Reality Question

[gidgit]

Is PhotoImpact recognized and taught in colleges and alike or is that spot reserved for PhotoShop?

I guess what I wish to know is: if I spend a thousand hours learning this app will it help me gain employment or is it better to spend this amount of time practicing with say PhotoShop...

I am not asking for opinions on which app one prefers for their chosen hobby, but rather...opinions based upon objective realities....aimed towards gaining employment in print houses, web design companies etc...

Talk about your tounge and cheek topic eh?

[This message was edited by gidgit on March 21, 2002 at 19:37.]

[turbokitty]

Hi,
I understand exactly what question you are asking, cuz that was the question I had about 2 years ago when I started to learn graphics software. :-)

PhotoImpact is a fun and relatively easy-to-learn software, but it's far from being an industrial standard software.

I'm currently taking some computer art classes in college and what my teachers have told us was that there are certain industry standard softwares and if you want to get a job in graphics or desktop publishing field, you've got to know Photoshop, Illustrator, Freehand, Quarkxpress, In Design, PageMaker...
You don't need to know all of them mentioned above, but you'll have a bigger chance to get a job if you're familiar with all of them.

When it comes to photo manipulation/digital imaging, Photoshop keeps a solid place as THE SOFTWARE in the field, unfortunately.

I've been playing with Photo Impact and PSP just for a fun of it, and they are excellent software for personal hobby stuff. And most of all, they are very cost-effective. :-)
But if you want to get a job in the industry, I recommend you learn those industry standards.

[RJ Swift]

Hiya'

In other words, though, you just have to learn the whole Adobe catalog, huh?? [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

I have a friend who used to work at Discmakers (A graphics designing/printing/ disc & cassette manufacturing and mastering house) and he said that you had to know those and Corel Draw also to work in their graphics design dept as well as any graphics print houses. Another friend of mine who is studying in Nashville for graphics design said the same thing to me last year.

RJ

[This message was edited by RJ Swift on March 22, 2002 at 18:41.]

[stephaniebt]

I guess if you have to work for someone else and they demand PS, you're going to have to learn it. I have seen and heard variations on this thread a thousand times over the last five years. If you work for yourself, all people want to see is results and they don't care how you do it. Fortunately you can do probably 90% of what PS does in PI. That's one reason the software cost 6X as much as PI.

PI is taught at colleges in the US, but certainly not as much as PS. Sometimes the class is taught purely based on PI, others include information about PI in web design classes. My books have served as the text for several college classes I know of, including one that's been offered for several years now at Judson College in Alabama. I get requests for lesson plans from college instructors, so I know the interest is out there.

Stephanie's PhotoImpact Tutorials

[dk_art]

I guess if you want a job in the "industry" you must use what they say you must use. If you work for yourself you can use what you like ( Corel Suite, Canvas, Picture Publisher, Paint Shop Pro ,PhotoImpact ...etc...). As far as "industry standard" goes I feel that's mostly just a factor of history and who became the standard for the biz by luck and good marketting and not entirely by having better features or higher quality than others.

I have nothing against photoshop but I like PI much better. Although I thought version 6 of PS became even more likable to my eyes with some features such as vector shapes and such which would have made life much easier sometimes (IMHO).

Perhaps there might be interest in learning PI by small business owners. PS can be quite expensive especially outside the US where the money is different (here in Canada the futureshop lists it at $999 ... you add 15% tax and you get $1148).

David K ... www.dkingdesign.com http://www.dkingdesign.com/stuff/signature.jpg

[gidgit]

"I guess" then from the responces here, the "reality" is is that PS is the app to learn if one is serious in gaining employment with "someone" else...

[RJ Swift]

Hello again all,

So, PhotoImpact IS being recognized and taught somewhere, at least. Maybe many don't take PI seriously because of it's "home software" price. The fact that it intergrates almost seemlessly back and fourth with Photoshop ALONE should earn it more recognition along with it being a power-packed application! But, that "spot", for the most part, is for Photoshop.

If one spends thousands of hours learning PI, they can gain employment in a "Photoshop world". If one did their project in PI (assuming the company only used PS as its' format), they could just save their PI work as a .psd document (also assuming that PS opens .psd from PI with PI effects intact because, so far, I've only used PS effects on my PI-PS work), open in PS, and do any needed PS work one desires. After all, PI works with "layers", too. So, the answer to that question is sure! And Be sucessful doing it! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Yes, to an extent, Photoshop is the application to learn if you want to work for someone else BUT, Photoshop is also the application to learn if you want to work for yourself. Photoshop is a great power-packed application itself, no doubt.

RJ Swift (Mr. Postman) [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

[This message was edited by RJ Swift on March 27, 2002 at 08:04.]