Macintosh Graphics Applications

Which ones and Why?

[EliteWeb]

From a Macintosh webmaster's point of view I'd be interested in hearing about all of the different graphics applications used on a day to day basises and what you utilize them for.

We all know about Adobe Photoshop, thats a granted for serious graphic artists, but what are the other ones on your list and the uses they fall into place for. Like Image composer, manipulation, compression, thumbnailing etc.

[mivox]

Graphic Converter is must-have shareware... it can open or save almost any graphic format under the sun. I don't personally care for the editing environment (haven't really tried to learn it though...), but it's invaluable for when you get that "mystery graphic" from someone and need to open it.

I've heard it even solves the "how to create an .ico file on Mac" problem, but Iconographer (also shareware) can do that too, and has a nifty icon-specific editing interface.

[Macguru]

Agreed with mivox for Graphic Converter. I prefer using it over Photoshop for batch conversions.

[Lorel]

Photoshop LE and Fireworks 2 both came bundled with a Scanner I bought a few years back. What one won't do the other will and I often move back and forth between the two and if one won't open a graphic the other one will also.

I'm not a graphic artist but I do a lot of image editing for my web clients so I'm mostly self taught. I learn best by reading books. However, the Fireworks 2's instructions leave a lot to be desired. At least they have an online forum now where one can get help if needed.

[knighty]

Fireworks is a must for any web designer.

It save me so much time and optimizes images pretty darn good too. :)

[pageoneresults]

I'm so glad Brett started this forum on Macintosh issues. And it sure is great to have Macguru at the helm!

Programs used daily:

Quark XPress 4.1
Page layout and design for traditional print media.

Adobe Illustrator 8, 9 and 10
Vector based graphics (.eps). Logo design, redraw, illustrations, etc.

Adobe PhotoShop 5.5, 6.0
Raster based graphics (.eps, .psd, .tif). Intense graphic design, image manipulation, color corrections, etc.

Adobe ImageReady
Absolutely one of the best programs for web graphics final production. Open your .psd in ImageReady, set up your export preferences, slice and dice, and ImageReady outputs your CSS and slices just as you need them! Impressive compression algorithm used, almost as good as Fireworks!

Adobe Acrobat
Proofing and print formats. We utilize the 72dpi setting for email proofing, and the 300dpi setting for print production. One of the best methods of transferring digital files in a compressed format.

Extensis CollectPro
I can't tell you how many fonts I've collected for output over the years. The Extensis CollectPro application is awesome. Launch the program, collect your document, stuffit and off you go. No more searching for fonts and copying them to a folder.

Suitcase
Font management. We have over 10,000 PostScript fonts and font management is mandatory!

Those are just the primary ones. There are many more. We've got four Macs running and each one is set up for specific range of media.