Photoshop has launched in 1988. It
was originally created as a tool for photographers to edit and manage their
photos - and for many people, this remains its primary use.
Illustrator started its life a
little earlier than Photoshop in 1987 and was primarily created for the
typesetting and logo areas of graphic design. Illustrator is now seen as a tool
for both graphic designers and digital artists to create many different types
of digital products.
But which is better for specific
tasks - and which is better overall? Obviously, the answer will depend on the
specific situation, but here I'll lay out a broad overview of which tool I
think generally works best in which case
1. Which is better for logo design ?
A bitmap graphic created in
Photoshop cannot be resized without pixilation or loss of quality. With that in
mind, using Illustrator means your logo will be a vector object which is not
part of a bitmap. Meaning it can be reshaped and resized while retaining all of
its quality. Photoshop does have a place in logo design but for the most part,
Illustrator should always be your first choice.
Winner : Illustrator
2. Which is better for web design?
For many designers
(including myself) Photoshop is usually the first choice here. As Photoshop
graphics sit on a pixel based bitmap it would seem like the only choice for
designing on screen media.
Winner :photoshop
3. Which tool is better for digital
art?
While Illustrator may seem like the
obvious choice here, it all depends on the type of illustration. Illustrations
usually start their life on paper, the drawings are then scanned and brought
into a graphics program to colour. As mentioned earlier, with Illustrator we
can create clean, extendable graphics, many of which can be easily reused.
Illustrator would be my
recommendation for clean, graphical illustrations. Whereas I would recommend
Photoshop for photo based illustrations that require very thorough detail and
photo manipulation. For many cases, most illustrators would use a mixture of
both, it all depends on what type of illustration you're creating
Winner : draw
4. Which tool is better sketching
and wireframing?
This is the skeleton like blueprint
in which almost all designed entities begin their lives. Usually, a pen and
paper is everyone's starting point but many digital creatives will just jump
into a graphics editing program and start sketching in there.
Effectively you could do this in
either program but for me, Illustrator is a lot quicker and easier to use for
this task. The ability to easily resize, manipulate and reuse elements quickly
is crucial when creating wireframes.
Winner : illustrator
And the overall winner is…
There is no
winner! While I've done my best to metaphorically create a competitive fight
between the two programs, the bottom line is it all depends on what you're
trying to create and how you work.
Having a solid understanding of both Photoshop and
Illustrator is essential for most designers, whether a web designer, graphic
designer, fashion designer, illustrator or any other type of digital creative.
Knowing these programs well is going to ensure you choose the best program for
the task and create the best possible output.
·
Photoshop has launched in 1988. It was
originally created as a tool for photographers to edit and manage their photos
- and for many people, this remains its primary use.
·
Illustrator started its life a little earlier
than Photoshop in 1987 and was primarily created for the typesetting and logo
areas of graphic design. Illustrator is now seen as a tool for both graphic
designers and digital artists to create many different types of digital
products.
·
But which is better for specific tasks - and
which is better overall? Obviously, the answer will depend on the specific
situation, but here I'll lay out a broad overview of which tool I think
generally works best in which case.
