserve the vector images you created in Illustrator. When to use Adobe InDesign There should be no confusion about when to use In- Design its specific purpose is for laying out printed materials; that s what it is designed to do. This could be brochures, newsletters, ads, business cards or books. Virtually anything that is made up of a combination of blocks of text, photos or other artwork. Its purpose is to take the elements that you create in Illustrator and Photoshop and put them together in one place. Multi-page layouts InDesign excels at projects that require multi-page layouts or master layouts where one theme reoccurs on multiple pages. Its text wrap functionality (where you can literally wrap text around images or objects) is much simpler and easier to use than it is in Illustrator. Untitled-1.indd 14 20.11.2015 13:05:31
15 People can, and do, put together layouts with Photoshop or Illustrator. However, in doing so, they often create files that are needlessly huge or put together in ways that are not optimal for commercial printers to use. InDesign, however, packages everything for you all of your fonts and images. It does this so that you can hand off these materials to your printer and they can make your layout work in the exact manner that you intended. Limitations of InDesign While InDesign is a powerful tool, it does have its limitations. For one, it doesn t have any photo editing capabilities. InDesign does give you the ability to draw vector graphics, like those you might find in a logo, but it doesn t hold a candle to what you can do with Illustrator. Untitled-1.indd 15 20.11.2015 13:05:31
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