Graphic Design Software - The Battle

The times when a graphic designer's most common tools were pen, pencil and brush are gone. Today, the way a designer works on daily basis is different to what was before and it is mostly based on graphic design software which has some good and bad sides. At some point or other, our design environment forces us to upgrade the present software to newer version or to switch to a different program. And then, the graphic designer must learn the new interface, new functions of that version of program. All of that makes the learning process very expensive and time-consuming. But this is not the end as in the graphic design world we need to use different software for web design, print design, illustration, and photography.

In the 90's and in early 0's of this century, the most used desktop publishing program was Quark Xpress. Over the past decade, since the Adobe InDesign 2.0 lunched in 2002, we have seen a big change in the world of desktop publishing as Adobe's software has started ruling. If Adobe beats Quark it will pretty much gain a monopoly in graphic design software, bearing in mind that it has already acquired Macromedia and some other competition.

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In 2005, Adobe Systems acquired Macromedia which was commonly known for creation of Dreamweaver - on of the best (and sometimes very difficult) web design software. Dreamweaver itself has few big competitors in the web design world, including Microsoft's Front Page. Nevertheless, because of the Adobe's acquisition of Dreamweaver, it has gained a monopoly in web design too.

When talking about a photographer's No 1 graphic design software, we have only one thought in our mind and that is "Photoshop", already owned by Adobe Systems as well. We know other raster graphics editors such like Corel's Photo-Paint, but are they that popular as Photoshop or do they guarantee that much functionality and easiness in use? While other graphics editing programs exist in the graphic design world, for the professional photographer Photoshop is like a darkroom.

What's the illustration best graphic design software? The answer leads us to Adobe once again. Most professionals use only Adobe Illustrator which is the most recognized vector graphics editor at present. However, when it comes to easiness of use, Illustrator looses its primary position for a Canadian competitor Corel Draw, which is claimed by some people of having more functions. There is one "however" for Corel as well. Corel's files are hardly used anywhere else but in Corel's environment as they contain many errors when importing them to other graphic design programs. This makes it less popular than Adobe's Illustrator too.

One of the reasons why Adobe InDesign is getting more and more popular is the easiness of use along within Adobe's family. Functions Import and Export work like a charm and without any problems between all of the Adobe programs and so Adobe's files can be used quickly and smoothly. Now available as Creative Suite, Adobe tries to pack all programs in one place which makes it a perfect solution for all graphic designers.
But, what is going to happen if Adobe becomes the most common graphic style software? By having no competition, can it maintain identical quality and drive for excellence? And what is going to happen to the price? Will it stay at the same level or simply continue upward. If you are the only one pizza shop in town, does it mean you can charge whatever you want for your double pepperoni?

The original article can be found on our blog.