Adobe Illustrator or Adobe photoshop for menu creation etc?

[fsuorange]

Hello,

I am trying to decidide between Adobe illustrator and adobe photoshop. I will use one of them for making advanced dvd menus, dvd buttons, logos, etc. I will also use one for making dvd case inserts or getting them from cdcovers.cc from which I print.

Which one is best for these things I mentioned? What is the difference between illustrator and photoshop?

Thanks

[andkiich]

Photoshop.

Illustrator is more of a drawing program, used for creating stuff used in print, like brochures and the like and Photoshop is more of an image manipulation program.

If you plan on using screen captures and other images/pictures, then Photoshop is the way to go. If you plan on hand drawing all your menu backgrounds then you might want to look into Illustrator.

The other thing about Photoshop is that it comes with Adobe Imageready, which is more geared toward building objects for the web, hich might come in handy to you formaking custom buttons and such for the menu pages.

[offline]

Neither. I use Corel Draw - but that is just my preference. If you are not artistic then Photoshop for sure.

[fsuorange]

how about this idea?

how about I use adobe illustrator for making cool shapes, font, graphics, and then import into the gimp and then put photos in from there?

Would that work okay and maintaine quality. I know illustrator is not a photo editing program.

[Sugar]

I guess it also depends on your authoring software.
If you use Adove Encore DVD, you will notice that there is a direct integration with Adobe Photoshop which makes the process seamless.

[fsuorange]

but wait..

adobe illustrator includes a rasterize command so you could still import pictures into illustrator, edit, and maintain quality right?


Isn't this what the rasterize command is used for.

Finding this out, what can't Illustrator do that photoshop can?

[jkapa]

Well the main difference between them I guess is that Illustrator is vectorial and PS is not.

Other than that PS is more powerful when it comes to editing image.

But I think the idea of combining them will work out fine.


J

[Ziffelpig]

Photoshop for static menus, Adobe After Effects + Photoshop for motion menus,overlays,slideshows, text effects, pans etc.

[rallynavvie]

I use both of these regularly. Photoshop is best for editing pixel data, so scanned pictures, screen graps, digital pictures, etc. Illustrator is for vector data which far surpasses pixels for creating logos, shapes, fields, and other things. I only use Photoshop for menus and editing pictures, I then use Illustrator for layout and design of my covers, placing the pictures I want in from the Photoshop files. I also use InDesign for this as its purpose is a layout program. Between both Illustrator and Photoshop you'll be pretty much set for most any kind of design work.

BTW in case you're wondering about the differences between pixel and vector art: pixels art is, obviously, made up of pixels. Since pixels are square (or rectangular) when you blow a pixel image up you can start to notice the pixels that create the image (known as pixellation). Photoshop can resample an image and try to diminish some of that pixellation but at a certain point it's basically making up stuff that isn't there and you end up with some ugly anti-aliasing. There's not much that can be done about this when it comes to digital pictures and the like. The raster function of PS is not what you think it is. You need Adobe Streamline to create vector data from pixel art. That program takes a lot of playing with to get good settings for conversion, and even then you can only vector pretty simple things. Now the advantage of vector art is it is all composed of lines, curves, and angles so you can resize it to virtually any size and will always look the same and have nice, smooth edges and lines. This is ideal for print and press. Once you play with Illustrator a little you'll see what I'm talking about.

Sorry for the quick lesson, I give that little speech at work almost daily to people who bring in 2x3" 72dpi JPEGs of their company logo and want banners created from them

If you're going to use Photoshop for designing print items make sure to use a minimum resolution of 300dpi. You can go less but 300dpi is usually the best for good quality prints. Illustrator you don't need to worry about resolution. Also Illustrator's line art works wonderfully in AfterEffects as you can resize it and rotate it as much as you want without any pixellation whatsoever. I use this for line art transitions, shapes moving around, and stuff like that on my motion menus.

[offline]

Sorry for the quick lesson, I give that little speech at work almost daily to people who bring in 2x3" 72dpi JPEGs of their company logo

I hear you. I just say one is a map of dots like newspaper. You can change the size, but at some point the dots are going to show up making the graphic look jagged. The other is a mathematical expression. If you change the size the computer just re-calculates and redraws it, so it always looks good. No, it does not work with photo's.

[fsuorange]

okay not photoshop is out of the question cause of the $ and corel draw graphics suite 12.0 is into consideration with adobe illustrator cs.

Which one do you recommend for menu, button, case insert creation and why.

Thanks for all the help responses i really appreciate them!

[rallynavvie]

Why is Photoshop out? If you're seriously considering purchasing any Adobe software then it's worth your while to buy one of the suites. In your case I'd suggest the Creative Suite. The Standard one is good since the only real use I can see for the Premium one is that it comes with Acrobat 6 Pro which is very useful, but GoLive is not worth it. The Standard comes with Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign and cost $999US. I use Photoshop for menus, buttons, and image manipulation; Illustrator for design of backgrounds, text, and logos; and InDesign for layout of my covers and inserts. I picked up both the Creative Suite Premium and the Video Collection Pro back when they were offering them cheaper all for under $2500. Considering the cost of each program individually would have cost around $4000 that was quite a deal (and thus my title).

Otherwise if you want cheap menu creation check out DVD Menu Studio. I used this for menus before I got Photoshop.

BTW I'm self-taught on both Illustrator and InDesign so they aren't too difficult to figure out.