Quote:
Originally Posted by SixOfSpades
I'm looking for people who actually OWN and USE any decent graphics-editing programs for some feedback. My Dad wants to get such a program, but all the information he can find on them is almost completely useless, loudly proclaiming features that he absolutely doesn't need. ("Animation Studio! Web-Design Suites! Beveled Interface Buttons!")
His master plan: He wants to make signs for his model-railroad layout, set in the late 1930s-early 40s. Simple graphics, simple text, not a lot of color depth, but fine detail will be at a premium, as the signs will be shrunk about 90%.
He is looking for three things:
1) It must do TEXT, TEXT, TEXT and TEXT. None of the programs out there give more than a passing reference to this. He's looking for something with at least 200 or so fonts, and the ability to Bold/Italicize/Outline/etc. In many colors, naturally.
2) It must work with pixels. Despite my best advice, he's been pouring his energy into a program called PrintShop, which works with objects instead of pixels. You want to color a very small area of the picture blue? You have to make a very small blue object, and drop it there.
3) It must save its files in BMP, GIF, or preferably JPG format. PrintShop uses a unique file format that, as far as I can tell, is usable only by PrintShop. A side-effect requirement of this is that the program must be able to import files of these common file types, from a scanner, the Net, or whereever.
Naturally, price is a factor is well. Neither of us have any desire to throw down wads of cash for the most powerful editing suite on the planet when all we want is something basic--something roughly along the lines of Microsoft Paintbrush, only about twice as versatile.
Got any program(s) you'd like to nominate? Maybe a brief review? Thanks a bunch.
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I'm a Graphics Artist, and I can tell you that
Photoshop CS3 $650 is the best, and for fonts,
Adobe Font Folio. (2300+ fonts) and/or he can buy his own fonts he wants. For doing lots of text work, this is what a lot of Pros use.
But this is VERY pricey at $2600! (gawd!) IMO, he can search the net for free fonts--he can get 1000s of publicly free fonts to use. That's how I do it.. But if he is really looking for something that will set him for years, these two packages will do it. (I could give you all my fonts--I actually even do have street sign fonts, since I'm building an entire city in 3D) I even have Burger King fonts and all the other logos for businesses. (This 3D City will use real-world buildings, and many of the designs I'm make my own..)
You could also try FREE
Gimp -- it's a paint program and runs on loads of OSes.
The above are raster based.
Illustrator on the otherhand is vector based. (mathematical based, you can zoom in 300x and it will still look the same, smooth etc..) But it's much harder to learn, and it does
uses objects (in a way). You would have more control IMO with Photoshop or a raster based paint program.
Visit this url for the rastor vs vector:
http://www.nw-media.com/ps_intro/htm...sson1_pg3.html