Designing for web?
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- Hombre_Lobo0
I used to use photoshop for web design, but found it kinda clunky in how you feel tethered to the layers panel.
I prefer the illustrator way of being able to directly select objects easily. Sure you can auto select in photoshop but it's not very well thought out.
The tool I use now which is by far and away the best web design tool I've found is Fireworks. It's brilliant. Has the joy of not having to use the layers panel like illustrator, but geared way more for interface design.Everything is vectors, file size is tiny, you can have multiple pages in one document, you can have states of a page.
It has a brilliant symbol library akin to flash's symbol library. illustrator has a symbol library as does photoshop (ps also has smart objects which work in a similar way), but the implementation in AI and PS is less seamless.
You make a rounded edge rectangle in photoshop or illustrator, you have fanny about with vector points when resizing it, not in fireworks.
When you change type alignment it doesn't throw it around like PS and AI do... Go knows why they do, it can't be hard to keep the text where it is.
As a bonus fireworks has had in built prototyping since before 2006, so I can send prototype user journey examples with clickable links to clients. Or interactive wireframes in early stages.
It's not surprising though, photoshop was made for photo editing, illustrator was made for vector illustrations and fireworks was made for creating interfaces.
However fireworks has its limitations, it's gradient fill tools aren't the best. it's free hand vector tools arent quite up to illustrator standard. But for any limitations it has, it has 10x more positives than outweigh other program's.
It's a a shame adobe are no longer continuing support for it.
More info on why fireworks is great for web design -
http://www.reinegger.net/50_reas…- Why isn't auto-select in PS not well thought-out?iCanHazQBN
- Fireworks = save oftenmonNom
- Fireworks isn't being updated in CC anymore... I would not recommend learning it if you're starting out.zarkonite
- prophetone0
as vm noted, anything that can be vector brewed in ai and pasted into ps as a smart object. all else in ps.
- uan0
illustrator is a good idea...lots of designers use it, because you can use svg (vectors) online to avoid the problems with retina oder other high pixel density screens. you can also use indesign, that's totally ok too. the problem here is the developers, some can handle it, but lots of them are used to work from photoshop, so it's a good idea to contact the dev and ask what's ok and what not.
if you use photoshop try to work at 2x the resolution so you can output higher res versions of images for retina and co.
- VectorMasked0
90% of what I do is in photoshop. I use Illy when doing icons, graphics, buttons (depending on the style) and need to import them as smart objects for later editing.
To me it's just weird working in only illy. Feels limiting. it's even more weird how a couple of colleagues do absolutely everything in fireworks.
- djhiro
I am not usually a web designer, but am working on a new site for a client.
I am used to Illustrator and InDesign, designing in Photoshop is foreign to me and much harder. It's easier to play around with shapes and adjust type when it's vector.
Do you all start in PS and do everything in the program?