Question:
what is the difference between Adobe's InDesign and Photoshop? What is the best program to make graphics with?
2008-07-23 06:49:03 UTC
I'm trying to research some of Adobe's products but can't find a good description that will help me decide what program is best to buy if I want to make graphics for a website. Thanks!
Six answers:
InDesign-sama
2008-07-23 10:27:31 UTC
Wikipedia describes Photoshop as "a graphics editing program developed and published by Adobe Systems. It is the current and primary market leader for commercial bitmap and image manipulation, and is the flagship product of Adobe Systems." It can be used to retouch images or create raster (like a photograph) images from scratch.



Wikipedia describes InDesign as "a desktop publishing software application produced by Adobe Systems." Desktop publishing software is " combines an inexpensive personal computer and WYSIWYG page layout software to create publication documents on a computer for either large scale publishing or small scale local multifunction peripheral output and distribution. Users have flexibility to create complex page layouts that can incorporate body text, numbered footnotes, graphics, photos and other visual elements using software such as QuarkXPress, Adobe InDesign, Microsoft Publisher, Apple Pages, the free Scribus and (to some extent) any graphics software or word processor that combines editable text with images." In *my* opinion, InDesign is, to me, the best layout application out there.



Finally, Illustrator is defined as "Adobe Illustrator is a vector-based drawing program developed and marketed by Adobe Systems." Whereas Photoshop is raster-based (and can do rudimentary vector-oriented tasks), Illustrator is the opposite: it's vector-based and can do rudimentary raster-based tasks.



To clarify between Photoshop (raster-based) and Illustrator (vector-based):

"Vector graphics is the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygon(s), which are all based upon mathematical equations, to represent images in computer graphics. Vector graphics formats are complementary to raster graphics, which is the representation of images as an array of pixels, as it is typically used for the representation of photographic images. There are instances when working with vector tools and formats is best practice, and instances when working with raster tools and formats is best practice. There are times when both formats come together. An understanding of the advantages and limitations of each technology and the relationship between them is most likely to result in efficient and effective use of tools."



The most simplified response is: Photos are best edited with Photoshop (natch!) and logos (something that's made of shapes that are vector-oriented) are best served by Illustrator -- of course, if the image has been rasterized from a vector, then Illustrator won't be nearly as effective if the image had been left in its original vector format.)



There's a reason why the three are usually sold in a suite (Creative Suite 3: Production contains them all, plus Acrobat -- which you didn't ask about, but I'll throw it in the mix for fun and possibly to confuse you ;-) ) No one program can EFFECTIVELY do it all. That's not to say you couldn't do the same task or project in one program. You could create a page layout in any of the three applications you asked about. You could also layout a webpage too! But that's another project and application. My point, and I do have one, is that there's no magical cure-all application that I know of (or would trust professionally) that I'd use independently. I wouldn't compose my Masters thesis in InDesign, I'd use Word. I wouldn't create a company's logo in Photoshop, I'd use Illustrator, etc. ad nauseam.
lafayette
2016-12-17 14:18:00 UTC
Wikipedia Indesign
2016-03-18 10:56:49 UTC
Photoshop doesn't do vectors at all. All photoshop work is raster based. It may have vector drawing tools - but ultimately the results get rasterised (made into pixels). Try enlarging a photoshoped logo, and you'll get nothing but pixels - enlarge a logo made in Illustrator, and you could theoretically make it as large as you want, but you won't see any pixels. As far is page layout is concerned - try doing a ten page document in Photoshop - it ain't going to work - also Indesign will give you lovely sharp fonts with no pixels at all - the same can't be said for Photoshop.
amybeader
2008-07-23 07:05:27 UTC
The only reason I gave a thumbsdown to the other person was he was only partially right. Photoshop is not unlimited, since it is a raster based (pixel) image editor, so there ARE some things it's not good for, and you have to know what you are doing. However, if you want to just do graphics for the web, Photoshop is a good choice. InDesign, although you can build stuff that can go on the web, is really a page layout program. It can do graphics, and you can bring almost any form of graphic into InDesign. But the other person is right in that Photoshop is the one you want.



InDesign is really aimed at print-based documents, doing multipage layouts and incorporating text and image.
Scott Grafton
2008-07-23 07:02:24 UTC
Photoshop is the Rolls Royce of graphics programs, while CorelDraw is a layout program. Indesign is a combination of the two.

Photoshop is the answer to your problem.
2008-07-23 06:55:08 UTC
Use photoshop, the InDesign software is for print media and poster like graphics. Photoshop is not limited and can generate better graphics than InDesign.


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