Hi all. I’m new here and relatively new to web design and am now looking to take my skills onto a new level.
As a budding new web designer, I’m now considering which software is best. My assumption was that I’d have to go with Adobe. However, after reading a few comments on here, there are some who consider it to be too expensive given that there are other options out there which could also be better.
I was hoping for advice from experienced people who could let me know if you think Adobe is the way to go or recommend any other software.
If you are looking for inexpensive alternatives to Adobe, there are numerous open source applications that fit the bill. For example, GIMP is a great substitute for Photoshop and Inkscape is a good substitute for Illustrator.
For Web Design there are hundreds of tools that you can use beside Adobe products, both free/open source and commercial. I recommend doing a Google search and seeing what your different options are. Also Wikipedia has numerous articles on commercial and free/open source software that show comparisons between the two.
For web design there is really no standard software that everyone uses. Also, for web design I have found that even though Adobe’s web toolset is quite extensive, there are numerous alternatives to the Adobe software options.
you can get great results with gimp, scribus and inkscape, but when you have enough commissions to keep you occupied all day, the adobe suit is a productivity booster.
Having used both extensively, I am planning to buy adobe photoshop as soon as I can afford to. Gimp is photoshop’s little sister, smart, cute even, but has some growing up to do, layer grouping, effect layers, HDR capabilities, LAB color mode and CMYK color mode are what I need.
As for scribus -lacking pdf import aside- it is my dtp package of choice and I am not so sure I would trade it for indesign, mainly for scribus excellent pdf output and scripting abilities.
And as for as inkscape/illustrator is concerned, I am not a heavy vector graphics illustrator, so for me it is fine.
I know adobe gives off that heavy microsoft/autodesk stink, but photoshop is the genuine article, after effects is pretty neat too.
If you are interested in vector drawing programs, consider Xara. Its screen drawing engine runs circles around every vector program. Also, they have open source iteration for linux users.
EDIT: Major plus! Very cheap compared to competition, but it has all the bells and whistles including multi-page documents, very good pdf export, some bitmap editind capabilities etc. etc.
I’ve used CorelDRAW Graphics Suite for many years now, including illustration, web-design as well as a texturing and post-pro companion to Blender. Costs one third of Adobe, and has very good pro features. For vector-based editing Corel Draw is the best I’ve used, I can recommend it.
Try the “Save for Web” plugin for Gimp, that’s probably the one missing feature from Gimp that would be super useful to you. Inkscape is nice as well for layouts. Google “960 grid” it has support for both inkscape and Gimp. I guess kompozer can be useful, I haven’t really gotten the hang of it.
If you are just starting out save money on software until you think you are really into it.
Also:
layer grouping, effect layers, HDR capabilities, LAB color mode and CMYK color mode are what I need.
You don’t need this for web design, so don’t let that put you off.
I have to agree that while there are many great alternatives to adobe products Adobe is the best of the best when it come to the software they create, in my opinion. So if you have the funds to do so I would say go with Adobe.
Hmmm layer grouping and effects layers (as most off the layer features) is really something that I heavilly use for webdesign. Yes it isnt needed but having them makes your life a lot more easier and improves your workflow dramatically…
I always worked as a employee in that field but if I would start my own company I wouldnt hesistate as those licenses pay themself back…
Depends on exactly how far you want to play with images & what OS you’re running, honestly.
If you are doing simple stuff, such as copy/paste/transform, the occasional filter, lining up some text with clip-art, basic painting, etc. GIMP is a good tool for the price You can do some amazing things with GIMP, given the time, but there are a few gotchas you need to know about:
It not only is limited to saving in 8bits/channel, but the internal format is also limited to this resolution. Whenever you touch-up, filter, blur, etc an image - you lose some information. With only 8 bits/channel, GIMP starts losing visible information quicker than other 16/32 bit/channel image editors. May not be important for basic web-work, but it does for more advanced stuff
GIMP’s operation on Mac OSX blows big-time. I have all three “major” operating systems (Linux, Mac OSX, & Windows) and use(d) GIMP on all three. Linux & Windows operation, whilst as clunky as GIMP can sometimes be, were reasonable and usable. On OSX though, it is pretty damned bad to use. Not crashy, but button pressing required a click to activate the toolbar than another to activate the button under the mouse (i.e. had to double-click just to select the damned lasso tool!). This & a few other “features” of the OSX version of X Windows turned me right off GIMP on the Mac.
Features taken for granted by digital artists five/ten years ago are still not in the GIMP. Again, not a major problem if you’re only doing the basics, but for someone trying to make a living using it, the speed bonus you get from other commercial variants more than pay for themselves in a week or two.
Honestly, the thing that made me change to Adobe (after years of using only the GIMP & Inkscape) was the woeful OSX support. Whilst I was just playing around with graphics, doing the basics on Windows & Linux - I could grit my teeth and move through minor annoyances of GIMP. Part of what you bargain for (generally) when using free/open source software. However, once I started having to use software on the MacBook regularly - the GIMP just had to be replaced. The ease of use & added features (given I am now doing alot more digital art than I used to be) of Adobe paid for itself in speed & decreased frustration.
Sadly, so far, Adobe is the only commercial software I had to license for my projects. I had my heart set on putting out my game developed in free software alone, but GIMP proved too difficult to make this possible.
I wouldn’t be forking out money for photoshop until you actually run into something you can’t do with gimp/free alternative. Especially if you’re new. You may find out that you really don’t like web design or that you’re not particularly good at it.
For my website, which admittedly looks aweful, I used kompozer to get the general layout and then i use a bit of python to insert each page’s custom content into the template that i made with kompozer. Occassionally i also use kompozer to quickly insert a table into the content. After that the python script takes over again and copies the files over to the host.
You can do some amazing things with GIMP, given the time, but there are a few gotchas you need to know about: