Anyone who has been working within the field of Graphic Design for the last 10 years will know that Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign are the industry leading software programs. In fact if you pick up any magazine in a newsstand the chances are extremely high that part or even most of the design content would have been created using one of these programs.

Developed by Adobe Systems, these programs are the corner stone of Graphic Design.

This article will explain the key differences between these three programs and when each is used in the design process

I think part of the confusion, is that certain tasks can be done in more than one of these programs. For example you can find vector-drawing tools available inside Photoshop and InDesign, even though Illustrator is the predominant vector drawing program. The key to getting the most out of these three programs is to understand what their key functions are and how they can be used together.

Okay so lets look at each program separately. We'll start with Adobe Photoshop, which is probably the best known out of the three. Photoshop is a professional image editing software primarily used for editing bitmap images and image manipulation. Bitmap images are images, which are defined by their pixel structure. In other words digital bitmaps can be broken down into millions of tiny pixels and each pixel has its own attributes. Bitmap images are also referred to as raster images. The most common type of bitmap image is a photographic image. Whether shot on film and scanned into the computer or whether digitally shot, photos are made up of millions of tiny pixels. So simply put Photoshop is a tool used to edit photographic images. It also has the ability to do lots of other things but the core function of Photoshop is to edit Photographic images. If you go down to your local newsagent and pick up any magazine, chances are very good that the images in that magazine would have been edited or altered using Photoshop. Sometimes the adjustments can be minor such as subtle lighting or sharpening adjustments, and other times they could be major like applying a filter or special effect. Photoshop is used for retouching - ever wonder why the models and movie stars never have any cellulite or a double chin - the answer is Photoshop. Images can be comprised of several images in the form of a collage. This effect can also be created in Photoshop.

Adobe Illustrator on the other hand is a vector-drawing program. Vector images are the other main type of digital image. Unlike bitmap images, vector images consist of dots which are joined together with lines, each line defined as a mathematical formula. Vectors are very good for creating images, which contain large sections of the same color. So for example a navigation button on your web site, your company logo, or any non-photographic image would be better off created as a vector. Illustrator is the World's premiere vector drawing tool, so if you were tasked with creating any kind of 'flat' art, such as a corporate profile, including logos, sign work, letterheads etc, chances are you would use Adobe Illustrator. Adobe InDesign is the newest out of the three programs and is a page layout or publishing program. InDesign is used for putting together stuff like corporate brochures, documents, magazines, newsletters or advertisements. InDesign's specialty is working with documents that contain a large amount of type or text. Often designers will use all three programs on the same project. For example we recently created some new course outlines so we used Illustrator to create our logo and a few other vector graphics, we used Photoshop to apply a special shadow effect to some bitmap images, and finally we imported all those elements from Illustrator and Photoshop into InDesign where we added the copy and defined the layout.

High quality professional design can really enhance a company's professional image. Using Adobe's Creative Suite combined with some professional training can give you the tools to succeed in a competitive World.