Why So Many Softwares?

Common question comes up in Yahoo Answers. It can take many forms, from, "Which graphics software should I get?" to "Do I REALLY need both Photoshop AND Illustrator?" to, "What's the difference between ...?"

It essentially boils down to this: For digital graphics designer, all these different software applications are analogous to a carpenter's tool box. A good carpenter will have several different kinds and sizes of saws, different screwdrivers, different size hammers and so on. The different applications available are designed to do different functions. Many will have some functions and features in common with each other, but EACH will do some things particularly well.

For the sake of this blog, I'll mostly write about the three most popular Adobe apps; Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. All of them can handle text to one degree or another. All of them allow graphics to be placed in a document along with text. All of them are able to create various kinds of shapes and graphic images All of them allow some pre-print operations to be done such as color separations and others. A designer can make a page layout in all of these products. But taken separately, EACH of them performs certain distinct functions better than the others.

For pixel based graphics, only Photoshop has the multitude of image manipulation features that the others don't. It excells in color adjustment, photo "editing" and many of the kinds of operations that used to take many hot, sweaty hours in a darkroom to do. And like most of the best apps out there, Photoshop offers many different ways to do similar tasks, so that the well trained designer can choose which method will get the best results for the job. One CAN create a large poster or billboard design in Photoshop, but the file size becomes HUGE and unwieldy and not as practical as in other apps.

Illustrator, on the other hand, is unchallenged as the best vector based, scalable illustration program on the market. Again, in the hands of a skilled user, this app can create, from scratch, anything from the simplest logo work to photorealistic images of all kinds. And vector based graphics can be scaled down to the smallest graphics apps, like business cards and telephone directories, up to the largest billboards and building side ads that can be imagined. And this resizing can be done without having to design or re create the original image, and be done without losing any detail or introducing any boxy "pixelization" of the lines. A graphics designer CAN do decent page layouts in Illustrator, but for large, text heavy projects like a book of a couple of hundred pages, it becomes extremely labor intensive when you condider that other apps can do this much easier and faster.

InDesign is created with an entirely different purpose. It is designed to make page layouts as easy and automated as it can get. It is a true WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) application. The artist can place text and graphics anywhere on the page he or she sees fit. These elements can be moved, edited, deleted and finalized as needed. Text and graphics can be imported (placed) from and into all kinds of formats and, many of thes operations can be automated with the use of Master Pages, style sheets and other features. Once a page is set up, hundreds of pages of text can be placed and the software automatically adds and creates new pages to take it all in. These, and many other features make it the application of choice for many professional page layout designers. An artist CAN create many simple and colorful graphics such as some logos and such, but these capabilities are very limited compared to what other apps can do.

So, add to these "big three," my designer's tool box contains a LOT of different, specialty apps that make my job a lot easier and faster. Any full time freelance designer can tell you that, in this business, time really DOES equal money. Just off the top of my head I can list programs like Microsoft Word, Dreamweaver, Flash, Acrobat Pro, Streamline, Dimensions, Excel, QuickBooks, and many more. Other designers have their own choices. As with a carpenter, technician or other trained user, the choice of tools is a very personal thing.

An analogy I like to use is that one CAN drive a nail with the flat side of a box wrench, but a hammer does a much better job.

luv,

vince