Re: getting started. need suggestions.

This kind of depends on where you want to head with graphics.

ie. designing for the wed or for print, it also depends on your budget.

I'm not a graphics artist by any means but this is what I've learned so
far.

Paint Shop Pro will run about $99 - $120 (note all prices are in Canadian $)
PhotoShop will run about $1000

IF you did belong to a college or university... say to take one graphics 
program
you could pic up any of the programs mentioned for a fraction of the price.
But they could not be used commercially.

These are probably the 2 main graphics programs each has it's own strengths
and weaknesses. Paint Shop Pro while it may not have the power PhotoShop
does (this is debatable) it does allow you to do vector graphics and most if
not all PhotoShop filter plugins are available for PSP.

Fireworks is another choice if your goal is to do graphics for the web, 
it's main
strength is in slicing up graphics and generating the HTML code to piece the
graphics slices to fit together. It's native graphic format is PNG and from 
experience
does the best job of converting one format (JPG, GIF, TIFF, BMP etc) to 
PNG, in other
words it creates a better compression and quality than does PS or PSP.

While it to can use the PhotoShop filter plugins it is not as powerful as 
either
of the above and I mainly use it to convert BMPs or JPGs into PNG files for 
importing
into Flash.

Now Flash is another monster altogether, it's more of a combination of 
graphics(vector)/
movie/html program, in other words in combines the job of all 3 "types" 
plus adding in a limited but very useful scripting language. It allows you 
to make a much more entertaining
AND useful webpage/site, but a plugin is required by viewers to be able to 
see the movies.

Illustrator AND Freehand are both vector graphics programs and are mostly 
for print tho
I hear many use either to great graphics for importing into Flash. Since I 
rarely use Freehand and have not touched Illustrator this is about all I 
know on either.

For books, I can only recommend the "WOW! Photoshop5/5.5" book but I have 
heard good
recommendations on the PhotoShop 5 Bible, PhotoShop 5 F/X, Illustrator 7 
and 8, and PhotoShop 5 Type Magic.

The great people on this list should expand on what I've mentioned so far 
and hopefully we will both gain even more knowledge in this area. =c)


At 02:23 pm 12/01/2000 -0500, Seaforest(at)aol.com wrote:
>Hi everyone.
>
>   I'd like to learn to create graphics for the web, and I'd like to teach
>myself how to do it, instead of going to school for it.  If anyone could give
>me some advice on what programs to begin with: photoshop, illustrator, flash,
>etc.. and what books would be a good start for a person that doesn't know
>anything about these programs or graphics in general.
>
>   If you could respond to me individually, I'd appreciate it, because I get
>the digest form of this newsletter which doesn't appear that often.
>
>   Thanks.
>-chris

.oOo.
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