InDesign, Illustrator & Photoshop, which program should you be using?

Here at TPI Solutions Ink we receive all kinds of files to be printed. Sometimes these files have been created using an Adobe program that wasn't the best fit for the job. InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop all have different capabilities to consider when creating a file, and were designed to work together. This blog will illustrate the best way to use these programs to output a print document correctly.

Photoshop

As its name implies, Photoshop is meant to be used when working with photos and/or any raster based artwork. This program lets you manipulate images in a number of ways and has also become popular in the web design world. Some of the best uses for Photoshop include:

• Color correction, retouching & enhancement of photos

• Special effects

• Creation of web & motion graphics

• User interface & mobile design

As far as printing goes, Photoshop should be used to ensure that all the images you want to print are high resolution and use the CMYK color space. It is important to use high resolution images when printing to ensure the best output quality. As far as color goes, images that come from the web or your camera use the RGB color space by default, and usually need to be converted to CMYK. Using the correct color mode ensures that your printed piece will have the most accurate colors possible.

Illustrator

Illustrator is mainly used when working with vector graphics. Unlike raster based artwork, vector illustrations can be scaled to any size without losing any of their resolution or clarity. For this reason, Illustrator is the most popular program used for creating elements like logos that are going to be used in a variety of different circumstances. The most popular uses for Illustrator include:

• Logo, monogram and insignia design

• Vector illustrations

• Non photographic website elements

Vector artwork created in Illustrator is almost always print friendly. You can create vector graphics using CMYK or spot colors, depending on what best fits your needs. Like most Adobe programs, Illustrator allows you to output your vector artwork in a variety of file formats, depending on how it is going to be used.

InDesign

Finally we arrive at InDesign, the layout program that brings everything together. Here you can assemble a layout using your Photoshopped images and illustrated vector graphics along with any text your design needs. InDesign has the most advanced type tools and page management of all the Adobe programs. Some of the best features of InDesign are:

• Multipage document creation (books, brochures etc.)

• Master pages & page numbering options

• Text wrap & other typesetting tools

• File packaging

InDesign is the program we prefer to use here when creating files to print. It allows you to bring different elements together in one space, and gives you the most control over how those elements are arranged. InDesign also allows you to package a file and send it with all of it's information included. For more information about this feature, visit our article about how to preflight and package.

We hope this blog makes it easier for you to determine which program(s) you need to use. Remember, InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop are meant to be used together to create the best output possible. Take some time to play with all 3 to figure out the workflow that's best for you.

Illustrator vs. Photoshop vs. Elements vs. InDesign

Adobe has been offering graphics and desktop publishing software since Illustrator debuted on the Macintosh in 1987. Over the years, the Adobe product line has expanded to include offerings for nearly every aspect of digital and print publishing. Adobe applications provide the capability to create text and graphics for websites, create digital graphics and edit images and photos. Adobe products have become the de facto standard in the publishing industry.

To help ensure users have access to the best tools for the job, Adobe created a package of products called Creative Suite, now referred to as Creative Cloud. These tools provide the most robust solution to each of the different areas involved in comprehensive graphic design. Let’s go over the tools in the suite and discuss what they are and how they differ from one another.

Illustrator

Illustrator is designed to create vector-based graphics such as logos and brand markings that can be easily resized without pixelating or losing their detail. When you need to create dynamic illustrations that might be used in any number of different contexts and locations, Illustrator is the go-to application. However, Illustrator does not lend itself to fully editing photographs or building complete documents.

Photoshop

If you want to edit photos or even build web pages and graphical user interfaces, then Photoshop is the application most suited for you. Photoshop uses raster or pixel-based images, which is great for photos, but not great for logos and other types of graphics that need to be resized. This tool can help you color, sharpen, blur, darken, as well as add and remove image components from any image. But take note, if you’re looking to create projects where you need to organize photos and add content to them, Photoshop is probably not the best tool in the bag. However, Elements is perfect for this task.

Elements

This tool, best when used in conjunction with Photoshop, helps you to format your pictures and into a final product. Elements can combine your photos into collages, calendars, scrapbooks and many other types of projects containing images. It provides effects such as painting directly onto the photograph or manipulating different aspects of the photo, and there are tons of filters that can be applied to fulfill your artistic vision. Even though it is possible to create printed materials with Elements, it isn’t the most powerful tool for printing. InDesign is the printed document application in the Adobe stable of graphics tools.

InDesign

If you need to print books, brochures, pamphlets, business cards or any project that combines blocks of texts with images, InDesign is the Adobe tool best suited for the job. While you can create documents in the other tools, InDesign is designed to keep text clear during printing. It is also geared to work with commercial printers and produce smaller files that can be quickly transferred to network printers. Some of the other tools produce huge files that are harder to work with when creating multi-page documents. InDesign is the tool that you can use to bring everything together after your images or logos have been created and organized with the other tools.

Mastering these very powerful graphics tools from Adobe could prove to be a large task. However, mastering at least one of them could prove to be very beneficial. Graphics design is one of the most sought-after careers in technology today. Knowing how to use one or more of these tools can open great career opportunities.

The best way to learn how to use these tools is to obtain training through a training center like ONLC. Chances are we a have training center near you so why not contact us today and get started on the path towards your new career?

Graphic Design essentials and why we use Illustrator, Indesign & Photoshop

Adobe Illustrator is used for so many different things but mainly to create a variety of digital and print images. Cartoons, charts, diagrams, logos, graphs and general illustrations are just some of the things that you can create within the Illustrator application. Your ability to import photos and use it as a guide to trace and or change is endless, it can be used to change colours, create a sketch-like image, the possibilities are absolutely infinite.

Adobe Illustrator has the ability to place text around curves, this is especially useful for artists creating logos. Illustrator is also used heavily in designing mock-ups which show what the website will look like when it’s completed, and creating icons used within apps or websites.

One of Adobe Illustrators most important features we feel is the quality of artwork created by using Illustrator is the vector based artwork. Illustrator also features a quality that is independent of the resolution at which it is displayed. This means that an image that is created in illustrator can be stretched out or reduced significantly without diminishing any of the image quality. By creating and using vector based artwork, you are able to create something as small as a stamp or as large as a freeway billboard.

Comparing Illustrator to the other platforms is hard, although they can all do similar things, individually they have their special ability.

Now that we have briefly touched on Illustrator, let’s head over to Adobe photoshop and look at that.

Adobe Photoshop is an imaging and graphic design platform that can be used for many different things and for many different reasons all around the world. Photoshop can be used for designing websites, videos editing, editing photos and creating 3D work. Photoshop is a really useful tool when creating basically anything.

Photoshop is an Adobe application that obviously integrates well with Illustrator making things fairly easy and simple to use once you get the hang of it.

Although Adobe Photoshop is compatible with Illustrator, Photoshop is a raster (Raster image is built out of a set number of pixels and will change the quality when resized) image based photo editing platform and thus basically making Photoshop only good at photoshopping, creating animations like GIFS and layering photos.

It is still a key component to a graphic design job but if we were based solely on Photoshop, we most likely would not get too far.

Let’s take a step away from Adobe now and take a look at Indesign. Idesign is a desktop publishing application and it’s primarily used to do layouts, such as newspaper, magazines books, posters flyers or in our case we use it for Instagram layouts. Indesign really kicks everything up a notch, it is great because it is fairly text heavy but allows you to really hit the nail on the head when it comes to mastering page templates. Page designs are instantly unified throughout the entire document, pages are automatically numbered and can easily be repositioned and duplicated. Simply, if what you are creating has text, Indesign can handle it.

Really glad I could touch on all of those things really briefly, because being in graphic design you need to know your way around. WIth years of experience, you learn the hard way how to do things sometimes. So why are Illustrator, Photoshop and Indesign essential to graphic design?

As clearly depicted across all three explanations, not one thing can do it all three. They all are special in their unique way, but all are needed to complete a job. From start to finish no matter what order you need them to be in, they all carry different pieces of the puzzle.

As a web development and design based agency, we heavily lean on all three products to get our jobs done. From Logo design, vector images that can be resized to letterheads, sprawled across websites, to photoshopping images to fit on websites and indesign to web and social media layouts, If you are looking for an agency who has background knowledge and a lot of it to complete a website design or development, AX Digital have 15 years worth of premium experience.

We work on anything from style guides to complete re brands. Send us an email or get in touch via phone, we would love to take on any job you have in mind.