steelmanronald06 Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 Okay, thinking about buying the latest version of photoshop. I want to get fairly good at web design, to where I can design my own layouts. Can I get comments? Is photoshop what I need? Obviously I know HTML and CSS So, links to tutorials, free software, or what? Opinions? jcombs, i notice you always have good designs. Can i get an opinion from you Please? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ober Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 If you don't want to spend the money, you could always download Gimp and give that a shot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roopurt18 Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 I purchased photoshop a while back and while it was expensive, only CS2, and I use only a fraction of photoshop's features, I don't regret it. I bought two books, one based on using photoshop for web design and another outlining type effects, and a few magazines. All-in-all I spent around $825, which is a big hit for me, but now I'm confident I can do my own web design or at least come up with a basic design to pass off to a professional, if I needed to. @ober, when I installed linux on my windows box using VMWare, I showed my penny-pinching fiance Gimp and said, "Look baby, free photoshop!" She just about had a heart attack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcombs_31 Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 Gimp is nowhere near as good as photoshop. I think photoshop is a must for any designer. I've now taken a liking to Illustrator for logo work. There is quite a learning curve to any of these programs, so you have to be patient. I suggest the first thing you come to learn is the pen tool. It acts very similar in all graphic programs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcombs_31 Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 It may not be appropriate for me to say this, but you guys pay for software? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelmanronald06 Posted April 18, 2007 Author Share Posted April 18, 2007 haha! I use Gimp. Does it have the same features as photoshop??? Also, any tutorials on web design would be great :-/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bilis_money Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 yeah you are right go with photoshop. here is my previous work with photoshop. www . national united . net just remove all spaces. i have more websites done using photoshop but they are very confidential... and type this to google "photoshop tutorials" good-tutorials.com is cool. and many other places. good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ober Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 It may not be appropriate for me to say this, but you guys pay for software? I normally do... but with the money I bring in doing this type of stuff (less than a few grand/year), it wouldn't be worth it for me to buy PS. That's why I'm currently going down the Gimp route. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roopurt18 Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 It may not be appropriate for me to say this, but you guys pay for software? Back when I was a poor student and had no money, if I couldn't get it at student discount I rarely paid for it. But now that I have my feet on the ground, yes, I do pay for software. After all, what kind of human would I be if I expected people to buy my software but give me theirs for free? Also, I'm planning on releasing some of my own online applications so it's important to ensure everything about them is legit. No need to get entangled in some nasty lawsuit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcombs_31 Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 Let big business and education pay the software companies. Paying more that a couple hundred dollars for any piece of sofware is rediculous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelmanronald06 Posted April 18, 2007 Author Share Posted April 18, 2007 :-/ I think the prices are way to high! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roopurt18 Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 Paying more that a couple hundred dollars for any piece of sofware is rediculous. I agree. However, it takes money to make money, as they say. And purchasing tools that continue to make me money is a good investment, as well as tax-deductible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelmanronald06 Posted April 18, 2007 Author Share Posted April 18, 2007 tax-deductable. haha! my step mom raises pups for a business, and when she goes to the store to shop, she will buy dog food so she can make the gas that it took to get her there tax-deductable :-P hahaha! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
448191 Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 And purchasing tools that continue to make me money is a good investment, as well as tax-deductible. Tax deductible !== cheap Paying more that a couple hundred dollars for any piece of sofware is rediculous. I almost fully agree. I'd say it holds true for consumer and small business software. But lets face it, this is how capitalism works. They CAN charge this much, so they do. Any CEO would get hung by his shareholders if he doesn't make sure he prices his products right. And 'right pricing' is dependant on the formula. Photoshop has a reasonably 'high-end' image, and the price only adds to that image. For an excellent example, check out Cinema Craft Encoder. It's an MPEG2 encoder. It comes in two versions which both use the same engine, named 'Basic' and 'SP2'. Pricing: Basic $58.- SP2 $1950.- Now do you think the few extra encoding options that SP2 offers justify a 3300% increase in price? Of course not. SP2 is aimed at professionals, Basic at consumers and small business. Many buyers, consumers and businesses alike, trust that something that is more expensive is also 'better'. And usually it is. A little. Photoshop must be much better than Gimp, because it's INF times more expensive.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neylitalo Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 Photoshop must be much better than Gimp, because it's INF times more expensive.. There are quite a few things you can do a lot easier in Photoshop than in the GIMP, and a few things that Photoshop can do that GIMP all-out can't, but for the most part, with a bit of work, you can make some really cool stuff in the GIMP. Let it be known that my GIMP experience is limited to really simple stuff... my avatar, for example. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
448191 Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 You do know that last line was a joke right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neylitalo Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 You do know that last line was a joke right? I did indeed recognize it as a joke, but there are people who go through a thought process as follows: 1. Photoshop costs money. 2. The GIMP is free. 3. You get what you pay for. 4. The GIMP is teh suck. So I just thought I'd take that opportunity to set any mis-led souls on the right path. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
448191 Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 That's one way of putting it... In fact, that's mostly what my post said : cheap->goodness == expensive->goodness + aLittleButLessThanYouPayFor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redbullmarky Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 The age old argument used by companies and bitter consumers, "people getting free software just raises the price for everyone else" kinda gets dashed out the water considering there's such a strong open source community. I sit on the fence - both with my opinions and my actions and don't promote either way of obtaining commercial software. When you buy Macromedia Studio MX, then out of the blue (unless you go fishing) just a week or two later they release a brand new version for pretty much the same price and expect a huge upgrade fee, it's really not a hard choice, and the morals are dished out both ways. Call it getting even, if you wish. However, in 99.9% of cases, there's an open source solution just waiting there for me, and as some will possibly know, I have NO issues donating money off my own bat for something I find incredibly useful. Even if it's only a couple of ££, it all helps and shows appreciation. If someone wants to download commercial software for free, it really isnt my job to criticise or voice my morals. My weapon of choice for graphics is Fireworks MX - I find it easy enough to use, but incredibly powerful. I only do pretty simple stuff anyway - logos, gradients, dropshadows, etc - most of my sites are CSS/colour styled to make up for the fact that I am artistically retarded. I hope this doesnt start a "stealing software is like stealing a car" type argument, as each and every time i've seen one, all of those on their moral perch can be exposed in some area or another, no matter how big or small. They're about as fake as the majority who claim to do all their coding in Windows' standard Notepad and design/graphics in Paint. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelmanronald06 Posted April 18, 2007 Author Share Posted April 18, 2007 Limewire Pro became my solution. :-D I used limewire to download limewire pro then I used limewire pro to download photoshop :-/ Call me crazy! But I don't see why I should pay for something that I could just go to my college computer lab and use. honestly! Also, most local libraries have it installed on their computer. Take a JumpDrive with you, work on it, and go home :-/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roopurt18 Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 The age old argument used by companies and bitter consumers, "people getting free software just raises the price for everyone else" kinda gets dashed out the water considering there's such a strong open source community. I've heard that argument myself and quite frankly, it annoys the crap out of me. There's a couple of factors that go into a pricing a product: 1) It has to at least break even. If your product isn't breaking even your business won't last long. 2) You have to pay your employees. If you can't pay your employees competitive wages, they'll go work for your competition. After 1 and 2, the final factor in determining pricing is: 3) How much can we get away with charging? Once you're breaking even (or earning profit), you can afford to ask yourself how much people are really willing to pay. A price increase from this factor usually results in a split of money. Some of the extra money coming in goes into R&D for the company, some of it goes into the company execs' pockets. I'm perfectly fine with all this. When I create software, I don't do it because I'm bored with nothing better to do. I have bills to pay and I want to retire early. So I have no problem with others that do the same thing. I don't mind paying money for a software product that I utilize and makes my life easier. I don't mind paying $.99 per song if I enjoy and listen to it often either. What I really hate is the price of movie tickets and the movie industry is another that uses similar logic quoted at the top of this post. Yah sure, the reason movie prices went up is because teenagers download movies on the internet; never mind the fact that any cinaplex has a billion adolescents milling about outside on any given Friday / Saturday. I don't think movie prices have anything to do with the millions of dollars <random movie star> gets paid or the insane markup on condiments at the snack bar. I still don't steal / download movies though. I just wait, at most 6 months, for them to hit DVD and rent them with Blockbuster Online. The other thing we all have to remember is every business plans for a specific amount of revenue to be lost to stolen / pirated goods. If the cost of goods / services lost was greater than the cost of enforcing legitimacy, it would be harder to steal them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelmanronald06 Posted April 23, 2007 Author Share Posted April 23, 2007 Okay, I got photoshop, but where do I start? Tutorials, etc? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roopurt18 Posted April 23, 2007 Share Posted April 23, 2007 I bought this book: How to Wow: Photoshop CS2 for the Web http://www.amazon.com/How-Wow-Photoshop-CS2-Web/dp/0321393945/ref=sr_1_6/103-2697599-1496625?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1177367134&sr=1-6 From the user reviews it appears you'll either love it or hate it. I didn't use it for much more than the first set of tutorials, but after doing those and reading a couple of Photoshop magazines I know enough to get stuff done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelmanronald06 Posted April 23, 2007 Author Share Posted April 23, 2007 uno problemo...i don't buy stuff :-P I get free stuff :-) Know of a place to get it for free?? OR! You could scan it onto your computer and email it to me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmgmyr Posted April 24, 2007 Share Posted April 24, 2007 Here are a few good ones: http://tutorialoutpost.com/ http://www.good-tutorials.com/ http://www.photoshopforce.com/tutorials/index.php Good Luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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