Chris and Keith could you please clarify your reasons for me. Photoshop has numerous tutorials online for graphic projects which I have used myself even though I am working with PSP.

Then there is this Gentleman who used nothing but Photoshop and Illustrator to create this project.

http://www.bertmonroy.com/fineart/te...eart_damen.htm

The bottom line for me is, I am not going to spend that kind of money if it only relates to photo editing.

My reason is summed up in just one word. Scalability.

The advantage of using a "proper" vector tool is the fact that you can work at a much larger scale for creating the graphic. You can then resize the final work up or down without the extrapolation (colour dithering or "jaggy" lines) problems that are often evident when scaling up raster or bitmap formats.

It really is "horses for courses"

Originally Posted by Giselle

The bottom line for me is, I am not going to spend that kind of money if it only relates to photo editing.

GIMP (Bitmap) and Inkscape (Vector) are both open source and free, and both are very worthy challengers when pitted against the Adobe heavyweights.

I haven't upgraded my Adobe versions since Ver10 of illustrator and Ver 7 of photoshop and quite honestly haven't missed anything.

Ok Chris, I think I am getting the gist of this, vector drawing. And you are right, you can make the drawing as big or small without losing the crispness of the drawing, the color and the jagged lines. I appreciate you explaining your feelings on the softwares.

Ultimately any real designer uses a combination of programs . However photoshop does suffice for online/web work. And illustator ( vector based program) is best for print. Alot of design works gets filtered through both back and fourth for certain effects. So yes and no .Its a great tool along side other programs though and i would be poor without it lol

Different strokes for different folks, I guess. Some designers are very comfortable with Photoshop while other find Corel and other design programs more apt for them. I personally prefer Photoshop because I've been using it for a fair amount of time now.

Yes to me Graphic Design means making posters and brochures and magazine pages.
Photoshop as far as I know is really good at editing photos and making buttons etc.

Well, i use Photoshop. I used to use GIMP. It's a good alternative, but Photoshop is alot better. I never used Paint Shop so i can't say if it's as good as Photoshop.

I`m sure I'm in the minority but my graphics program
of choice is Fireworks. It just makes sense to
my brain. Plus it was the first graphics program
I learned so I have a warm fuzzy feeling about it.

For some things though, only PhotoShop will do.

I think a good craftsman always chooses
the best tool for the job.
But if all you know how to use is a hammer,
everything looks like a nail.

..its one of the best software to use