Illustration Program

[SteveMcqueenRules]

I recently got a new computer and have been wanting to buy a illustration program.I have used corel draw on my old computer and I am pretty sure the old program wont work with Vista. I was wondering What you guys would recommend. What would it cost? I looked at photoshop but it was something like 500bux! is there anything cheaper? I dont need alot of fancy thingamajigs but the basics so i can start drawing cars again. Or maybe I should just stick to crayons.

[ZVT]

Photoshop does get a bit expensive.

I would suggest maybe Paint shop pro or XARA.They are alot cheaper!!

[70OldsSportsCoupe]

Corel Draw is still being made and updated, if you liked that program. Almost $400, though:
http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/us/en/Product/1150981051301
You could possibly buy a previous version, not as old as the one you have, on eBay for a reasonable price, or yours might be eligible for the upgrade.

[AAW]

For Illustration, there's Adobe Illustrator CS3. You can download a free sample of it to see if you like it here (http://www.adobe.com/products/illustrator/).

But for Photo work & tons of flexibility, there's Adobe Photoshop & they, too offer a trial download here (http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/index.html).

For page layouts & catalogs, there's Adobe Indesign which I love! Again - they offer a free trial here (http://www.adobe.com/products/indesign/).

If you can get a Mac, get the IWeb package for any web, newsletter or quickie layouts. 30 day free trial (http://www.apple.com/iwork/)

They are all pretty expensive, but worth it IMO.

[city_ofthe_south]

I hear a lot of people saying that you can buy older versions. I've never tried this personally but if it is true then this is what you really need to do. Photoshop 7 or even older or Illustrator 9 or older (i've used both and also older versions of both) would do more than you need them to. If you could get a "used" copy on ebay or something .... I'm not sure how that works. I guess you can sell your old software. *shrug* ... if ... well hang on and just let me look. OK, well i was looking and they do in fact have older versions but the buy now stuff was still over or around $100. You could probably do better bidding but if you're like me and hate ebay bidding wars then this might not be for you. Still, $100 or $150 is a lot cheaper than a new version of either one. Used copies were going pretty cheap as far as bids were when I checked. It's an option.

[city_ofthe_south]

ok sorry to post again, but Amazon has PS 6 for $100 and 7 for $125. If you were pretty serious and already had a machine to do the work on, this is a good deal. I'm thinking that 7 is the version before they started the CS thing.

Something else I've not tried but seen many people rave about on deviant art is called The Gimp, which is freeware. I don't know if it's any good or not but I've seen some great art created with it and I guess it even "looks" like PS.

[Hdesign]

I use PS 6 and 7 for everything. We have CS3 at work and took it off because I didn't like it. The only advantage it has over 6 is the ability to pan wider than the canvas size.

I prefer 6 in some ways because 7 and up all create new layers when you want to make a path/mask. I have to go back and delete the new shape layer every time I convert the path to a selection area.

My advice is buy an older version, new ones are a waste of money as far as the capabilities you will actually use.

[DVierstra]

I agree with Hermance to a degree. I use CS3 at work, the only advantage is there are a lot of new filters that can actually help speed up your creativity
workload. They only work with CS2 or CS3. The disadvantages is I do not like the way you have to select an object....to many steps, especially when you use
a filter it adds an extra layer and then you have to go back and delete the old layer. Obviously the programmers do not talk to the users/artists.

[SteveMcqueenRules]

Will older versions work with Win Vista? I dont know much about the compatability as I havent had my new pc very long. I will check out the freeware program and see how good it is. I am worried about spending the time getting profecient at a program and have it disappear or being useless later on.

[DVierstra]

SteveMcqueenRules Will older versions work with Win Vista? I dont know much about the compatability as I havent had my new pc very long. I will check out the freeware program and see how good it is. I am worried about spending the time getting profecient at a program and have it disappear or being useless later on.

I believe Vista will work with older versions. Even back as far as Adobe Illustrator 7. Do a Google search on that question. Maybe you will find some more thorough answers. :lateral:

[Young Gun]

PS cs2 works great with vista..thats what i use:woot:

[city_ofthe_south]

Well there you have it, Ben is the proof in the pudding or ... the pudding itself? or something. Just get yourself an older version. If it doesn't work, take the reload disk of the OS from your old machine and load it up on your new machine. Windows 2000 runs PS 6 and 7 great (so does XP) as well as older Illustrators. The only thing I've noticed is using Illustrator 9 and then bringing it into PS CS2 makes funky things happen (although i figured out how to fix them it was still another hassle)... so there's a vote against fancy new stuff. I don't use any single feature of CS2 that I didn't have in PS7 anyway.