You can find a good range of programs for drawing and Adobe has two top products – Photoshop and Illustrator. In this guide, we look at what each program has to offer for basic graphics and drawing. Check out more photo app reviews here, and our photography hashtags guide as well!
Photoshop
Features
– Advanced brush management
– Full layer management
– Gradients, fill tools, and shapes
– Advanced selection tools
– A host of preset filters
Photoshop does have a great set of tools for drawing. Primarily, this includes an advanced brush system. It has a host of preset brushes that you can tailor to your needs. Also, you can import your own brushes and also use textures and patterns to create brushes.
To complement your drawing, Photoshop also has various raster graphics tools such as gradients, and fill buckets. You can also use the different preset filters, and full-color palette to create some beautiful and interesting artwork.
You can also fully manage your images using layers and edit their basic parameters like brightness. There are also various transformation tools. Whilst drawing may not be the primary function of this program, you still have great freedom with Photoshop’s drawing tools.
Illustrator
Features
– A full set of vector graphics tools
– Automatically extract colors from photos
– Ability to create custom fonts
– Create charts, infographics, and banners
– Full layer management
Adobe Illustrator is a program for creating vector graphics and vector artwork. It is better suited for creating fonts, banners, charts, and infographics, for example.
For basic drawing, Illustrator does not have the same amount of brushes as Photoshop. It has three main categories of brushes – art, pattern, and scatter. Whilst these are still highly useful, you do not have the same degree of control of flexibility.
It does have a pencil, pen, and shape builder set of tools, however, that allow you to add personal hand-drawn touches to your creations. It also has fantastic support for fonts and you can choose from 17,000 different typefaces.
Who are The Apps Suitable For?
Both programs offer drawing capabilities. Photoshop is more suited for creating basic raster graphic artwork for web usage. Alternatively, Illustrator could be better suited for print media and creating scalable vector images using drawing elements. Illustrator is better suited for creating logos and other business branding.
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