What shall I use for web graphics editing? (Full Version)

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tanya004 -> What shall I use for web graphics editing? (6/21/2006 4:58:32)

Hi Everybody!
We'd like to open a new department for web site design, but I know nothing about PRO graphics software. Can you tell me what software to choose and what it will cost me?
Thanks in advance for your help!



Taz -> RE: What shall I use for web graphics editing? (6/21/2006 12:16:54)

The top few I would say would be...

Photoshop = Very expensive, but it is called "industry standard".

Paintshop Pro = Very reasonable, and is of a similar nature to Photoshop but with less features.

Fireworks = Average priced and pretty good at what it does.

Pricing wise, Froogle or hit eBay for a ballpark figure on new or second hand.

Myself I use Paintshop Pro and Fireworks, I can't get on with Photoshop, it's so fiddly and complex but loads of people swear by it.



Tailslide -> RE: What shall I use for web graphics editing? (6/21/2006 12:30:35)

Photoshop Elements has 80% of the features of Photoshop and only costs around £70 (I think that's around $120) I use it for all of my graphics because I'm a cheapskate and won't pay out for software (I think that's the most expensive package I have)

"Gimp" is a pain to get to grips with but it's free.



curious monkey -> RE: What shall I use for web graphics editing? (6/21/2006 14:12:37)

what about Corel Draw... I use Photoshop, but I know some designers that swear by Corel....



jaybee -> RE: What shall I use for web graphics editing? (6/21/2006 16:15:41)

You really need to download some demos and try them out as they're all good at some things and not others.

If you can afford it I would opt for Photoshop for (funnily enough) photo editing as it is superb at that and has the biggest time-saver ever, a Save for Web button which handles all the optimisation that can take hours of fiddling about in some of the others. It is not however very good for graphics.

For graphics work I use PaintShopPro. You can use this, and I did reasonably successfully before I got Photoshop, for editing photos as well but again, it's strength is in the name.

I have Fireworks but I never really got on with it. I've tried a few others and they're OK but not great.

There is a beta of the new Microsoft Expressions designer on their site that you can download. That looked pretty good but I didn't have a lot of time to play with it.



BlueMoose -> RE: What shall I use for web graphics editing? (6/23/2006 18:28:47)

I started with Corel Paint Shop Pro 7. I have never used Photoshop so really can't speak about it.

I recently got Paint Shop Pro 10 and there is something in it that is a HUGE improvement over the earlier version. It is the "Background Eraser" function that is now really intelligent. This makes it so easy to isolate parts of images to paste into other layers. You just put the eraser cursor "close" to the edge of the photo element you want to isolate ...and it magically chops out the background and makes it transparent for later pasting. I was amazed when I tried it.




d a v e -> RE: What shall I use for web graphics editing? (6/24/2006 15:14:59)

imo fireworks is the best app for web graphics, but it depends a bit on your budget and if you need it for anything else (like A LOT of photo editing or for professional print work).



anderskorte -> RE: What shall I use for web graphics editing? (6/24/2006 16:40:19)

I also have a question regarding this. On a small budget, I've only had the opportunity to use Adobe Photoshop to make my web graphics. Using 6.0 currently, and although old, it works perfectly for my needs.

So how good is e.g. Fireworks if I want to work with type and fonts? Does it have as good options for antialiasing as Photoshop, is manual kerning done as easily (alt+left and alt+right between letters) and does it have such good paragraph editing options?

Working with type is possibly the biggest difference between graphics apps. At least I've noticed The GIMP performs the worst on this area—despite the Freetype plugin, fonts on Linux have always been the most embarrasing thing ever.

I also know Adobe CS2 products are the only software currently that support advanced Opentype features.



dpf -> RE: What shall I use for web graphics editing? (6/24/2006 16:55:17)

quote:

We'd like to open a new department for web site design, but I know nothing about PRO graphics software
..understand that whatever you select, you need hours and months of practice to be at a "pro website design level"... these are powerful and complex apps



jaybee -> RE: What shall I use for web graphics editing? (6/24/2006 21:42:40)

Very good point there Dan. It does take a considerable amount of time to be able to produce a decent output from any of these programs. We're not talking Microsoft click and build stuff here.

If you're serious about this then buy a good package and then invest at least as much again for a training course, or be prepared for a long lead time before you manage to make anything half decent.



staigerman -> RE: What shall I use for web graphics editing? (8/10/2006 17:35:05)

> Photoshop Elements has 80% of the features of
> Photoshop and only costs around £70 (I think
> that's around $120) I use it for all of my graphics
> because I'm a cheapskate and
> won't pay out for software (I think that's the most
> expensive package I have)
>
> "Gimp" is a pain to get to grips with but it's free.
>
>

70 pounds is about the retail price. You should shop around, as there are online resellers offering discounts (legitimately so). For example, I offer Photoshop Elements as an affiliate through Purplus, a reseller who buys prior-version and later version software in bulk and offers some interesting discounts, and yes it's not the big box, it's an OEM bundle edition, i.e. has the same CD and unique license key to register it, but comes as part of some electronic toy, gadget or tool, like you've probably seen them : cameras, scanners, tablets... of course, the trick is to find such a gadget that doesn't add significantly to the overall cost. And that's where Purplus comes in, as it's bundled with a very cheap mini camera. You don't want the camera, trust me, but the software that comes with it is a bargain.

In the US I think PS Elements retails around $80 to $90 though I've seen it for $69 or so at discount retail chains like CostCo/PriceClub. This alternative at Purplus gets it to you legitimately for around $40 to $45.

My latest tutorial on using PD Particles with PS Elements and other tools is at http://www.thebest3d.com/pdp/tutorials/first-steps/index4.html


That said, to also answer the original question, you might find Artweaver of interest, http://www.artweaver.de - a freeware from a German developer - and very well done indeed.

and of course Project Dogwaffle, if you want to also branch into more painting, and animation. www.thebest3d.com/dogwaffle - there's a freeware version too

I have a few others listed here:
www.thebest3d.com/dogwaffle/links
(look there for other paint programs).





traveler98 -> RE: What shall I use for web graphics editing? (8/10/2006 18:06:00)

I use Photoshop and Image Ready which comes with Photoshop. As Jaybee mentioned each has limitations, but together very powerful. Photoshop does take quite some time to learn, and would highly recommend a course or if you can learn software froma book, there is a photoshop for web design book that is very very good.



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