What shall I use for web graphics editing?

tanya004

Hi Everybody!
We'd like to open a new department for web site design, but I know nothing about PRO graphics software. Can you tell me what software to choose and what it will cost me?
Thanks in advance for your help!

Astaroth

What sort of business are you? Do you have any existing software? Who are your designers - new employees or existing staff?

If it is internal staff then find out which packages they use already and go for that - easier than retraining people on new packages.

Most common ones would be Macromedia Fireworks & Adobe Photoshop for "pro's". Paintshop Pro for "semi-pro" and GIMP (freeware) for Linux fans or open source devotees

You can do a google on the prices for the software as it depends on what level of volume licencing you are going to be doing.

wolfman

Depends upon how advanced you want to go.

Designers here use Adobe Photoshop. It's around £600 per license. It's basically the industry standard, very powerful. Unless you have someone proficient in Photoshop it may be a waste of money. Fireworks is another decent application worth looking at, we don't use it much here though.

For your average web designer, if they're not doing hugely advanced graphics, then a free application called The Gimp is more than capable.

Basically depends upon what your needs are (and how big your budget). In our tech team here we do you Photoshop, but only to cut up PSD's (image files) etc... nothing complex so it's partly wasted on us.

Dead_Eye_Jones

start with free software, you'll only need to think about upgrading when you find it doesnt meet your needs. Photoshop is a real beast and can be overcomplicated for simple tasks.

As above, gimp it up all the way... !

espresso

:think:

Except that if you are going to advertise for professional designers, they will expect you to have the industry standard packages like Adobe Photoshop and Macromedia Flash that they are used to using.

:wave:

wolfman

espresso wrote:

Except that if you are going to advertise for professional designers, they will expect you to have the industry standard packages like Adobe Photoshop and Macromedia Flash that they are used to using.

I dunno, I guess it depends. I reckon in some circumstances it's more of case of getting the job done. If you can use something like Gimp and still produce professional graphics then I don't think it matters.

As an example I do work for companies such as Microsoft, Intel, Natwest, Unilever and they don't care what we use, as long as we finish the job to the standard they want.

Photoshop is certainly handy though, in the sense that a lot of developers know how to use it, and PSD's are a very versatile format. You really need to go into more detail as to what kind of sites you'll be doing, who for etc..., who you'll be employing... If they are highly graphical sites, or flash sites then something like Photoshop would be preferable.

Quincy_3

I have PSP8 and I can do anything in that just aswell if not easier than Adobe also in conjunction with XaraXtreme they are a couple powerful tools.

Horses for Courses I suppose.

I use them both for home and business use.

Astaroth

I think there is a difference though between a personal home user and the OP who is stating it is for a new department within a company

EvilMonkey

One of the selling points (so it seems to me) of the bigger names is the suites and integration between them.

Fireworks integrates well with Dreamweaver and is really powerful for web specific output.

I still find photoshop more powerful and easier (but to behonest I've known it longer...), and to get the web functionality you need to slip into Imageready a different app. It's easier enough, but provides an extra step than you get in fireworks.

Fairly certain you can get trials of all these apps, so grab them, try them out, see what fits your business?

E.M.

15lsp

if you buy macromedia studio you get everything you need for web design. Flash for animation, dreamweaver for creating web pages and fireworks for image editing. I use photoshop but fireworks does the job too. If you are hiring designers they should be fluent in adobe creative suite and macromedia anyway, if they are not don't give em a job! Giving a test at interview stage is a great idea.

Also Ajax is a new up coming thing for web you should look into that. Thats more for coders.

I think macromedia 8 retails at around £600 depending on mac or pc.

Laura