Illustrator or InDesign?

[B***@adobeforums.com]

I have to create projects, using vector graphics. Would I be better off with Illustrator or would InDesign do the job?
Is there a reason to choose one over the other?

Bob

[M***@adobeforums.com]

InDesign is page layout program, not a drawing tool. Beyond that, you need to provide more info about the nature of your projects to get this answered comprehensively.

Mylenium

[J***@adobeforums.com]

Is there a reason to choose one over the other?




If all the functionality you need are present in both, and if those are the only two choices you are considering, InDesign is a higher quality program. Illustrator is very long-in-the-tooth and has a cluttered, scattered, and confused interface.

But it depends on what kind of projects you intend to do. InDesign is a conventional-wisdom page assembly program. As such, nearly everything in it is designed to facilitate repetitive design tasks for "bookish" whole documents of relatively high page-count with repetitive layouts.

Illustrator is a conventional-wisdom vector drawing program. It's aimed at creating individual illustrations (for placement in InDesing or some other conventional-wisdom page assembly program, and/or non-repetitive low page count whole document layouts (the ubiquitous two sided brochure, sell sheets, etc.) and (now) sets of related project pages of different sizes.

For a complete toolset, the usual breakdown includes:

A vector drawing program.
A raster imaging program.
A page assembly program.

Thus, the logic behind the various Creative Suite bundles. Being Adobe, you add Acrobat Professional to help facilitate final delivery and multi-purposing. If you do web work, you add Dreamweaver as the web-centric "page assembly" program in lieu of print-centric InDesign.

(The frequency of this kind of question is telling. It reflects the poorness of product-definition so common today, especially in the software industry. Poor product definition delays--and sometimes prevents--buying decisions. For example: I've always considered Dreamweaver to be a most idiotic product name. Tells you nothing about the product. Sounds like a matress.) ;-)

JET

[B***@adobeforums.com]

My question was intentionally vague because I don't really know what I am doing but here's what I am trying to do.

I had jpg versions of my company logo that I was attempting to use in the creation of for example, a postcard mailout, created in Photoshop. As long as my background remained white, I could insert my jpg logo, photos and even create my text and have a respectable looking document. The problem arose however that if I wanted a coloured background or a gradient of some sort, then my jpg of course showed as a white box. I was advised that I had to have a version of my logo created as a vector graphic. The original designer of my logo then sent me an AI version of my logo but using that within Photoshop, still showed that white box around my logo.

Since I want to do more of this time of thing, I decided that I should perhaps be using AI or InDesign for creation of similar projects..thus my question. So to provide more background, I want to typically create single page documents, be it postcards, newspaper ads or site ads for my web site, that will allow accurate reproduction of my logo, text and probably a photo or graphic of some sort.

Now I own an old version of InDesign 1.5 and AI 9.0. I admit to just starting to learn how to use them and am prepared to step up to a newer version of one or both of these if it comes down to it, but I am also cheap to a certain extent and thought if one would be suitable over the other, I would try that route.

I think I can also download trial versions of both from Adobe but was looking for more advice before I went that route.

JET...your advice was super and I concur with your comments regarding product definition. I talked yesterday with someone else using both programs and they had difficulty explaining the difference between the two as well.

[B***@adobeforums.com]

Bob,

You might try loading your logo into a new Photoshop file and then make a copy of the background layer. Then hide the background layer. Using the copy layer mask out the white background, then duplicate the layer which should give you a copy of your logo with a transparent background. Then create a new blank layer underneath your logo layer and make it any color or gradient you desire. Then after saving the file as a Photoshop file, for feature use, save your new logo as a .jpg.

[M***@adobeforums.com]

Yes, that makes it more clear. For single page documents Illustrator is just fine, so you should focus your learning efforts on this first. Once you get a handle on stuff and understand the lingo, it will be easy to recognize similarities in ID with respect to differences in implementation.

Mylenium

[P***@adobeforums.com]

Sounds more like .ai to me. Indesign is better for longer jobs than you mention (think magazines or books).

Postcards and one pagers I'd tend to use Illustrator.

But that is just me.

[M***@adobeforums.com]

It reflects the poorness of product-definition so common today, especially
in the software industry.




No, that's a dangerous generalization and just plain wrong. You know, there was a time in my life when I was a dental technician/ ordontoprostesist, and tell you what: you could have 3 or 4 different types of ceramics mixtures for creating crowns and fillings from the same manufacturer and they all just were meant to do teeth, not flower pots. Is that a lack of product differentiation? I don't think so. A specialist would recognize the minute differences and understand that which was never meant to be obvious on first sight. It's no different with software: You simply cannot expect someone who has never had any prior experience to know all this stuff, nor is it in any way a vendors fault that there is feature overlap. That's just the way it is in a highly specialized working world. I'm sure you could find similar analogies even for carpenters talking your ear off about differences in nails and screws...

Mylenium

[Bert Philippus]

Postcards and one pagers I'd tend to use Illustrator.




And that's why we love ya, PLP!

[P***@adobeforums.com]

And I love Illustrator!

Well, if I had tons of flowing text I might do indesign, but otherwise Illustrator is the hammer I like to use best to pound screws in with.