Graphic Design
Photoshop and Illustrator are two of Adobe‘s massively popular graphics programs. If you’re working on a new project, you might have a hard time figuring out which of the two programs will work best for you, since on the surface they seem so similar. Although we will not be using photoshop and illustrator, we will be using two of the closest Open Source or software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified available For Photoshop we will be using Gimp and for Illustrator we will be using Inkscape. You may wonder what the difference is. Here are some of the main differences between Photoshop and Illustrator.
Adobe Photoshop & GimpPrograms like Adobe Photoshop and Gimp are great for modifying already created images or graphics, like photos, and Photoshop is Adobe’s most popular program. Raster or bitmap graphics are created in Photoshop. These graphics can sometimes look a little jagged since raster images are made up of individual colored squares, known as pixels.
Everything in Photoshop and Gimp are just a series of pixels, so if you’re scaling something up or down, it can lose its quality very quickly. Photoshop and Gimp are popular choices for web graphics, photo editing and designs since those projects will stay at a fixed size. Editing photos is awesome in them, because they include a lot of unique filters, special effects and tools. Another great benefit of Photoshop and gimp is that you can have complete control of your projects, since you can edit your graphic pixel-by-pixel. |
The BasicsText Effects
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Adobe Illustrator & Inkscape
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Adobe Illustrator and Inscape are advanced vector-based software. So, unlike Photoshop and Gimp's pixel-based format, it uses mathematical constructs to create vector graphics. In Illustrator and Inkscpae, a line is composed of two dots connected by a computer algorithm, instead of just a line of pixels. Because of this, these programs are used often to create logos or anything that may need to be printed or displayed at different sizes. A vector graphic will never lose its quality if it’s scaled up or down.
Illustrator and Inkscpae will also give you a better print output since they're not resolution dependent. A drawback of programs like these are that they can’t be used easily to modify images that are already created, since there are limited filters and image editing tools available to you. |
Icons using Vector Graphics
TextDrawingOther |
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Unit Wrap-Up
You’ll come to find that some people just prefer to use one software over another, but sometimes it’s best to use programs like Photoshop and Illustrator together. For example, you may need to add some text to an image you need to edit. Maybe you need to add a watermark to a photo for your blog or over an image for your portfolio. It’s best not to add any text to an image in Photoshop since it can distort, so transferring the edited photo to Illustrator and then adding the text there will give you the best result. One is definitely not better than the other, they’re just different. Understanding the basic differences between programs like Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator will help you make the decision about which software is best for your next project.
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MakerSpace Connection
![Picture](/uploads/1/3/7/4/13743894/screen-shot-2016-09-21-at-8-28-22-pm.png?316)
Now use your Graphic Design skills in the M@H MakerLab.
Some cool tools to try are:
- Silhouette Cutter
- Embroidery
- WaterColor Bot (Can be pencil too)
- Laser Cutter (High School Access)
Some cool tools to try are:
- Silhouette Cutter
- Embroidery
- WaterColor Bot (Can be pencil too)
- Laser Cutter (High School Access)