Illustration Program
 

I recently got a new computer and have been wanting to buy a illustration program.I have used corel draw on my old computer and I am pretty sure the old program wont work with Vista. I was wondering What you guys would recommend. What would it cost? I looked at photoshop but it was something like 500bux! is there anything cheaper? I dont need alot of fancy thingamajigs but the basics so i can start drawing cars again. Or maybe I should just stick to crayons.

Photoshop does get a bit expensive.

I would suggest maybe Paint shop pro or XARA.They are alot cheaper!!

Corel Draw is still being made and updated, if you liked that program. Almost $400, though:
http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satelli.../1150981051301
You could possibly buy a previous version, not as old as the one you have, on eBay for a reasonable price, or yours might be eligible for the upgrade.

For Illustration, there's Adobe Illustrator CS3. You can download a free sample of it to see if you like it here.

But for Photo work & tons of flexibility, there's Adobe Photoshop & they, too offer a trial download here.

For page layouts & catalogs, there's Adobe Indesign which I love! Again - they offer a free trial here.

If you can get a Mac, get the IWeb package for any web, newsletter or quickie layouts. 30 day free trial

They are all pretty expensive, but worth it IMO.

I hear a lot of people saying that you can buy older versions. I've never tried this personally but if it is true then this is what you really need to do. Photoshop 7 or even older or Illustrator 9 or older (i've used both and also older versions of both) would do more than you need them to. If you could get a "used" copy on ebay or something .... I'm not sure how that works. I guess you can sell your old software. *shrug* ... if ... well hang on and just let me look. OK, well i was looking and they do in fact have older versions but the buy now stuff was still over or around $100. You could probably do better bidding but if you're like me and hate ebay bidding wars then this might not be for you. Still, $100 or $150 is a lot cheaper than a new version of either one. Used copies were going pretty cheap as far as bids were when I checked. It's an option.

ok sorry to post again, but Amazon has PS 6 for $100 and 7 for $125. If you were pretty serious and already had a machine to do the work on, this is a good deal. I'm thinking that 7 is the version before they started the CS thing.

Something else I've not tried but seen many people rave about on deviant art is called The Gimp, which is freeware. I don't know if it's any good or not but I've seen some great art created with it and I guess it even "looks" like PS.

I use PS 6 and 7 for everything. We have CS3 at work and took it off because I didn't like it. The only advantage it has over 6 is the ability to pan wider than the canvas size.

I prefer 6 in some ways because 7 and up all create new layers when you want to make a path/mask. I have to go back and delete the new shape layer every time I convert the path to a selection area.

My advice is buy an older version, new ones are a waste of money as far as the capabilities you will actually use.

I agree with Hermance to a degree. I use CS3 at work, the only advantage is there are a lot of new filters that can actually help speed up your creativity
workload. They only work with CS2 or CS3. The disadvantages is I do not like the way you have to select an object....to many steps, especially when you use
a filter it adds an extra layer and then you have to go back and delete the old layer. Obviously the programmers do not talk to the users/artists.

Will older versions work with Win Vista? I dont know much about the compatability as I havent had my new pc very long. I will check out the freeware program and see how good it is. I am worried about spending the time getting profecient at a program and have it disappear or being useless later on.

I believe Vista will work with older versions. Even back as far as Adobe Illustrator 7. Do a Google search on that question. Maybe you will find some more thorough answers. :lateral: