Graphic Design Software
Graphic Design Software - The Battle for King of the Mountain
Long gone are the
days when a graphic designer's tools were pen, pencil, brush, exacto knife and
illustration board. Today's designer
relies almost exclusively on graphic design software which is both expensive
and constantly changing. At some point
or other, the designer has to decide to upgrade his or her present software or
change to another brand. And, then the
designer must learn all the new functions of this version of software. If the program interface changes then the
learning curve for the design professional can be very steep and costly. On top of that, there's different graphic
design software for desktop publishing, web design, illustration, and
photography.
For much of the
last decade, the desktop publishing arena was ruled by Quark Express. (Before that Adobe's PageMaker had been King
of the Mountain.) Over the past few
years, Adobe has been making a serious bid to regain its preeminence in desktop
publishing with In Design. If Adobe
squashes Quark it will pretty much have a monopoly in graphic design software,
having already swallowed up Macromedia and much of its other competition.
At the end of
2005, Adobe concluded its acquisition of Macromedia which made it the owner of
Dreamweaver - usually acclaimed as one of the best (and sometimes the most
difficult to use) web design software available. Dreamweaver has few
challengers in the arena of professional web design. Microsoft's Front Page
still provides services for non-professionals and some professionals who are
old-time PC users. Mostly though, Adobe,
with the acquisition of Dreamweaver, has attained a semi-monopoly here as
well.
In graphic design
software for photography there's only one acknowledged leader - Adobe
Photoshop. While other programs exist
for the casual user, for the professional photographer Photoshop is the digital
darkroom. Other companies exist by
producing "plug-in's for Photoshop, until Adobe buys them.
What about
graphic design software for illustration?
Again, Adobe is the leader. With
Adobe Illustrator used and recognized by the most professionals it usually wins
hands down against the competition. And,
it's not always which program is the easiest to use or has the most functions. It is which one is the most compatible in the
most places. Corel Draw, Canadian
illustration competitor to Illustrator is acknowledged by many to be easier and
have more functions - but the files are hard to use anywhere but with
Corel. So that limits across program
functionality and thus its popularity.
One of the
reasons InDesign is gaining so much ground is the ease of use with all of the
other graphic design software programs in the Adobe family. You can move between them quickly and smoothly. Adobe now packages them as its Creative Suite
and so it becomes one-stop shopping.
But, what will happen if Adobe becomes King of the Mountain? Without challengers, will it maintain the same quality and drive for excellence? And what will happen to the price? Will it even out or just continue upward. If you're the only ballpark, you can charge whatever rent you want?
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