What’s with all of Adobe’s illustration software?

JH
Posted By
Jim_Hubbard
Jun 7, 2007
Views
389
Replies
15
Status
Closed
I don’t get it… Look at the descriptions of 3 of Adobe’s flagship products (as copied from the website)….

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What is Photoshop CS3?

Adobe® Photoshop® CS3 software accelerates your path from imagination to imagery. Ideal for photographers, graphic designers, and web designers, the professional standard delivers new features such as automatic layer alignment and blending that enable advanced compositing. Live filters boost the comprehensive, nondestructive editing toolset for increased flexibility. And a streamlined interface and new timesaving tools make your work flow faster.

What is InDesign CS3?

Explore more creative possibilities and experience new levels of productivity using Adobe® InDesign® CS3 page layout software. Built for demanding workflows, InDesign integrates smoothly with Adobe Photoshop®, Illustrator®, Acrobat®, InCopy®, and Dreamweaver® software; offers powerful features for creating richer, more complex documents; and reliably outputs pages to multiple media. With its sophisticated design features and enhanced productivity tools for streamlining repetitive tasks, InDesign CS3 lets you work faster and better than ever.

What is Illustrator CS3?

Adobe® Illustrator® CS3 software allows you to create sophisticated artwork for virtually any medium. Industry-standard drawing tools, flexible color controls, and professional type controls help you capture your ideas and experiment freely, while timesaving features such as easier-to-access options let you work quickly and intuitively. Improved performance and tight integration with other Adobe applications also help you produce extraordinary graphics for print, web and interactive, and mobile and motion designs.

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So, what’s the difference? All seem to do multimedia illustrations. Why the need for 3 products to do image manipulation?

(Again, Adobe has let simple minded people like me simply wonder what the h3ll is going on without providing a simple map to their products.)
Related Tags
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JS
Jeff_Schewe
Jun 7, 2007
Photoshop CS3 = "imagery"
nDesign CS3 = "page layout"
Illustrator CS3 = "drawing tools"

And if you don’t know (or understand) those terms, then you prolly don’t need any of the above…
P
PeterK.
Jun 7, 2007
I get Jim’s confusion though. I know what all the software does, but when I went to their site recently to see how they were selling their newest release I was shocked at how little info there actually is for the layman. It’s all a bunch of marketing-speak mumbo-jumbo. Just tell people what the software is ACTUALLY for! Once Adobe decided to let the marketing managers run things, things went downhill.
DM
Don_McCahill
Jun 7, 2007
I can see the point too, Jeff. I used to teach a DTP course, and a common question was "What does each program do?" I used to say Photoshop for images/photos, Quark (then) for multipage documents, and Illustrator for line art.

A gross simplification, but people searching on the web _are_ looking for simple answers.

I’d suggest that you pass this on to the marketing folks, but I know that it would only mean that a major study/review gets done over the next two years at the cost of thousands of dollars better funneled into progamming.
JJ
John_Joslin
Jun 7, 2007
One of the reasons the marketing people don’t know any better is because of the function overlap that has spread in the last few years. The nice definitions that Jeff gave have been blurred by things like the addition of text and other vectors to the pixel pushing features of Photoshop and similarly, Photoshop features in the other programs.

It can be very convenient but it does lead to bloat…

…. and confusion for people coming new to the Wonderful World of Adobe.
MV
Mathias_Vejerslev
Jun 7, 2007
Dont rely on some 5 lines of salesblurp to teach you what the software does. I’d never rely on a 5 line salesblurp for anything.
B
Buko
Jun 7, 2007
Adobe apps are professional design applications with big learning curves. Why on earth would a layman be spending close to $2000 on the design Suite just to layout X-mas cards or make a monthly newsletter for his church or community group.

There is plenty of software that dumbs things down for joe layman.
P
PeterK.
Jun 7, 2007
So Adobe should write sales blurbs only for the people who can translate through all the mumbo-jumbo? Or write whatever the heck they want because the only people wanting to buy their products are people who are already familiar with them?
JJ
John_Joslin
Jun 7, 2007
When did you ever know a writer of sales blurbs who had any idea what he was talking about?
WE
Wolf_Eilers
Jun 8, 2007
What about these blurbs from Adobe’s site. Notice the key words "images", "page layouts", and "vector tool". Seems clear to me.

Photoshop CS3

Create powerful images with the professional standard

The essential software for perfecting your images, Adobe® Photoshop® CS3 now offers productivity and workflow enhancements, powerful new editing tools, and breakthrough compositing capabilities.

InDesign CS3

Design and produce professional page layouts

Adobe® InDesign® CS3 software delivers powerful new features that allow you to explore more creative possibilities, experience greater productivity, and streamline repetitive tasks.

Illustrator CS3

Explore new paths with the essential vector tool

Discover new ways to experiment with color; work faster with new drawing tools and controls; and produce artwork for print, web, mobile, and motion designs with Adobe® Illustrator® CS3 software.
P
PeterK.
Jun 8, 2007
It wasn’t there on launch. It’s still not even easy for someone not familiar with adobe’s software to actually navigate to what they need. Someone who has only heard that "Adobe is for graphics" would have a hard time even knowing WHERE they need to look.
EH
Ed_Hannigan
Jun 8, 2007
While I understand and even sympathize, I would not consider spending big bucks on any program without researching it to find out what it does. I would never rely in advertising blurbs to determine how to spend my money.

Not that hard to find out what the various programs do. Google is your friend.
B
Bernie
Jun 8, 2007
Not to mention free 30 day trial versions
P
PeterK.
Jun 8, 2007
True, but that doesn’t excuse marketing people from getting paid too much money to write up flashy-sounding but non-substantial blurbs. If I was in charge of the adobe site, my first page would be asking the customer what they want to do and direct them to the appropriate software. Making someone read through all kinds of sales pitches that don’t explain what market they’re aimed at is a waste of time and money on both sides.
JJ
John_Joslin
Jun 8, 2007
Considering the resources of Adobe, in terms of money and skills, I find it unbelievable that a company in the forefront of graphic design and communication can come up with such a poor web presence.

Hard to navigate; obscure information; visually unattractive; slow; unreliable; … need I go on?

And that’s just the web site!
PA
Peter Aitken
Jun 9, 2007
In article ,
says…
I don’t get it… Look at the descriptions of 3 of Adobe’s flagship products (as copied from the website)….

————————-

What is Photoshop CS3?

Adobe® Photoshop® CS3 software accelerates your path from imagination to imagery. Ideal for photographers, graphic designers, and web designers, the professional standard delivers new features such as automatic layer alignment and blending that enable advanced compositing. Live filters boost the comprehensive, nondestructive editing toolset for increased flexibility. And a streamlined interface and new timesaving tools make your work flow faster.

What is InDesign CS3?

Explore more creative possibilities and experience new levels of productivity using Adobe® InDesign® CS3 page layout software. Built for demanding workflows, InDesign integrates smoothly with Adobe Photoshop®, Illustrator®, Acrobat®, InCopy®, and Dreamweaver® software; offers powerful features for creating richer, more complex documents; and reliably outputs pages to multiple media. With its sophisticated design features and enhanced productivity tools for streamlining
repetitive tasks, InDesign CS3 lets you work faster and better than ever.
What is Illustrator CS3?

Adobe® Illustrator® CS3 software allows you to create sophisticated artwork for virtually any medium. Industry-standard drawing tools, flexible color controls, and professional type controls help you capture your ideas and experiment freely, while timesaving features such as easier-to-access options let you work quickly and intuitively. Improved performance and tight integration with other Adobe applications also help you produce extraordinary graphics for print, web
and interactive, and mobile and motion designs.
————————-

So, what’s the difference? All seem to do multimedia illustrations. Why the need for 3 products to do image manipulation?

(Again, Adobe has let simple minded people like me simply wonder what the h3ll is going on without providing a simple map to their products.)

In a nutshell: Photoshop is for working with bitmapped images, Illustrator is for working with vector images, and Indesign is for designing page layouts.

—
Peter Aitken

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