Adobe has been the leading software manufacturer for Graphic Design programs for more than a decade. If you are serious about becoming a Graphic Designer, then you need to purchase these programs in order to move forward.
When I started using these programs I was using Adobe Photoshop 7 and Adobe Illustrator 10, and at the time they were still so advanced it would blow your socks off the first time using it. Nowadays you hear the term Adobe CS….2,3,4, and now version 5.
CS stands for Creative Suite and the suite basically means your going to receive a bunch of important programs rather than one. Adobe CS5 is the current more up-to-date software bundle.
There are two different design bundles, the Adobe Design STANDARD and the Adobe Design PREMIUM.
In this article we will speak about the Adobe Design Standard. Here is what’s included in this package:
Adobe Acrobat
This program is also referred to as Adobe Professional. The main purpose of this program is to work with PDF’s. PDF or (Portable Document Format) is a universal type of file that can be opened on any type of computer. When it comes to Graphic Design, it is imperative to have Acrobat Professional for many reasons. If you are designing anything that will be sent to a printer, you need Adobe Acrobat Professional to distill and create correct PDF’s. Sure, there are many ways of creating a PDF file simply by printing to a PDF or using another PDF program, BUT if you want this done with no issues and you are already using Adobe for your layout, then make sure your keeping it in the same family of programs. When you save a PDF through Acrobat it will Distill (compress correctly, embed images, fonts, etc..) and make your printer very happy 🙂 You can also do some advanced editing of your PDF’s through Acrobat Professional and I will speak about that more in the future.
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator is a vector based program used for all types of Design. Many of the tutorials on this site will be for this program because it is very important when it comes to layout design. The term “Vector” really means a set of points, lines, curves and shapes that make up a layout. The coolest thing about a vector image is that you can draw a tiny illustration and blow it up to whatever size you want and it will still not get distorted. When creating a layout like a business card for example, you could have vector graphics and raster graphics. Many cartoonists use this program for the simplicity of creating these vector shapes. This program is a must if you plan on Designing Creative advertising.
Adobe Photoshop
Have you ever heard the term “photoshopped” or for example, someone looking at the UFO on television and saying “that looks photoshopped”. Well this is the program they are speaking of. I remember the very first project I ever worked with in my first design class was taking a car out of one driveway, changing the color of it, and then placing it in another driveway. That is Awesome!! Adobe Photoshop is a raster based program used for layout design and photo enhancing. Raster means pixels. When you enlarge or compress pixels, like blowing up a photograph, it will get distorted and blurry. Photoshop is one of the programs that photographers use to color correct their photos, crop and create all types of cool effects. Graphic Designer can use Adobe Photoshop in a number of way to enhance their own layouts.
I will go in-depth in the tutorials to show you how Adobe Photoshop works in conjunction with Adobe Illustrator and then you will learn how to turn your artwork into beautiful, and readable PDF’s for print. Like anything else, this field is one step at a time and anyone can learn it. The possibilities of personal use and gain and endless.
