Should you make a design in Photoshop or Illustrator? That’s always one of the first questions that come to mind at the start of a design project. But what’s the difference between Illustrator and Photoshop and why should you care which one you use? Let’s look into that.
Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator have become an industry standard for most design professionals. They have stood the test of time and have constantly adapted to fit new and modern design techniques. The two are quite similar at times but vastly different programs at the core.
The main difference between these two programs is Photoshop is a “Raster-based” design program while Illustrator is “Vector-based.” But what are Raster and Vector? The difference can be seen when the design is magnified. Raster-based designs are built using square pixels that make up an image. There are millions of these square pixels in a single image, and when magnified, you can actually see each individual square pixel on the screen. Vector-based designs are created not with square pixels but perfectly smooth lines and shapes. These lines and shapes will be crisp and clean no matter how far you magnify the design.
Why does it matter if I work in Raster or Vector? That’s a great question! While designing from scratch, like a logo or branding elements, the preferred method is using Illustrator in a Vector-based format. This ensures that any design created will look good at any size on any medium. If you’re working with photos or compositing photos for a design, photoshop would be the way to go because the photographs are already created from pixels and therefore already in a Raster-based file.
Both of these programs are extremely powerful and some designs might require the use of both Photoshop and Illustrator depending on the final outcome of your project. The main thing to keep in mind while starting a design is to decide whether you want the outcome to be in Raster or Vector. After that decision is made is when the designing fun begins.
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