Art Programs for cutoms overlays and sideart??

[Dr. J]

I am curious what programs and versions everyone else is using for creating custom overlays and sideart.  

[TazMan]

I used Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop for mine.

[waveryder]

I use paintshop pro.

[Chris]

I use Corel Photo-PAINT.

[Howard_Casto]

imho and the opinions of most professional graphic artists, psp corel whatever and all these "cheap" programs are crap....

Stick to adobe products if you can get them.  

[Brax]

Lucky for us we're hobbiests and not professionals. Believe it or not there's a few of us around here that don't believe in piracy. I'm sure you'll say that's not what you meant.... but be real.

[waveryder]

Howard_Casto I take great offense to your post PSP, Corel etc. are not Crap!
I have been using PSP since version 4 and produce proffesional graphics work on it. Adobe doesn't instantly mean better. Quite frankly seeing some of the awful artwork produced by this community using adobe Pshop displays quite clearly that it is the artist the produces great artwork and not the program.
Dr.J
Any Graphics program suitable for producing web graphics is fine for creating cabinet artwork. A "cheap" program that supports vectors is preferable.

[SNAAAKE]

i use only paint shop pro...seen my works lately howard ?

Cheap programs arent crap ..I cant afford to buy no photoshop dude..I never bothered looking elsewere either... .

its about how you handle the software..i get around with it..hehe..

[GSXRMovistar]

Myself I've been using Illustrator lately, but am also a big fan of PSP. The artist creating the work is the main factor to the quality of the work not the tools. Try as many packages your can get access to/afford and then use which ever you find the most comfortable.

[rampy]

Oy vey, not again...

Feel free to use whatever works for you.

PhotoShop is a professional graphics program geared towards professionals.  If you aren't familiar with it, and don't have the time or energy to bother to figure out how to use it, it can be intimidating.  

PSP, et al... are geared more towards consumer (or if it makes you feel better prosumer) applications.  They tend to be easier to pick up for the average "user" to manage to accomplish what they need to do (which is the point).  It'll lack some or a lot of the power and flexibility or tools that make a print/web/digital artist life easier... but doesn't mean it's useless to it's users who aren't professionals.

*shrug*  Of course there's somethign to be said that even if it's easy to use if you don't have the eye or a little knowledge/tips/tricks to make your design "work" it'll probably lack the professional look you're trying to get... but sometimes good enough is good enough, ya know =P

Altough there is some truth to using the right tool for the job, if you don't know how to use the tool it becomes moot...

rampy

[KevSteele]

Of course, there's also Photoshop Elements, which has 80-90% of the features of Photoshop, but costs less than $100.

That's what I use, and I've really grown to like it.

[neuromancer]

If you're going to acquire software to produce graphics, then GIMP might be your best choice. It has 99% of the functionality of Photoshop, at a GNU price (i.e. only how much your bandwidth costs).

Adobe Illustrator is hard to beat for vector graphics. Corel Draw isn't bad, but it is very different from Illustrator. Given the price differential, if you're buying Draw, you might as well get Illustrator. AFAIK, there are no decent GNU vector packages. If you're shopping for Draw, you used to be able to buy the Draw enging "i.e. the program" without all the clipart, in a package with other Corel software, for much less money.

Bob

[Zapper]

Photoshop, Painter, Illustrator and FreeHand are all excellent programs that I've used. Older versions like Photoshop 3,  Illustrator 7 and FreeHand 5.5 can be dirt cheep and still work great. My dad sticks to Paint Shop Pro and my brother swears by GIMP and Killistrator  

[CthulhuLuke]

I use Photoshop 7.0, great stuff in there.  Adobe really knows what they're doing, although they overprice like no one else, so you might as well pick up the *trial* copy since you're probably bout as poor as the rest of us.  Photoshop has a lot of really good tutorials out there, and if you want to spend the extra time learning it, Illustrator can be good as well for extremely clean lines, although I'm good at improvising.  I've heard PSP 5.0 is fine, but I've kinda grown up with Photoshop since like 5.0, and it hasn't let me down yet.
  -CthulhuLuke

[PoDunkMoFo]

I do Signs and Graphics for a living.  I myself use some sign specific software for initial vector (layout) work and then Photoshop to add effects.

I have used Illustrator and Corel in the past and the FACT is the results that can be achieved in Corel as far as quality are NO different from those that can be achieved in  Illustrator.  It's just two different means to an end.  Your skill and comfort level with any program is more important than who makes it.

[Brax]

GIMP looks like a really interesting choice! Thanks for the heads up. It's seems to be more than powerful enough for our uses! I'll be giving it a try!

[OSCAR]

If you're going to acquire software to produce graphics, then GIMP might be your best choice. It has 99% of the functionality of Photoshop, at a GNU price (i.e. only how much your bandwidth costs).

I agree, the GIMP is a nice choice.  The large 5600x1600 MAME logos I created that are in my Gallery were mostly made with the GIMP, but I made them Photoshop files because it is a more portable format.  I also use Photoshop, but for some reason I normally use the GIMP.

I've got to jump on this Illustrator bandwagon someday, sounds nice...