Adobe Illustrator VS Adobe Photoshop

The two programms of which we mostly heard to talk about graphic are surely Illustrator and Photoshop by Adobe.

They are infact the main reference point for a huge amount of professionals in the most varied sectors, belonging to different cultures and nationalities. The differences between the two programms are many, and in this article we will try to list all of them!

Often happens that when we talk about graphic we don’t have the ideas really clear. Basically it is a sector for the development of a product which has the purpose to communicate something: the reporting of a concept or a message through an image.

In the digital world’s sector, the graphic is divided into two macrocategories that have between each other some important differences: graphic raster and graphic vector. Infact, is this one the deep difference between Photoshop and Illustrator, because the first one works with a graphic raster, while the second with the vector one.

Graphic Raster

Raster means grill. Infact, in this kind of graphic the image is made by a grill of points, each one of them takes the name of pixels and it has a square shape. To every pixel are related informations about the colour and all together create the image.

About the colour’s profile, the most spreaded one is the RGB (Red Green and Blue) that is the one used in the graphic sheets of the computers. By the way, it exists even the profile CMYK (Cyan Magenta Yellow blacK) which are the colours on which instead work the printers.

The most important characteristic of a raster image is the resolution, due to the number of pixels present in a certain unit of measure (usually inches): DPI, dots per inches. For the screen are enough 72 dpi, while for the print 300 dpi.

The main raster formats are listed below according to the level of image’s compression:

• Not compressed: .raw .bmp
• Few compressed: .png .gif .tiff
• Much compressed: .jpeg

Graphic vector

The vector graphic is designed differently. It is, infact, focused on dots, lines, curves and plygons which together create an image. To every shape, then, are assigned colour’s characteristics (which can be different for trace and filling), transparence, shadow, etc.

From the moment that the vectorial images are made by geometries and not pixels, it is possible to enlarge or shrink them way out of proportion without lose the qualitiy of the information and, so, of the image.

The vectorial formats often change according to the program with which the images are made. For example, with AutoCAD are created images .dwg while with Illustrator .ai, readable only with the program which is been used to create them.

Once understood the differences between graphic raster and graphic vector, it will be easier to understand when to work with one and when with the other one.

So it is now possible to list other specific differences between the two programs, which are not always relevant for the choise between them, that have to be taken always according to the kind of work to do.

Other differences

Birth: Illustrator version 1.1 was born in the 1987, while Photoshop three years after it, in the 1990.

User: Illustrator is mainly used by the designers, while Photoshop by the artists in general, between which even the photographers, that are a huge percentage of the customers Adobe.

Drawing board: with Illustrator we can work on multiple drawing board, while with Photoshop it is single.

Cutting guise: with Illustrator the cutting guise is overlaid to the draw that has to bu cut, while with Photoshop it is underlaid.

Selection: Illustrator allows to select some objects. Photoshop, instead, some pixels’ areas.

Levels: the objects included in every layer can be multiple on Illustrator, which have to be single on Photoshop.

Work’s area: On Illustrator it is possible to see even the objects placed outside the drawing board, but inside the work’s area. On Photoshop no.

File saving’s time: reduced for Illustrator, surely longer on Photoshop.

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