From photo editing to typography tools to sound design, the industry-standard Adobe Creative Suite gives creators of all kinds everything they need to create professional work fast—for literally any type of design project.
For now, let’s get graphic. Whether it’s creating a logo design, designing social media graphics or putting together a brochure, Adobe has created the perfect app solutions with Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign.
This collection of apps is crazy powerful, and each one is packed with dozens of features that are optimized for specific types of projects. Using the right app for the right project makes the design process better. Period.
Design becomes more efficient because designers can work faster to create more options for their clients in less time. And designers can produce higher quality work with tools that are tailored to the project (you could paint a wall with a garden shovel, but you wouldn’t). Using the right tool also makes you more flexible and able to edit or modify designs based on changing needs.
So how do you know which app to use? Most graphic design jobs can be evaluated along these 3 lines:
1. Print or digital
A print project will be physically printed on some sort of media (e.g. business cards, flyers, t-shirts, packaging, stickers and more). Digital projects will be viewed on a screen (e.g. social media graphics, banner ads, websites, e-books, presentations and more).
2. Image or text
Image projects involve visual elements like photos, illustrations, shapes and patterns. Text projects focus on words, whether it’s a few (business cards) or a bunch (brochures and booklets). Often, projects will use both.
3. Vector or raster
A vector project is an image built with lines and curves that can be enlarged or shrunk-down to any size (e.g. logos). A raster project is an image built out of a set number of pixels that will change in quality when resized (e.g. photos).
So, pick an app, any app. Let’s take a look at when you should use each.
| Program | Photoshop | Illustrator | InDesign |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Raster Image Editor | Vector Graphics Editor | Desktop Publisher |
| Files | Raster Image Editor | Vector Graphics Editor | Desktop Publisher |
| Features | Layers, non-destructive editing, image adjustment, animation | Vector shapes, typesetting, artboards | Master pages, automatic page numbers, typesetting, interactive |
Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign are three image editing/creation program offered by Adobe. Each program has tools found in the other programs that can more or less do the same functions as the other programs which can make it difficult to decide which program to use. Instead of focusing on the similarities, let’s focus on the differences and how those differences relate to each program’s intended purpose.
Photoshop
Photoshop is a professional-grade photo editing software. Its main purpose is to edit photographs and transform and create raster images which are composed of a grid of pixels. Projects created in Photoshop are dependent on the resolution meaning the resizing of images is limited to the original file. If images or photographs are enlarged beyond a certain point the image or photo becomes pixelated as pixels are added and enlarged to encompass the larger image which degrades the quality of the artwork.
Illustrator
Illustrator is a sophisticated drawing tool used to create logos, drawings, illustrations, and other artwork by working with vector images. Vector images are malleable, 2D points which can be mathematically resized unlike a grid of pixels. This allows the quality of the image to stay intact no matter what size a file is resized to. Lines will stay crisp regardless of size, and images can be printed in high resolution.
InDesign
InDesign is the design industry standard for digital, print, and video mediums. What sets it apart from Photoshop and Illustrator is it focuses on the quality of text and typography. It’s not meant for creating images from scratch. InDesign is a layout design program that can handle a large number of pages and/or text and gives the user control over the design and content. Some examples of its common formats include newspapers, magazines, books, posters, or any other layout that uses any combination of text, images, and drawings.
Here is an example of how Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign would be used in a real-world setting. When developing a magazine, Photoshop would be used to edit the cover photo and the photos within. Illustrator would be used to create company logos, diagrams, and infographics also seen in the magazine. In creating the layout, InDesign would be the final step. The front cover, back cover, and all the pages in between would all be created using InDesign. Each program has its place as demonstrated with a magazine. In summary, Photoshop is for editing photos, Illustrator is used for creating drawings, and InDesign is used for creating layouts of images and text.
When should I use Photoshop?
What’s Photoshop good for? This one’s pretty easy (hint: it’s in the name). Yup, photos. The app was originally designed as a comprehensive solution for creating, editing and retouching any type of raster image. Since then, Photoshop has evolved a full slate of tools that allow users to do so much more. Fine artists use it to draw, sketch and even paint digitally. Photographers use it to adjust and transform their photos with colour and lighting. Production designers use it to create web-ready digital images.
Let’s make a rad album cover. First up: an awesome background photo edited in Photoshop.
When most people think of graphic design, they think Photoshop. And it’s true: Photoshop is the most powerful app for both creating and enhancing images. Layers make it simple to develop templates that can be edited and rearranged with one click. The adjustment tools are much more powerful than any of the other apps and allow tiny tweaks to be made to colour, contrast, brightness and more.
But Photoshop isn’t always the best solution. Here’s a look at when Photoshop works best and some instances it makes more sense to move over to Illustrator or InDesign.
Use Photoshop when:
It’s time to retouch photos. Need to colour correct a photo? Or tame some flyaway hair? Or digitally zap a zit? Photoshop = photos. And there’s no better tool.
You need to edit artwork for digital or print. That could be a photo, painting, drawing, or anything else. Photoshop is the right tool to make sure every line, shadow and texture is in place. Then, you can use that artwork anywhere, either on its own or in an Illustrator or InDesign project.
You want digital images for the web like social media images, banner ads, email headers, videos etc. Creating these images in Photoshop will ensure they’re the right size and optimized for the web.
You have to create a website or app mockup. Layers make it easy to move UI elements around, and because Photoshop is a pixel-based editing program, you’ll know that your design is sized correctly for any screen size.
You want to get fancy with animation and video. Today, cameras can not only shoot fantastic photos, but they can also capture some pretty sweet video, too. Photoshop makes it easy to cut together simple video clips and add graphics, filters, text, animation and more.
Use a different app when:
You need to create a logo. Because they’re used so many different places, logos need to be resizable. Photoshop isn’t optimized to create vector artwork, so unless you want to stumble through a bunch of challenging workarounds, your images will exist at only one size. If you need to enlarge them, they will likely get pixelated and “blurry,” making them unacceptable for printing.
You need to layout lots of text. Whether it’s print or digital, Photoshop doesn’t handle large amounts of text very well. Headlines and short lines of copy for images like banner ads and social media graphics are fine, but if you’re dealing with paragraphs of text, try Illustrator or InDesign.
When should I use Illustrator?
Illustrator is Adobe’s magic vector-image machine. That means that anything created in Illustrator can be scaled to teeny-tiny favicon thumbnails or ginormous Times Square billboards—all without losing any quality or adding any weird pixelation. A design created in Illustrator will look identical on a business card or a bus wrap. And that makes it a logo’s best friend.
A bad-ass band needs a bad-ass logo and some killer vector art created in Illustrator.
When you think print, think Illustrator. Using this app’s tools you can easily design layouts, set type, create design elements and even place raster images made with Photoshop. It’s really the best of both worlds. Plus, the freeform, flexible art board workspace makes it easy to dream up and experiment with ideas before you finalize them—all in the same place.
Illustrator is powerful, but just like Photoshop it has its own set of limitations.
Use Illustrator when:
You need to create a logo, icon or brand mascot. Every vector shape and line created in Illustrator can be blown up to any size, which makes it ideal for images that need to be used in many different ways.
You want a one-page print piece. Illustrator is perfect for posters, business cards, flyers and notecards. The app’s powerful vector tools to create visually punchy headlines that can be combined with other raster images.
You need to set type for a logo. Illustrator’s typesetting features are incredibly powerful, enabling any text to be transformed into a fully editable shape that can be stretched, skewed and transformed any way imaginable. Looking for the perfect logotype? Start here.
Use a different app when:
You need to edit images. If a raster image (photo or artwork) is being used in a composition, Illustrator has few tools to edit that image directly. Photoshop can make more comprehensive adjustments like colour, contrast and brightness.
You need to create multi-page documents. Illustrator can handle one-pagers like a charm, but for anything more InDesign is the way to go because of features like page numbering, master page templates and better text layout functionality.
When should I use InDesign?
Adobe developed InDesign for the desktop publishing market, and it’s primarily used to layout newspapers, magazines, books, posters and flyers. Pretty much anything with large amounts of text should go straight into InDesign.
Time to put it all together. Check out these sweet digital liner notes laid out with InDesign.
But Illustrator can layout text too, right? Yeah, but InDesign kicks that up a notch—and then some. InDesign allows you to set-up master page templates so page designs are instantly unified throughout the entire document. Pages are numbered automatically and can easily be re-ordered, duplicated and swapped. Text styles, columns, margins and other features specific to publishing are also much more robust. Put simply, if it’s got text, InDesign can handle it.
InDesign was built with some very specific uses in mind. Here’s when you should go with this solution.
Use InDesign when:
You need to layout a multi-page, text-heavy piece. Print or digital, InDesign was made to layout text, period. If you’re designing a magazine, brochure or booklet, you’ll want to make this your first stop. Of the three applications, InDesign has the most robust typesetting features available, and it integrates with Adobe Digital Publishing Solution, allowing you to create fully interactive e-books, magazines, and other digital publications.
Use a different app when:
You need to design for smaller jobs (like business cards and flyers). Illustrator can work just as well.
You need to edit images. InDesign has little to no image editing capabilities. Photoshop can make more comprehensive adjustments like colour, contrast and brightness.
You need to design a logo. InDesign can create limited shapes, but if you need a logo for your document, design it first in Illustrator and then import it.
The right tool for the right job
Want great work? Use the right tool. Want kick-ass, amazing, mind-blowing work? Learn how to combine all of the features of Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. These apps can all work together seamlessly to create designs that blow everyone away.
Once you’ve found the app you need for a project, become an expert in everything it does so you can start working more efficiently and creating more flexible, high-quality designs