HELLLP!! Need recommendation for Graphics Program

HELLLP!! Need recommendation for Graphics Program (Full Version)

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shearne -> HELLLP!! Need recommendation for Graphics Program (2/15/2002 17:30:11)
Hi All, I need to get some type of a graphics program to design banner ads for some web advertising I'm going to be doing. I also need it for designing my logos and doing flyers for my business. I need help picking out the best/most affordable program. I've been looking for a while and I'm pretty confused. I have photoshop and, frankly, don't like it because it's soo hard to learn. Also, It seems that it is mainly for touching up photos, etc. Could you guys let me know what you'd recommend for cost and ease of use. Thanks. Scott

nowlkldy -> RE: HELLLP!! Need recommendation for Graphics Program (2/15/2002 17:42:49)
Hi Scott, I've made some nice banners with Microsoft's Photo Draw 2. A lot of people don't think much of it but it's really a good program. Another one is Jasc Paint Shop Pro7. The learning curve is less than with Photoshop but still kinda steep. The nice thing about it is you can download a 30 day trial at www.jasc.com Ulead's Photo Impact 6 is another neat program and I think they offer a free trial also. www.ulead.com Dave _________________________ There they go and I must follow after them for I am their leader

Paula -> RE: HELLLP!! Need recommendation for Graphics Program (2/15/2002 20:47:07)
This post is timely for me. I'm hopelessly bad at graphics, although I've learned a lot playing around with Image Composer, it gives me fits with getting things to look the same on my web page as it does in Image Composer (custom palettes, compression.) I just can't get the hang of PhotoShop at all. Does anybody here use NetStudio? or know anything about it. www.netstudio.com Paula The more I learn the less I seem to know. Edited by - Paula on 02/15/2002 20:48:57

Richard Sterling -> RE: HELLLP!! Need recommendation for Graphics Program (2/15/2002 21:15:33)
I have an earlier version of Netstudio. It looks all nice and pretty and plenty of nice templates to work with, but what I have is so buggy and the support so pathetic I quit using it a long time ago. And the FrontPage integration was just a joke. Maybe the new version is better. I would recomend reading everything you can about it in their online support before spending any money on it. They use to have a support forum that they would ignore problems and say "it will be addressed in a future update". I highly recomend Fireworks. " as God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."

garyb -> RE: HELLLP!! Need recommendation for Graphics Program (2/15/2002 22:37:54)
Well, Fireworks is really great for web work but you can only create jpgs, pngs and gifs. You need a program that can create tifs and eps if you are going to have print work done. No question photoshop is complex but since I use it everyday, I find it exceptional in most every way. However, I don't think I'd say to get it, (way to expensive and tough to learn). Since you are going to do both print and web, I would suggest you consider Coreldraws package. It comes with Coreldraw which allows you to create outstanding logos etc as vector images. You can export them as tifs, jpgs, and what ever else you want. You can send draw files to printers who nearly all will except them as electronic files. The package also comes with Photopaint, which is like photoshop only somewhat simpler. Finally, they have packages Corel Rave which is their version of flash. It allows you to create flash files etc. All this for a very low price (Around 250 I think). Gary Ready Page Graphic Design www.ready-page.com

PBailey -> RE: HELLLP!! Need recommendation for Graphics Program (2/16/2002 4:18:41)
Scott, As you can see from the replies there are a lot of good programs out there. I have used several over the years. I'm now using Paint Shop Pro7. It is a very flexible program. Also has good vector tools. It includes a lot of automatic controls for the beginner and complete control for the experienced graphic designer. There is somewhat of a learning curve but it comes with a good manual and better yet, there are lots of tutorials on the web including on the JASC website. Flattens out the learning curve quite a bit. I'd suggest you download the 30 day trial and then hit the tutorials and see what you think. I'd also suggest downloading the other mentioned programs and give them a shot on the free trial. Everyone has their favorite. If you decide to try the PSP7 and want some links to tutorials just let me know. I'll send them out to you. Hey Dave, I did my first website with Photodraw. I realized the other day that it was still sitting on the server so I went out and looked at it. Guess what....it didn't look half bad. Paula

Rangler -> RE: HELLLP!! Need recommendation for Graphics Program (2/16/2002 18:06:20)
I use Paint Shop Pro 7 for detailed work. Used all the versions for awhile and they have a great support group at http://www.pspug.org. If you want a simple program to create buttons and banners, go to http://www.interkodex.com and get Button Studio. Works great and the the shareware version is free. Rangler Used up all my bad days, and U?

ardesigns -> RE: HELLLP!! Need recommendation for Graphics Program (2/16/2002 21:06:01)
When I first started creating banners I used MS Image Composer then CorelDraw but Adobe ImageReady is the best and keeps the size of the animation very small. Angela A&R Designs http://www.ardesigns.com

Bill Seper -> RE: HELLLP!! Need recommendation for Graphics Program (2/17/2002 14:25:52)
"Ulead's Photo Impact 6 is another neat program and I think they offer a free trial also. I was fortunate enough to get this thrown in free with my last scanner or printer I think. It's great for banners, buttons, line seperators and will do java rollover buttons too (although I don't care for that kind of thing too much.) It has some very good special effects too and works in a huge variety of formats. It has good jpg/gif compression too but I've found that Image Composer can't open them for some reason so I use Image composer for compression and a few other things. Hey Richard, that was my favorite all-time WKRP episode! *********** Moo Baby!

preludeok95 -> RE: HELLLP!! Need recommendation for Graphics Program (2/18/2002 0:27:18)
Have used Ulead for most things. I just got the PhotoImpact 7 however, with "bonus content". Can't install the software at all, and their website says technical support is on holiday for Chinese New Year. As Bill said..it came with the scanner. I confess to not being intuitive enough to figure out Image Composer and PhotoShop. Would love to have a better understanding of layers and sprites. I just figured this out.

Bluey Zee -> RE: HELLLP!! Need recommendation for Graphics Program (2/18/2002 5:25:43)
Not having a graphic bone in my body, I found Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro a bit daunting but then I took the time to read up on PSP, found some good tutorials (the PSP User Group at [url]www.pspug.org/newindex.shtml[/url] has some excellent ones) and life's sweet. I did try Image Composer after Katherine so kindly fixed a graphic for me but for sheer power and lots of readily available support, PSP7 is my pick. Cheers

imouthere -> RE: HELLLP!! Need recommendation for Graphics Program (2/18/2002 9:05:51)
Ill admit that Photoshop and ImageReady do have a bit of a learning curve. But there are tonsof tutorials on the web on how to use them profeciently. If you ask me it was well worth learning. They are incredably powerful programs for creating graphics for the web. Scott

Bill Seper -> RE: HELLLP!! Need recommendation for Graphics Program (2/18/2002 9:50:18)
Patty, mine's a little older--PhtoImpact Bundled Edition 5.0 Guess I won't bother with the upgrade then. *********** Moo Baby!

shearne -> RE: HELLLP!! Need recommendation for Graphics Program (2/18/2002 10:11:58)
Thanks everybody for taking the time to respond to my post. You guys helped me a lot. Scott

Jego -> RE: HELLLP!! Need recommendation for Graphics Program (2/19/2002 1:32:44)
Now, DO tell us what you went with?? Jego "Also Looking For Alternatives But Had a Nasty Grey Matter Experience with PSP and Am Now Cowering with Indecision"

MauraLouBob -> RE: HELLLP!! Need recommendation for Graphics Program (2/19/2002 16:26:25)
If it's not too late....I just purchased Paint Shop Pro 7. I'm liking it quite a bit, though it is a challenge for me sometimes. Amazingly enough, I find if I actually READ the book (And it's a big one!) that came with it, I can get exactly what I want to do, done. I checked it out at the Jasc site and saw that it was $109. (I was not rebate qualified as I was not upgrading from any other program) But check it out -- I found it at Costco for 79.99 and it came with a Costco rebate of 20.00. So I ended up paying 59.99. Much better than $109! Maura

Bill Nicol -> RE: HELLLP!! Need recommendation for Graphics Program (2/19/2002 16:36:06)
Pretty hard to argue with $59. I've got photodraw and MSIC. Can't say I can do much with either, but Katherine has bailed me out a few times. Trouble is I don't get enough time to really use any of these products so when I get into them, I want to get what I want to get done, ...done. PSP, you say, is pretty intuitive? Or was that just because the book is pretty comprehensive? Bìλλ Ñìçøλ

PBailey -> RE: HELLLP!! Need recommendation for Graphics Program (2/19/2002 18:16:11)
Bill, I think whether PSP is intuitive or not depends how far you plan to go with image editing. There are lots of auto controls so you can pretty much get the images looking better and compressed without understanding much about the process. If you want to go into more depth (like masking) the manual will come in handy. I actually use the tutorials on the web more then the manual if I am trying to do something new. They generally make it a snap. When I decided it was time to learn what masking was all about even the manual confused me (not difficult to do ) but the after stepping through the tutorials it was easy. Paula

mflynn -> RE: HELLLP!! Need recommendation for Graphics Program (2/20/2002 10:39:56)
You can't beat the PhotoShop - Image Ready combination. Obviouly my personal opinion. It does take some time to learn, but it has a lot of advantages. One nice trick is to design at printing resolutions, so you can use your logo on your letterhead etc. Then use "Save For Web" to go to Image Ready. There are a lot of design functions in PhotoShop, "layer style" is outstanding. I took a one day seminar that help me use the program a lot more comfortably, and showed me some very useful tricks. Take a look at www.tsiyes.com, and yes, I did use a lot of photos: but the graphics are also PhotoShop creations. Mark flynn<BR>mflynn@mineun.com<BR>www.mineun.com

Radio Guy -> RE: HELLLP!! Need recommendation for Graphics Program (2/23/2002 9:46:44)
Well, here I go again with a late reply. Gotta start taking more Gingko-Biloab or something. I just wrote on another thread that I like Adobe Photoshop Elements. I didn't find it to be as difficult to learn as some of the other Adobe products, and it's fun to experiment with banner graphics and text. I guess I'm gonna have to try PSP7 simply because so many of you seem to like it so much! #1 Country Song with a bullet: "I Remember the Name 'Cause It Used to Be Mine, But I Just Can't Place the Face"

Radio Guy -> RE: HELLLP!! Need recommendation for Graphics Program (2/23/2002 9:48:48)
Biloab? What the heck is Biloab? did I mean Gingko-Biloba? Where am I? What day is this? #1 Country Song with a bullet: "I Remember the Name 'Cause It Used to Be Mine, But I Just Can't Place the Face"

The Vampmaster -> RE: HELLLP!! Need recommendation for Graphics Program (3/3/2002 2:13:53)
Certainly all of you answered the best. Bottom Line. For doing banners, and only that you should go with swish, since it is easier to use than flash and a less learning curve. For doing web graphics, I must convey that Fireworks 4 is the best, and you can export your work to SWISH or FLASH. Three. If you want a suite, buy either the flash 5 suite, or the Coreldraw suite, since it will take care of vectors (coreldraw) bitmaps (corel photopaint) fonts (corel font) textures (coreltexture) will convert bitmaps to vectors (corel trace) capture computer screens (corelcapture) manage fonts (corel fontstream) and make Flash tipe graphics (RAVE), and if you find a guy with a corel 8 you can also install Corel 3D, and end up with everithing in a single package. The Vampmaster The Vampmaster

godshall2 -> RE: HELLLP!! Need recommendation for Graphics Program (3/4/2002 16:57:46)
Hi Scott, Held off for weeks on this thread because I was interested in everyone's opinions as my site is FP and Photoshop related. I've always thought of design programs much like a mechanic's tools. If your just working on the car around the house you could probably get away with a Wal-Mart set of tools. If you intend to work on other's cars for a living, you may want to purchase Snap-on or Craftsman... You can probably see where I"m going here. If you intend to design for a living you'd be well served getting familiar with Adobe products, especially Photoshop. They've always been the best and they always will be. The one thing I don't see many talk about is the integration aspect of Adobe products. Not only do they work hand in hand with each other but if you learn one, the learning curve dramatically decreases for the others. Adobe is very good about keeping familiarity across the board. Anyway, there's my 2 cents... Good luck with PSP.. I know its very popular and sufficient:) Troy \| www.aplustemplates.com

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