The difference between Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop

[VT Rivs]

I am familiar with adobe Photoshop, do I need to learn adobe Illustrator? Are there any advantages does Illustrator over photoshop?

[Toon]

Illustrator is a must if you're doing logo design or any vector work

[Mon Paningbatan]

Adobe Illustrator is commonly used for vector graphics or otherwise known as line art. Whereas, Adobe Photoshop is used on raster files or better known as image files. Vector graphics produces sharper pixels and are light weight in file size. In this manner, when resizing Illustrator or vector graphics, the sharpness of the line is consistent compared to raster files. Try to experiment by resizing some logos in Illustrator and Photoshop and you'd amazingly find this out for yourself. :D

[Manas]

Well i guess....illustrator is a must if u're gonna learn vectors...and nowadays vectors have become a very widely used format..thanks to their powers........apart from that..both PS and illustrator are almost similar interface and their behavior...

[Josh Cagwin]

If you are serious about being a designer than learning both is a must. Many advantages to knowing both programs. :)

[TheUndisputed]

I have been working with the adobe platform for 10 years now, and can tell you that it is not a necessity to learn both. However, it is a heavy recommendation to do so. Photoshop is a versatile platform that allows you to perform several different types of graphic design techniques all in the same platform. One of these techniques is vectoring.

To better understand why there is a need for both, you have to understand vectors, and what they are. Vector graphics is the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygon(s), which are all based upon mathematical equations, to represent images in computer graphics. These graphics can be scaled to any size, and mathematically will preserve the rastered edges of the image extraction.

Illustrator is a platform introduced by Adobe that specializes in graphic creation, & editing. So, is it a must? No. Creating and editing graphics is possible in photoshop, and generally your result will not vary from photoshop to illustrator. HOWEVER, illustrator's tools palette is designed specifically for vector images, and makes creating and editing vector art much less time consuming and simplistic.

I would highly recommend that you learn both platforms.

[Claire Dekens]

It depends on what you are designing. For logo design, it's better to use illustrator. I don't know the right word in English, but a design in illustrator is in fact a mathematical formula. Your design can be zoomed out endlessly without loosing any quality. A design in photoshop at the other hand is build up by pixles and is limited when you need a larger image. The dpi must stay at the right value. (72 for weg, 300 for printing)

[Matthew Wilson]

My feeling is that Photoshop is a great tool for projects that require many options for layering, filters and masking, etc... of raster imagery. You also have many different styles, actions, and color management options you can utilize for different effects. It is only one tool, however.

Learning Illustrator will give you the ability to create your own vector based graphics with a UI similar to that of Photoshop, but with filters, actions an styles more geared toward the tools provided within Illustrator.

Photoshop does offer a few Illustration type tools, but they don't have the same functionality or power as what is offered in Illustrator. I rarely find myself using one without the other.

Once you've gotten comfortable using the tools of Illustrator, I'm sure you'll wonder how you ever got by without it.

[Image Maker Graphics]

These two types of artwork are very different in the way they are created and stored.

Vector Artwork

For instance, vector artwork is made up of a group of instructions describing how your artwork should be "drawn" by the computer. It can generally be scaled to any size without resulting in a loss of quality. Some programs which create and save their artwork in this fashion are: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Quark Xpress, Macromedia FreeHand, CorelDraw

Raster Artwork

Raster artwork, on the other hand, is made up of "pixels" (picture elements), or dots, which together form a picture of your artwork. If you examine something which has been printed out from a computer printer, you will notice that it is made up of tiny dots. Raster artwork cannot be scaled without losing some quality. Adobe Photoshop is an example of a program which creates and outputs its artwork as raster images.
Learn Illustrator or one of the other vector programs - Why Not?

Good Luck
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