Photoshop yes, but why use the other Adobe products ?

[jonatec]

Hi

I am a Front-End Web Developer using Photoshop CS6.

Can anyone please explain the salient differences between:

Photoshop, Fireworks and Illustrator ??

If I use Photoshop, I can't see the point in learning these other products, surely I can do it all in Photoshop? Are there features in Fireworks and Illustrator that don't exist in Photoshop?

Many thanks.

 

[Inkz]

To start with, Photoshop is a raster editing program, while Illustrator is a vector editing program.

So if your doing any kind of work that needs to be printed, Illustrator is the choice of program. Also, Photoshop shades in pixels while Illustrator uses gradient of colours. The pen tool in Illustrator is more superior than the Ps pen tool, but once you've mastered it, you can make amazing free-form curves called Bezier curves which are very difficult to make in Photoshop.

 

[jonatec]

Thanks...

And Fireworks for web design ???

 

[Inkz]

Sorry, never used Fireworks lol.

 

[chrisix]

photoshop- images (can make anything look like everything else)
illustrator - shapes (lossless scaling, clean and superior shapes in comparison to photoshop)
fireworks - web pages (easily makes borders etc for web page layouts, and gives coding, good web export)

 

[ALB68]

Photoshop-pixel based. Illustrator-vector based.
They both can do great things in their own right, but the intention of PS is not the same as Ai. PS is primarily an editing program for existing photos and graphics where Ai is a full blown (the industry standard) drawing and design software. One compliments the other.
I do not do web development, so I have no opinion on Fireworks. I do not use Ai for my vector based applications, I use Corel Draw. PS and Corel Draw work well for me as a combination.