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shearne
Posts: 5
Joined: 2/9/2002
From: Austin TX USA
Status: offline
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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
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nowlkldy
Posts: 1393
From: Topeka, Kansas
Status: offline
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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
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Paula
Posts: 394
From: Morrow, Georgia, USA
Status: offline
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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
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Richard Sterling
Posts: 314
From: Cincinatti Ohio West Point, Nebraska USS
Status: offline
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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."
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garyb
Posts: 208
From: North Clarendon Vermont USA
Status: offline
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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
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Rangler
Posts: 294
From: Akron, Ohio
Status: offline
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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?
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ardesigns
Posts: 21
From: Burke, VA US
Status: offline
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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
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Bill Seper
Posts: 416
From: USA
Status: offline
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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!
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preludeok95
Posts: 1469
Joined: 12/4/2001
From: Tulsa OK USA
Status: offline
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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.
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Bluey Zee
Posts: 105
From: Rutherglen Vic Australia
Status: offline
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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
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imouthere
Posts: 401
Joined: 1/23/2002
From: Greenville NC USA
Status: offline
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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
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Bill Seper
Posts: 416
From: USA
Status: offline
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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!
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shearne
Posts: 5
Joined: 2/9/2002
From: Austin TX USA
Status: offline
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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
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Jego
Posts: 551
From: Near Brampton, Ontario, Canada
Status: offline
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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"
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MauraLouBob
Posts: 27
Joined: 12/16/2001
From: Pinehurst California USA
Status: offline
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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
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Bill Nicol
Posts: 1445
From: Springfield IL USA
Status: offline
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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
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mflynn
Posts: 32
From: West Grove PA USA
Status: offline
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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
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Radio Guy
Posts: 251
Joined: 12/7/2001
From: Vidalia Louisiana USA
Status: offline
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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"
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Radio Guy
Posts: 251
Joined: 12/7/2001
From: Vidalia Louisiana USA
Status: offline
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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"
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The Vampmaster
Posts: 31
From: Villa de las Flores Estado de Mexico Mexico
Status: offline
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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
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godshall2
Posts: 370
From: Telford PA USA
Status: offline
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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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