That is so annoying it drives me insane.
I’ve acquired complete months of instagram posts in Photoshop Artboards (or not
even that, simply teams of layers) and now a a number of web page brochure.
Typically the file simply doesn’t open proper or crashes my app. I don’t get it man.
Typically is a file filled with stuff that I’ve to print and there’s no vector sensible objects.
InDesign exists and Illustrator exists, the recordsdata are a lot cleaner and lighter, however individuals ONLY USE PHOTOSHOP.
WHY
Edit: I’m not a photoshop hater guys
Please young and new designers, challenge yourself to use the right tool for the right job. I can’t remember a work day when I didn’t open InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop, often bouncing back and forth between all 3. Edit a photo in photoshop, design an icon set in Illustrator, place them into the 20-page report in InDesign. Each program prioritizes the tools you’ll need for the task at hand and the workflow keeps your file sizes manageable for storage and edits.
This is funny. I work in apparel where most of the graphics and design ppl were raised on a steady diet of illustrator and will drive 50 miles out of their way to avoid using anything else.
Even if a task would obviously be faster and easier with photoshop the won’t touch it.
I think it’s usually the first program designers start playing around with and most beginners or casual designers just feel more comfortable. It blows my mind the amount of people who still use it to design logos or posters with a ton of type.
Side rant:
An old client of ours would do a 300+ page product catalog every year. They asked us to lay out a section. I did about 80 pages and sent along the packaged up Indesign files to add to theirs. The in-house designer responded and asked that I send Illustrator files instead, as that is what he is using.
He was literally laying out hundreds of spreads using Illustrator artboards with embedded images and now I had to do the same. Needless to say it was a nightmare. Programs kept crashing, it took an insane amount of time to save files, hours of time wasted watching the spinning wheel, etc. We politely mentioned that Indesign would have been a more efficient program for this, but he would have none of it. He said that printers always prefer Illustrator files and he’s never heard of anyone using Indesign for this type of project. To this day that makes absolutely no sense to me.
Familiarity. Illustrator has a higher barrier to entry. And unless you do a lot of print work, InDesign isn’t something everyone will know.
I’ve worked hard to get my team to use XD for digital design work, they resisted because it’s a learning curve… “why can’t we just do it in Illustrator”? But once you understood how to use it, you can’t go back to more static layout programs.
Each tool has a purpose, although arguably there is so much overlap in Adobe’s programs that they might be better off restricting certain functionality to make them more mutually exclusive. Sure you can create and edit vectors in Photoshop but… do you really need to?
They’re scared of illustrator. I can never work out how people claim to create vectors in photoshop – so I feel your pain!
My favourite is packaging in illustrator where all the text has been outlined and you get asked to make some “small” changes to the text…
Wait, you can do multiple photoshop artboards in a single document!?
When did this happen? This is life changing!!
I think it has to do a lot with inexperience and misplaced pride. My stepson wanted to do graphic design in college and he dropped out because he couldn’t stand using any program other than photoshop. He was at that age where he knew everything and refused any sort of advice from me (hell I’d only been a professional graphic designer for 20 years so my advice was worth nothing…)
I also worked with a young guy who was just out of college for illustration and — guess what! — he insisted on doing everything in illustrator. He wouldn’t touch any other program. Again, pride and inexperience.
I’ve worked in high pressure environments where corners were sometimes cut to meet deadline and efficiency was so key that, yes, you absolutely needed to use the proper tool to get a job done right. I survived through tons of rounds of layoffs because I rarely had a need to cut corners because I usually used the best tool for each project. And that’s just something I think needs to be learned, not taught.
If pride gets in the way, one might fail to learn, and then corners don’t get cut, but jobs do.
yeah I just recieved a 32 page publication document designed in illustrator from a suposedly senior design director at my agency…
Yeah this… I took over a design role a year ago I have spent so much time rebuilding shit in Illustrator or InDesign that was stupidly built in Photoshop. Things like pricing menus and 20pg brochures.
Why would I use a vector based application to create photography based images?
Photoshop itself, at this point in the information age, has become a meme. In casual conversation, if it’s a digital medium, you’ve never heard anything other than “it’s ‘shopped!” Once even I heard a random guy point out a movie special effect as “it’s done in Photoshop”.
I have to admit, back in my early teens, my knowledge of design in general started from the exposure of Photoshop, and I have done things from vectorized shapes to short GIF animation with it, which is later I know that there’s another apps which is better suited for those jobs.
Could say the exact same thing with Illustrator and XD (if we’re sticking to adobe).
Why are designers still slamming a full website design across 30 artboards in ai so my Mac can just s**t itself.
This is me when our graphic designer sends me packaging labels as a jpeg.
Then I have to edit them, so I ask for an AI file.
Then I receive a PSD that was converted to an AI file that actually isn’t workable, it’s just a bunch of images in an AI file.
The irony is that I’ve taught myself AI, PS, ID, plus premiere, after effects, etc. and never went to school for it.
And she has a degree.
I do all my social in photoshop …. and I love artboards and layers.
nearly all of my social includes images (not vector) so why would I use illustrator and Indesign sucks for exporting digital.
Photoshop for everything, illustrator for 20+ menu designs full of picture, and indesign never installed! FFS INDESIGN is the hub for me, it is core to me work, I place the ai files, and the psd, I use the layers on and off function to avoid saving the same document with a little change too many times, I do magazines, posters, books, web banners, instagram post and stories, and the best part… Exporting PDFs out of indesign is a godsend, a pdf that could be 300mb ouf of illustrator, it is exported perfectly fine and ready to print in indesign at 6mb.
Instructions unclear
*starts making brochure in After Effects*
Photoshop is my least favorite. Hate it. I’d much rather use illustrator and ID. I’ll use photoshop but boy do I have to have my handheld by tutorials and prayers 😂🤣. I swear it looks like I’m fighting for my sanity on photoshop.
I learned photoshop, illustrator and Quark Xpress (later InDesign) in 1988 (In a cave.) It was v 1.0 at that time, the screens were in black and white and I had to use Pantone charts to create and imagine everything in colour. But I thought I had literally arrived in heaven, and didn’t have to wait for the technician to spit out the printed text so I could roll it down on a board with wax.
It’s really not that hard to learn how to use all these tools.
I still use them, though I have switched to the Affinity trio because they are affordable and I don’t work in graphics anymore. I do it for myself. Once a graphic designer, always a graphic designer.
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If it’s social posts and they require retouching then Photoshop was probably the correct choice. The reality is you should be using multiple Creative Cloud apps simultaneously and compiling the assets in the correct programme for the format you are exporting.
For example, say your creating an animation, you would build/edit raster assets in photoshop, complex vectors in Illustrator. Animate those assets in After Effects and if needed Premier Pro after that (depends on the length of the video/single vs. Multiple scenes).
Photoshop is one of the better programmes when it comes to optimising image exports for web, using it for social posts seems like the right move to me.
That being said, if they are video based then yeah… horrible choice.
Sometimes they only have a license or a ‘copy’ for photoshop. Sometimes, they don’t feel like learning a new UI.
Yes, using each program for specific tasks is optimal, but that’s just how it goes with people.
Photoshop is more scary than illustrator 😅 I use both every day but damn I could never get anything done in only photoshop.
I recently saw some Adobe marketing the other day. It basically said that everyone can design with photoshop. I get they need money to run their business. And having one entry point product is less intimidating for newbies who don’t design. But telling people all they need is photoshop to become a professional designer really kills the profession. And makes me feel like they are really missing their true core clients.
I’ve seen too many super arrogant mediocre newbies brag that they can make a whole brochure, presentation, branding etc in photoshop. You can. But that doesn’t mean you should.
Social posts as grouped layers in Photoshop is industry standard and best practice. A brochure should come in as InDesign or a PDF at least though.
I’m a design student and I simply love using Illustrator, but after seeing so many people using Photoshop for everything I felt like I was in the wrong and started using it more to try to adapt to what the market requires of me.
I still prefer Illustrator, though, and I’m glad to see I’m not alone.
I feel you. I make graphics for animators to use and do all of my work in illustrator besides the few times I’ll add some effects in photoshop. The previous designer did everything in photoshop and it made all of the animator’s live hell. She just didn’t like illustrator and was intimidated by it. Don’t even get me started on her feelings for indesign….
Because some people only learn trough youtube.
Youtube is great and all but they forget to teach important things that dont look cool all the time.
Equally as frustrating, receiving an illustrator file that you need to import to AE, which has not been layered and named, but also has multiple artboards, forcing you to spend the next couple hours organising a client’s file for them before actually doing what you were paid for…
This is a major pet peeve of mine. I get it if it’s from a client who only knows PS, but no designer should be doing this, and *wayyyy* too many do.
Another tool I’ve been adding to the list is Adobe Express. Not for the shitty editing features, but they have a QR code generator, a quick tool to convert video to gif, and other marketing tools.
That didn’t stop me from bouncing between AI, PS, AE, and the ME, all to make an email last week though. People ask me why the marketing emails look better than when our marketing employee was making them and I have to explain Canva vs like 3 professional programs.
I got in an illustrator rut for layouts for awhile and a client sent me a proper ID file with links to PS and AI, and having to refresh myself cured me. I always liked that program, but never had enough multi-page print work to use it for.
My pervious boss did the layouts for the companies catalogs and ALL marketing items in photoshop. We’re talking 16-40 PAGE catalogs in separate photoshop files. Brochures, photoshop. Webpage Banners, photoshop. Newspaper ads, photoshop. Social media graphics, photoshop. He was the freakin’ art director. We had the whole Adobe suite, so we had the proper tools. The kicker is all of our products were designed in Illustrator….
I started there in 2009 and I showed him how simple it was to create temp layouts and how smooth it could be. But nope. He said he HAD to do it that way. Why? Cuz that’s how it’s done. Even made me conform to his craziness when I helped with them from time to time. When I left the company in 2020, he was STILL doing everything the same way. Dude couldn’t learn ANY new tricks. I stayed there way too long…
Because they are/have been pirating the software and Photoshop has been available pirated since there was file sharing. In addition, Photoshop being “freely available” has resulted in far more self learning resources for it than any other software.
When everyone with a computer can get the software and find easy to follow tutorials, you end up with a talent pool that is generally more comfortable in Photoshop than any other program.
It has gotten better in recent years. The amount of 1GB+ print files that I get has dropped off significantly in the last decade.
My biggest gripe as a printer!!!
Simply just noobs.
I rember when I first started, I was that way until I realized the power of the other programs and how each one has a certain use.
Admittedly I’ve done social posts in Photoshop because I can produce a ton of 1080×1080 (for example) artboards and take things from there, and that allows for direct image editing/manipulation, but I understand the qualm here. Had one agency/client lately who produced their logos in InDesign, now that was interesting.
I use photoshop for web banner and digital ads. Idk why it just is more seamless for me. And a personal preference But I am always switching between illustrator and photoshop to create them. Icons and vector are greater in illustrator and I move them over to photoshop for my ads.
But I think it can work both ways for digital things. But yeah, I never understand how anyone could create a print piece in photoshop! I’m like howwawww are you doing this????
I completely agree, but isn’t Photoshop the right choice for a set of social media posts. Since it’s digital?
I once got stuck updating 300 page book where the entire layout was done in PowerPoint. I about cried. Like, at least use PUBLISHER.
This is how I started as a kid but then shown the rest of the programs in high school. Now I use all 3. The old designers at my job used photoshop for a lot of things then export it as a jpeg and used it in indesign… gives me a headache trying to fix their files.
I honestly think it’s due to schools that offer graphic design some just teach you program from program but never really tell you to use one program from one thing and so on. My school didn’t teach it but my internship in high school did.
New designers please understand you can drag and drop from program to program for the most part.
Welcome to the party pal. Photoshop is a tool, but it is often treated as a toy, to be played with. InDesign has been abused much the same way. Sometimes people get their hands on these tools and they over use them for everything, instead of using them together. Maybe they’re just showing off, but more likely they don’t have to deal with the issues they create.
I work pre-press and have for 30 years. Sometimes I can’t even edit for press, or for the actual customer, because there are so many layers or background art, that I cannot isolate the one thing on the page that needs, to, be, changed. So they’ll correct it and send me a whole new file, instead of a single page.
I am all for playing with these tools, but use them together. As my drafting teacher’s sign on the wall said in 197-something, “Keep it simple, and pla
n a
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Sorry, my pages hit the ftp and they’re waiting on plates. Plan ahead was what I was trying to say.
Honestly I don’t even like photoshop for anything except editing photos. I am guilty of using illustrator for projects that really need to be done in indesign but man I hate photoshop
Man i really get physically ill when i see someone using Photoshop for layout work
If you design a brochure in photoshop you’ll have to accept you’re not a professional. Lol.
If learning about the tools for your job is to much to ask. Well…