New to Graphics 1

[Willy2782]

I'm new to graphics ...Can anyone tell me wich is the best software to start..and a good book or website to read...

Thanks

 

[mithrilhall]

Depends on what you want to do for graphics.

Photoshop is pretty nice for altering, touching up, and creating images.


I would look for a book for photoshop at a local book store, Barnes & Nobels, or Amazon.com.

A good website to check out if you decide to go with Photoshop is

http://share.studio.adobe.com/Default.asp

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[jimoblak]

When experimenting or dabbling in a new area, it is best not to blow a lot of money. Consider GIMP (

http://www.gimp.org/~tml/gimp/win32/)

before commiting to an expensive program like Photoshop. Although there are beta warnings on this page for GIMP, it is a farily stable program for Windows.

The adobe.com web site offers a lot of training material for Photoshop online (free). Also check out creativepro.com for graphics news and resources.

 

[BDNFLNC]

I prefer PhotoShop to about anything. Probably because it has been the easiest for me to use and learn. It also seems to be the best for making/editing graphics for the Web.

I found the best book for PhotoShop at

http://www.lynda.com/products/books/psirhot.

I alwasys recommend this one. It helped me because I am not a good "book learner" and it seems to be written so even I can understand easily.

 

[r1tchie]

Adobe Illustrator would be the best program for you to start with. It is definitely the easiest program to make text graphics and can be easily imported into Photoshop for image alterations and touch-ups. Illustrator does not have the plugins that photoshop has but does allow you to make quality posters, graphics, and articles for your business. I am relitively new to the website design industry, actually this is my last year of college, but i have used all new design programs. The industry standard for us is Illustrator and photoshop for graphics, Dreamweaver mx for website layout, Flash mx for visual attraction ("wowing" visitors), and Quark Xpress for posters, magazines ads, ads in general. Don't buy Corel nor JASC paintshop pro.
If you are familiar with Swish V2.0, try it as well... Its definitely flash made easy... Its easier and quicker than Flash mx for making text effects. Guru's look down upon this program, but remember, they are still working about code perfection and still writing websites using raw html.

 

[MediaGuy]

"Graphics" is a pretty general term, so you might want to be more specific about what you will be working on. However, in general, you should learn a good imaging program like PhotoShop and a good layout program like PageMaker or Quark. After that, take on an illustration program like FreeHand or Illustrator. (I prefer PhotoShop/PageMaker/FreeHand, but others will advise differently - it just depends on how your brain works and therefore what is most comfortable for you.) Once you've gotten into these you will discover what else you need. For converting raster images to vector, there is a great little program by Adobe called Streamline. It comes in handy. As far as books go, one of the best I've found for understanding scanning and resolution is "Real World Scanning and Halftones" by David Blatner and Steve Roth (Peach Pit Press). If you want to get into the web, there are a lot of good books. You will want to get a good editing program like Dreamweaver eventually, which in theory lets you make pages without knowing HTML. I like Dreamweaver a lot - but you will need to learn HTML to keep from pulling your hair out when things don't go right. Another good HTML editor to learn with is HotDog out of Australia. If you get into web design, the best advise I can give is don't freak out when you see ALL there is to know (HTML, DHTML, XML, Perl & CGI scripts, ASP, JavaScript, Java, etc. etc. etc. - you'll never learn it all, so relax and just take it one step at a time. As you grow you will be able to decide which you need and want to learn and which you want to farm out.

Good luck.

 

[Willy2782]

Thanks for all you help.... guess I will start with Photoshop and Illustrator sience I have those programs...