Why illustrator over photoshop

Big pain in the butt, right?? I prefer Illustrator because it primarily works in vector format, whereas Photoshop primarily works in raster. Therefore, Illustrator is ideal for creating both print and web graphics whereas Photoshop is really only good for designing for the web.

Illustrator is also one of the preferred programs for print design. Because print design requires a higher resolution that web design, Illustrator is a go-to because of it's ability to design in vector. Print design also requires adding bleeds, or extra room on all four sides of your graphic that any excess color or imagery bleeds off onto.

This extra padding will be cut off in the production of the project to ensure a clean cut, eliminating any white slivers of unprinted paper on the edges of your project.

From the outside, it can be difficult to truly see why Adobe maintains two different programs that look so similar. A digital photo or video file is composed of thousands of tiny pixels, each assigned a different color. Thousands or even millions of those pixels are arranged to form a complete photograph.

When you zoom in extremely close, you can see that these pixels are simply colored squares in a grid, kind of like this:. More pixels mean higher image quality, and it also lets the image be displayed on a larger screen. While you can theoretically increase the number of pixels in your canvas as much as you want, doing so burdens your computer considerably. The processing power required to run Photoshop on a massive multi-million-pixel canvas would crash even a high-end PC.

So, instead of telling the program to change the color of a series of pixels, you are giving it a mathematical equation it uses to draw a line for you. Vector-based images are perfect for applications where the image will be used in different places and displayed at different sizes. So, we know the basic differences between Photoshop and Illustrator, but only on a technical level.

In the real world, though, it can be tough to know which program is better for different uses. Professional graphic designers work with promotional materials, branding materials, and advertising materials to shape the visual identity of brands and companies. They use Illustrator, Photoshop, and other creative software programs to do their jobs.

We mention this because it would be misleading to say that Illustrator is the only program a graphic designer needs. Editing photos is much different than graphic design or illustration. Photoshop is raster-based and uses pixels to create images. Photoshop is designed for editing and creating photos or raster-based art. When the program was developed it was for photographers, but over time the program has grown to help all kinds of artists to do many different kinds of work.

Now Photoshop is known to create interface designs, web pages, banner ads, video graphics, and the original use of editing and creating images for print. Photoshop is known to be able to do so much and be so easy to learn that it is looked at as a one stop shop, but Photoshop is not the best program for all types of artwork and design. Illustrator works off vectors, these are points used to create perfectly smooth lines. This program is for creating and editing vector-based work such as graphics, logos, and other design elements.

Vectors are scalable images that can be sized as small or as large are you need them to be, but look the same when it comes to clarity and resolution. Illustrator is not ideal for creating multi-page documents and using the program this way would create some drawbacks.

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