Archiwum miesiąca: maj 2019

Web Tools

Best Software for Icon Design: Photoshop vs. Illustrator

Post pobrano z: Best Software for Icon Design: Photoshop vs. Illustrator

Final product image
What You’ll Be Creating

As a designer, you’ve probably wondered which Adobe product does a better job when it comes to the process of creating icons.

Some love Photoshop, while others rely exclusively on Illustrator, but if you search the web, you’ll find that there’s no really comprehensive comparison between the two.

That being the case, I did what I always do and took the time to put the two to the test in order to find out.

If you want to learn how to make icons, whether it’s a line icon pack, a set of social media icons, or maybe even a couple of Mac icon sets, you first have to find out which software is a better fit for you. 

Today, with the whole minimal icon style trend, icon design is becoming more and more accessible, which means that as long as you put in the time and energy, you should be able to grow your craft, assuming you have the right tool for the job. 

From a simple help icon to a development icon set, the software can and will affect the way you design your assets, which is why I want to show you how the two behave when it comes to this creative process.

That being said, let’s jump straight into it!

1. What Is the Intended Creative Purpose of Each Software?

Even though both Photoshop and Illustrator are part of the same Creative Cloud family of products, they actually serve different creative needs, or at least they used to until Photoshop was reimagined from a dedicated photo editing/manipulation tool into an all-around creative one, capable of doing much more.

So then, what are the main differences between the two?

Well, if we take a quick look at Photoshop’s official web page, we’ll see that Adobe advertises the product as:

The world’s best imaging and graphic design software. Create and enhance photographs, illustrations, and 3d artwork. Design websites and mobile apps. Edit videos, simulate real-life paintings, and more. It’s everything you need to make any idea real.

At first glance, that seems to be a pretty good product description, since you get a clear idea of what the software is capable of doing.

Now, let’s move over to Illustrator and see how Adobe describes its other product:

The industry-standard vector graphics software lets you create logos, icons, drawings, typography, and illustrations for print, web, video, and mobile.

Well, as you can see, the two are actually pretty similar in terms of their intended use cases, especially when it comes to icon design, since both are advertised as capable of handling this sort of a creative process.

So how do you actually decide which software might be better when it comes to creating icons?

Well, the answer is a bit more complicated than you might think, as we will get to see in the following moments, since it all comes down to a few key factors.

2. What Is the Artboard Support Like?

The first thing that an icon designer should truly care about is Artboard support.

This is where the two set themselves apart, since Illustrator gives you the option of setting up multiple Artboards from the start, using its New Document window prompt, making the entire process really simple and intuitive.

setting up a new document in illustrator

With the latest update, the software is now able of creating a whopping 1,000 Artboards, which for an icon designer is… truly amazing.

Photoshop, on the other hand, whether you’re using the new slick-looking window prompt or the legacy one, doesn’t seem to give you this ability.

With the more modern interface, you have the option of using Artboards, but there’s no actual way of setting a specific number or adjusting simple things such as spacing, the number of columns, or the distribution method.

photoshop new document setup

Of course, you can go around this little setup bump by switching over to the Artboard Tool and manually adding the desired number of Artboards by clicking on one of the plus signs depending on where you want the software to position them, but that’s a lot more time-consuming than it should be.

example of setting up multiple artboards in photoshop

When it comes to the maximum number of Artboards that you can set up, I couldn’t find any official information, but I’m pretty sure it’s up there with Illustrator, so 1,000—I gave up after Artboard number 500.

3. How Does Basic Shape Selection Work?

Now that we’ve seen how the two handle the process of setting up Artboards, let’s take a close look at shape selection.

In Photoshop, to select a shape, you’ll first want to make sure that the Move Tool (V) is currently the active tool, and then you can simply click or drag over the surface of the desired shape in order to make a selection.

example of selecting a single shape in photoshop

Now, the problem is that once a shape is selected, there’s no actual way of telling if the selection was made or not, which to be honest is pretty annoying.

The only way to make sure that a selection was actually made is to take a close look at the Layers panel, where you’ll get a darker background underneath the shape layer itself.

example of shape selection visible in the layers panel in photoshop

Luckily for us, we can actually change this behavior, by first selecting the shape, then going over to the top Application Bar, and then checking the Show Transform Controls option.

example of enabling the bounding box in photoshop

If we move on over to Illustrator, we’ll quickly see that when it comes to selection, the software does a better job since it feels more intuitive from the start, without you having to make any adjustments.

To select a single shape, we can easily do so by first switching over to the Selection Tool and then left-clicking or dragging over its surface, which will immediately bring up its bounding box, letting us know that a selection was indeed made.

example of selecting a single shape using the click method in illustrator

Compared to Photoshop, Illustrator has an ace up its sleeve when it comes to selection, since it gives you the option of targeting and selecting multiple shapes based on similar traits such as Appearance, Fill Color, Opacity, Stroke Color, etc.

To do this, simply select one of the shapes, and then head over to Select > Same and choose one of its 12 available options.

4. How Does Basic Shape Adjustment Work?

Now that we’ve seen how the two handle shape selection, let’s dig in a little deeper and see how they behave when it comes to shape adjustment.

By definition, a vector shape is composed of a closed or open path that is defined by a set of two or more anchor points.

In Photoshop, you can easily adjust a shape by first selecting its anchor point(s) using the Direct Selection Tool (A), and then dragging it in the desired direction.

example of re positioning the anchor of a shape in photoshop

Illustrator uses the same basics, where you use its dedicated Direct Selection Tool (A) to select a shape’s composing anchor point, and then click and drag it in the desired direction in order to adjust the shape of the object.

Now, compared to Photoshop, Illustrator gives you a little info window where you can see the number of pixels that the anchor point travels as you drag it around.

example of adjusting the position of an anchor in illustrator

If you need to combine high precision with a fast workflow, you’re going to find that Illustrator does a better job, since it allows you to select the anchor and then use its Move tool, by right-clicking and then going to Transform > Move, which should bring up a new window where you can individually adjust its position on the Horizontal and Vertical axes.

adjusting the position of an anchor using the move tool

The process of adjusting the position of an anchor point is actually fun and easy to do, but what about those situations when you need to completely remove one from a shape’s path?

Well, in Photoshop, you can easily remove an anchor by selecting it using the Direct Selection Tool (A) and then pressing the Delete key, which will open up the shape’s path, as you can see.

example of removing an anchor in photoshop

To close the resulting path, we’ll need to grab the Pen Tool (P), click on one of the disconnected anchor points, and then close the line by clicking on the remaining one.

example of closing up a path using photoshop

If we switch over to Illustrator, the software uses the same process, where in order to remove an anchor point you first have to select it using the Direct Selection Tool (A) and then erase it by pressing Delete.

example of opening up a path in illustrator

When it comes to closing the resulting path, things are a little bit easier this time around, since all you have to do is use the Control-J keyboard shortcut, which will join the disconnected anchors back to one another using a straight path segment.

example of closing up a path in illustrator

5. How Does Advanced Shape Adjustment Work?

At this point, we’ve seen what the two can do when it comes to basic shape adjustments, so let’s turn things up a little bit and play with more advanced adjustments.

Compared to Illustrator, Photoshop lacks Pathfinder’s Shape Modes which allow you to adjust one shape using another, but hold on, don’t panic since it does have a set of similar functions hidden within one of its menus.

Before we move on, I wanted to point out that, yes, I’m aware of the Path operations panel, but believe me, it works so strangely that you’re better off staying away from it.

So let’s say that we have a pretty basic 32 x 32 px square that we want to adjust by removing a 20 x 20 px circle from its top-right corner.

example of shapes to be adjusted in photoshop

Once we have our shapes in place, we can select them both and go to Layers > Combine Shapes > Subtract Front Shape.

example of subtracting a shape in photoshop

Now, even though the subtraction took place correctly, the path of the circle ended up being attached to that of the square, which we will want to fix by opening up the Path operations panel, and then using its Merge Shape Components function.

example of merging paths in photoshop

I won’t go over the remaining three Path operations, since they’re pretty self-explanatory. Just remember that as long as you follow the above process, you should be totally fine.

If we switch over to Illustrator, we’ll find that it comes with a different implementation of the path adjustments available within Photoshop, which to be honest are a little easier to use.

By default, the panel is hidden, so you’ll have to select multiple shapes in order for it to appear within the right Tools panel.

As soon as the panel becomes visible, we can achieve the same result as in Photoshop, by selecting the two created shapes and then simply using the Minus Front Shape Mode. It’s that simple.

example of using minus front in illustrator

Illustrator will immediately perform the operation, giving us a nice clean path. 

example of resulting subtracted shape in illustrator

Again, I’m not going to go over all of the remaining Shape Modes since they’re pretty descriptive, but I really encourage you to try them out, especially if this is your first time using Illustrator.

6. How Do the Two Take Advantage of the Pixel Grid?

When creating small assets such as icons, you’ll always find yourself in the position where you need to be able to see how their different composing shapes behave in relation to one another, and more importantly to their underlying Artboard.

This is where the ability to use a Pixel Grid comes in handy, since it allows you to see the actual underlying fabric, and thus have a higher degree of control over your shapes when it comes to anchor positioning and, more importantly, Artboard positioning.

By default, Photoshop comes with the grid enabled, but as you can see, it’s only visible within the actual surface of a shape, which isn’t the best approach that Adobe could have taken.

example of pixel grid in photoshop

When it comes to making basic shape adjustments, the software allows us to keep track of the number of pixels that our anchor points travel, but it forces us to actually count the pixels themselves, which is only possible when using the click-and-drag method.

example of positioning an anchor using the click and drag method in photoshop

If you need to position a shape in relation to another, this time around Photoshop does a better job, since its smart guides and info panel help you keep a perfect track of both the horizontal and vertical movements of the shape, as long as you’re using the click-and-drag method.

positioning a shape using the click and drag method within the pixel grid in photoshop

So far so good, but here comes the part that kind of renders the tool useless, since if you want to use the Pen Tool (P) to draw a shape using specific values, there’s no way of doing so, since the Grid isn’t visible outside the surface of a shape.

drawing a path using the pen tool onto the pixel grid within photoshop

From what I could see, this is mainly due to the color of the Grid’s lines, which can’t be changed. The only solution to the problem as of now would be to create a shape that fills in the entire surface of the Artboard, and set its color to something darker like a grey, which again would require you to take extra steps.

Now, let’s switch over to Illustrator and see how it handles these type of situations.

Similarly to Photoshop, the software comes with its own dedicated version of the Pixel Grid, which can be turned on by heading over to View > Pixel Preview or by using the Alt-Control-Y keyboard shortcut.

As soon as we turn it on, we’ll quickly notice that compared to Photoshop, where the grid was visible only within the surface of its shapes, here the grid is applied to the entire document.

example of pixel preview inside of illustrator

By taking this different approach, the software does a better job of helping you keep track of the pixel count, as we will see in the following moments.

As with Photoshop, we can easily adjust the position of an anchor point and keep a perfect track of the number of pixels traveled, only this time around the entire process is easier since it comes with its own dedicated info panel.

example of adjusting the position of an anchor using the click and drag method inside of pixel preview mode

When it comes to positioning a shape in relation to one another, we can easily do so as long as we use the click-and-drag method, since it will allow us to keep track of the pixel count using the little info panel.

example of positioning a shape using the click and drag method inside of the pixel preview mode

Now, here comes the part that truly sets Illustrator apart, since if we need to draw a shape using the Pen Tool (P), we can easily keep track of the distance found between its composing anchor points using the little info panel.

drawing a path using the pen tool tool inside of pixel preview mode

At this point, we’ve covered most of the basic aspects that you need to take into consideration when choosing the “right” software, which means that we can now finally move on to the conclusion part.

Conclusion

The number of advantages Illustrator has makes it the clear winner here:

  • better Artboard support
  • shape selection is faster and more intuitive
  • both basic and advanced shape adjustments are easier to perform
  • an overall better Pixel Grid experience

That being said, I truly hope this information comes in useful, and if you have any questions, feel free to post them within the comments section, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

Further Develop Your Icon-Building Skills

Just finished going through this in-depth article, and feel like learning more? Well, if that’s the case, you’re in luck, since I took the time to put together this little list that should keep you going for the following days!

Web Tools

Best Software for Icon Design: Photoshop vs. Illustrator

Post pobrano z: Best Software for Icon Design: Photoshop vs. Illustrator

Final product image
What You’ll Be Creating

As a designer, you’ve probably wondered which Adobe product does a better job when it comes to the process of creating icons.

Some love Photoshop, while others rely exclusively on Illustrator, but if you search the web, you’ll find that there’s no really comprehensive comparison between the two.

That being the case, I did what I always do and took the time to put the two to the test in order to find out.

If you want to learn how to make icons, whether it’s a line icon pack, a set of social media icons, or maybe even a couple of Mac icon sets, you first have to find out which software is a better fit for you. 

Today, with the whole minimal icon style trend, icon design is becoming more and more accessible, which means that as long as you put in the time and energy, you should be able to grow your craft, assuming you have the right tool for the job. 

From a simple help icon to a development icon set, the software can and will affect the way you design your assets, which is why I want to show you how the two behave when it comes to this creative process.

That being said, let’s jump straight into it!

1. What Is the Intended Creative Purpose of Each Software?

Even though both Photoshop and Illustrator are part of the same Creative Cloud family of products, they actually serve different creative needs, or at least they used to until Photoshop was reimagined from a dedicated photo editing/manipulation tool into an all-around creative one, capable of doing much more.

So then, what are the main differences between the two?

Well, if we take a quick look at Photoshop’s official web page, we’ll see that Adobe advertises the product as:

The world’s best imaging and graphic design software. Create and enhance photographs, illustrations, and 3d artwork. Design websites and mobile apps. Edit videos, simulate real-life paintings, and more. It’s everything you need to make any idea real.

At first glance, that seems to be a pretty good product description, since you get a clear idea of what the software is capable of doing.

Now, let’s move over to Illustrator and see how Adobe describes its other product:

The industry-standard vector graphics software lets you create logos, icons, drawings, typography, and illustrations for print, web, video, and mobile.

Well, as you can see, the two are actually pretty similar in terms of their intended use cases, especially when it comes to icon design, since both are advertised as capable of handling this sort of a creative process.

So how do you actually decide which software might be better when it comes to creating icons?

Well, the answer is a bit more complicated than you might think, as we will get to see in the following moments, since it all comes down to a few key factors.

2. What Is the Artboard Support Like?

The first thing that an icon designer should truly care about is Artboard support.

This is where the two set themselves apart, since Illustrator gives you the option of setting up multiple Artboards from the start, using its New Document window prompt, making the entire process really simple and intuitive.

setting up a new document in illustrator

With the latest update, the software is now able of creating a whopping 1,000 Artboards, which for an icon designer is… truly amazing.

Photoshop, on the other hand, whether you’re using the new slick-looking window prompt or the legacy one, doesn’t seem to give you this ability.

With the more modern interface, you have the option of using Artboards, but there’s no actual way of setting a specific number or adjusting simple things such as spacing, the number of columns, or the distribution method.

photoshop new document setup

Of course, you can go around this little setup bump by switching over to the Artboard Tool and manually adding the desired number of Artboards by clicking on one of the plus signs depending on where you want the software to position them, but that’s a lot more time-consuming than it should be.

example of setting up multiple artboards in photoshop

When it comes to the maximum number of Artboards that you can set up, I couldn’t find any official information, but I’m pretty sure it’s up there with Illustrator, so 1,000—I gave up after Artboard number 500.

3. How Does Basic Shape Selection Work?

Now that we’ve seen how the two handle the process of setting up Artboards, let’s take a close look at shape selection.

In Photoshop, to select a shape, you’ll first want to make sure that the Move Tool (V) is currently the active tool, and then you can simply click or drag over the surface of the desired shape in order to make a selection.

example of selecting a single shape in photoshop

Now, the problem is that once a shape is selected, there’s no actual way of telling if the selection was made or not, which to be honest is pretty annoying.

The only way to make sure that a selection was actually made is to take a close look at the Layers panel, where you’ll get a darker background underneath the shape layer itself.

example of shape selection visible in the layers panel in photoshop

Luckily for us, we can actually change this behavior, by first selecting the shape, then going over to the top Application Bar, and then checking the Show Transform Controls option.

example of enabling the bounding box in photoshop

If we move on over to Illustrator, we’ll quickly see that when it comes to selection, the software does a better job since it feels more intuitive from the start, without you having to make any adjustments.

To select a single shape, we can easily do so by first switching over to the Selection Tool and then left-clicking or dragging over its surface, which will immediately bring up its bounding box, letting us know that a selection was indeed made.

example of selecting a single shape using the click method in illustrator

Compared to Photoshop, Illustrator has an ace up its sleeve when it comes to selection, since it gives you the option of targeting and selecting multiple shapes based on similar traits such as Appearance, Fill Color, Opacity, Stroke Color, etc.

To do this, simply select one of the shapes, and then head over to Select > Same and choose one of its 12 available options.

4. How Does Basic Shape Adjustment Work?

Now that we’ve seen how the two handle shape selection, let’s dig in a little deeper and see how they behave when it comes to shape adjustment.

By definition, a vector shape is composed of a closed or open path that is defined by a set of two or more anchor points.

In Photoshop, you can easily adjust a shape by first selecting its anchor point(s) using the Direct Selection Tool (A), and then dragging it in the desired direction.

example of re positioning the anchor of a shape in photoshop

Illustrator uses the same basics, where you use its dedicated Direct Selection Tool (A) to select a shape’s composing anchor point, and then click and drag it in the desired direction in order to adjust the shape of the object.

Now, compared to Photoshop, Illustrator gives you a little info window where you can see the number of pixels that the anchor point travels as you drag it around.

example of adjusting the position of an anchor in illustrator

If you need to combine high precision with a fast workflow, you’re going to find that Illustrator does a better job, since it allows you to select the anchor and then use its Move tool, by right-clicking and then going to Transform > Move, which should bring up a new window where you can individually adjust its position on the Horizontal and Vertical axes.

adjusting the position of an anchor using the move tool

The process of adjusting the position of an anchor point is actually fun and easy to do, but what about those situations when you need to completely remove one from a shape’s path?

Well, in Photoshop, you can easily remove an anchor by selecting it using the Direct Selection Tool (A) and then pressing the Delete key, which will open up the shape’s path, as you can see.

example of removing an anchor in photoshop

To close the resulting path, we’ll need to grab the Pen Tool (P), click on one of the disconnected anchor points, and then close the line by clicking on the remaining one.

example of closing up a path using photoshop

If we switch over to Illustrator, the software uses the same process, where in order to remove an anchor point you first have to select it using the Direct Selection Tool (A) and then erase it by pressing Delete.

example of opening up a path in illustrator

When it comes to closing the resulting path, things are a little bit easier this time around, since all you have to do is use the Control-J keyboard shortcut, which will join the disconnected anchors back to one another using a straight path segment.

example of closing up a path in illustrator

5. How Does Advanced Shape Adjustment Work?

At this point, we’ve seen what the two can do when it comes to basic shape adjustments, so let’s turn things up a little bit and play with more advanced adjustments.

Compared to Illustrator, Photoshop lacks Pathfinder’s Shape Modes which allow you to adjust one shape using another, but hold on, don’t panic since it does have a set of similar functions hidden within one of its menus.

Before we move on, I wanted to point out that, yes, I’m aware of the Path operations panel, but believe me, it works so strangely that you’re better off staying away from it.

So let’s say that we have a pretty basic 32 x 32 px square that we want to adjust by removing a 20 x 20 px circle from its top-right corner.

example of shapes to be adjusted in photoshop

Once we have our shapes in place, we can select them both and go to Layers > Combine Shapes > Subtract Front Shape.

example of subtracting a shape in photoshop

Now, even though the subtraction took place correctly, the path of the circle ended up being attached to that of the square, which we will want to fix by opening up the Path operations panel, and then using its Merge Shape Components function.

example of merging paths in photoshop

I won’t go over the remaining three Path operations, since they’re pretty self-explanatory. Just remember that as long as you follow the above process, you should be totally fine.

If we switch over to Illustrator, we’ll find that it comes with a different implementation of the path adjustments available within Photoshop, which to be honest are a little easier to use.

By default, the panel is hidden, so you’ll have to select multiple shapes in order for it to appear within the right Tools panel.

As soon as the panel becomes visible, we can achieve the same result as in Photoshop, by selecting the two created shapes and then simply using the Minus Front Shape Mode. It’s that simple.

example of using minus front in illustrator

Illustrator will immediately perform the operation, giving us a nice clean path. 

example of resulting subtracted shape in illustrator

Again, I’m not going to go over all of the remaining Shape Modes since they’re pretty descriptive, but I really encourage you to try them out, especially if this is your first time using Illustrator.

6. How Do the Two Take Advantage of the Pixel Grid?

When creating small assets such as icons, you’ll always find yourself in the position where you need to be able to see how their different composing shapes behave in relation to one another, and more importantly to their underlying Artboard.

This is where the ability to use a Pixel Grid comes in handy, since it allows you to see the actual underlying fabric, and thus have a higher degree of control over your shapes when it comes to anchor positioning and, more importantly, Artboard positioning.

By default, Photoshop comes with the grid enabled, but as you can see, it’s only visible within the actual surface of a shape, which isn’t the best approach that Adobe could have taken.

example of pixel grid in photoshop

When it comes to making basic shape adjustments, the software allows us to keep track of the number of pixels that our anchor points travel, but it forces us to actually count the pixels themselves, which is only possible when using the click-and-drag method.

example of positioning an anchor using the click and drag method in photoshop

If you need to position a shape in relation to another, this time around Photoshop does a better job, since its smart guides and info panel help you keep a perfect track of both the horizontal and vertical movements of the shape, as long as you’re using the click-and-drag method.

positioning a shape using the click and drag method within the pixel grid in photoshop

So far so good, but here comes the part that kind of renders the tool useless, since if you want to use the Pen Tool (P) to draw a shape using specific values, there’s no way of doing so, since the Grid isn’t visible outside the surface of a shape.

drawing a path using the pen tool onto the pixel grid within photoshop

From what I could see, this is mainly due to the color of the Grid’s lines, which can’t be changed. The only solution to the problem as of now would be to create a shape that fills in the entire surface of the Artboard, and set its color to something darker like a grey, which again would require you to take extra steps.

Now, let’s switch over to Illustrator and see how it handles these type of situations.

Similarly to Photoshop, the software comes with its own dedicated version of the Pixel Grid, which can be turned on by heading over to View > Pixel Preview or by using the Alt-Control-Y keyboard shortcut.

As soon as we turn it on, we’ll quickly notice that compared to Photoshop, where the grid was visible only within the surface of its shapes, here the grid is applied to the entire document.

example of pixel preview inside of illustrator

By taking this different approach, the software does a better job of helping you keep track of the pixel count, as we will see in the following moments.

As with Photoshop, we can easily adjust the position of an anchor point and keep a perfect track of the number of pixels traveled, only this time around the entire process is easier since it comes with its own dedicated info panel.

example of adjusting the position of an anchor using the click and drag method inside of pixel preview mode

When it comes to positioning a shape in relation to one another, we can easily do so as long as we use the click-and-drag method, since it will allow us to keep track of the pixel count using the little info panel.

example of positioning a shape using the click and drag method inside of the pixel preview mode

Now, here comes the part that truly sets Illustrator apart, since if we need to draw a shape using the Pen Tool (P), we can easily keep track of the distance found between its composing anchor points using the little info panel.

drawing a path using the pen tool tool inside of pixel preview mode

At this point, we’ve covered most of the basic aspects that you need to take into consideration when choosing the “right” software, which means that we can now finally move on to the conclusion part.

Conclusion

The number of advantages Illustrator has makes it the clear winner here:

  • better Artboard support
  • shape selection is faster and more intuitive
  • both basic and advanced shape adjustments are easier to perform
  • an overall better Pixel Grid experience

That being said, I truly hope this information comes in useful, and if you have any questions, feel free to post them within the comments section, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

Further Develop Your Icon-Building Skills

Just finished going through this in-depth article, and feel like learning more? Well, if that’s the case, you’re in luck, since I took the time to put together this little list that should keep you going for the following days!

Web Tools

Best Software for Icon Design: Photoshop vs. Illustrator

Post pobrano z: Best Software for Icon Design: Photoshop vs. Illustrator

Final product image
What You’ll Be Creating

As a designer, you’ve probably wondered which Adobe product does a better job when it comes to the process of creating icons.

Some love Photoshop, while others rely exclusively on Illustrator, but if you search the web, you’ll find that there’s no really comprehensive comparison between the two.

That being the case, I did what I always do and took the time to put the two to the test in order to find out.

If you want to learn how to make icons, whether it’s a line icon pack, a set of social media icons, or maybe even a couple of Mac icon sets, you first have to find out which software is a better fit for you. 

Today, with the whole minimal icon style trend, icon design is becoming more and more accessible, which means that as long as you put in the time and energy, you should be able to grow your craft, assuming you have the right tool for the job. 

From a simple help icon to a development icon set, the software can and will affect the way you design your assets, which is why I want to show you how the two behave when it comes to this creative process.

That being said, let’s jump straight into it!

1. What Is the Intended Creative Purpose of Each Software?

Even though both Photoshop and Illustrator are part of the same Creative Cloud family of products, they actually serve different creative needs, or at least they used to until Photoshop was reimagined from a dedicated photo editing/manipulation tool into an all-around creative one, capable of doing much more.

So then, what are the main differences between the two?

Well, if we take a quick look at Photoshop’s official web page, we’ll see that Adobe advertises the product as:

The world’s best imaging and graphic design software. Create and enhance photographs, illustrations, and 3d artwork. Design websites and mobile apps. Edit videos, simulate real-life paintings, and more. It’s everything you need to make any idea real.

At first glance, that seems to be a pretty good product description, since you get a clear idea of what the software is capable of doing.

Now, let’s move over to Illustrator and see how Adobe describes its other product:

The industry-standard vector graphics software lets you create logos, icons, drawings, typography, and illustrations for print, web, video, and mobile.

Well, as you can see, the two are actually pretty similar in terms of their intended use cases, especially when it comes to icon design, since both are advertised as capable of handling this sort of a creative process.

So how do you actually decide which software might be better when it comes to creating icons?

Well, the answer is a bit more complicated than you might think, as we will get to see in the following moments, since it all comes down to a few key factors.

2. What Is the Artboard Support Like?

The first thing that an icon designer should truly care about is Artboard support.

This is where the two set themselves apart, since Illustrator gives you the option of setting up multiple Artboards from the start, using its New Document window prompt, making the entire process really simple and intuitive.

setting up a new document in illustrator

With the latest update, the software is now able of creating a whopping 1,000 Artboards, which for an icon designer is… truly amazing.

Photoshop, on the other hand, whether you’re using the new slick-looking window prompt or the legacy one, doesn’t seem to give you this ability.

With the more modern interface, you have the option of using Artboards, but there’s no actual way of setting a specific number or adjusting simple things such as spacing, the number of columns, or the distribution method.

photoshop new document setup

Of course, you can go around this little setup bump by switching over to the Artboard Tool and manually adding the desired number of Artboards by clicking on one of the plus signs depending on where you want the software to position them, but that’s a lot more time-consuming than it should be.

example of setting up multiple artboards in photoshop

When it comes to the maximum number of Artboards that you can set up, I couldn’t find any official information, but I’m pretty sure it’s up there with Illustrator, so 1,000—I gave up after Artboard number 500.

3. How Does Basic Shape Selection Work?

Now that we’ve seen how the two handle the process of setting up Artboards, let’s take a close look at shape selection.

In Photoshop, to select a shape, you’ll first want to make sure that the Move Tool (V) is currently the active tool, and then you can simply click or drag over the surface of the desired shape in order to make a selection.

example of selecting a single shape in photoshop

Now, the problem is that once a shape is selected, there’s no actual way of telling if the selection was made or not, which to be honest is pretty annoying.

The only way to make sure that a selection was actually made is to take a close look at the Layers panel, where you’ll get a darker background underneath the shape layer itself.

example of shape selection visible in the layers panel in photoshop

Luckily for us, we can actually change this behavior, by first selecting the shape, then going over to the top Application Bar, and then checking the Show Transform Controls option.

example of enabling the bounding box in photoshop

If we move on over to Illustrator, we’ll quickly see that when it comes to selection, the software does a better job since it feels more intuitive from the start, without you having to make any adjustments.

To select a single shape, we can easily do so by first switching over to the Selection Tool and then left-clicking or dragging over its surface, which will immediately bring up its bounding box, letting us know that a selection was indeed made.

example of selecting a single shape using the click method in illustrator

Compared to Photoshop, Illustrator has an ace up its sleeve when it comes to selection, since it gives you the option of targeting and selecting multiple shapes based on similar traits such as Appearance, Fill Color, Opacity, Stroke Color, etc.

To do this, simply select one of the shapes, and then head over to Select > Same and choose one of its 12 available options.

4. How Does Basic Shape Adjustment Work?

Now that we’ve seen how the two handle shape selection, let’s dig in a little deeper and see how they behave when it comes to shape adjustment.

By definition, a vector shape is composed of a closed or open path that is defined by a set of two or more anchor points.

In Photoshop, you can easily adjust a shape by first selecting its anchor point(s) using the Direct Selection Tool (A), and then dragging it in the desired direction.

example of re positioning the anchor of a shape in photoshop

Illustrator uses the same basics, where you use its dedicated Direct Selection Tool (A) to select a shape’s composing anchor point, and then click and drag it in the desired direction in order to adjust the shape of the object.

Now, compared to Photoshop, Illustrator gives you a little info window where you can see the number of pixels that the anchor point travels as you drag it around.

example of adjusting the position of an anchor in illustrator

If you need to combine high precision with a fast workflow, you’re going to find that Illustrator does a better job, since it allows you to select the anchor and then use its Move tool, by right-clicking and then going to Transform > Move, which should bring up a new window where you can individually adjust its position on the Horizontal and Vertical axes.

adjusting the position of an anchor using the move tool

The process of adjusting the position of an anchor point is actually fun and easy to do, but what about those situations when you need to completely remove one from a shape’s path?

Well, in Photoshop, you can easily remove an anchor by selecting it using the Direct Selection Tool (A) and then pressing the Delete key, which will open up the shape’s path, as you can see.

example of removing an anchor in photoshop

To close the resulting path, we’ll need to grab the Pen Tool (P), click on one of the disconnected anchor points, and then close the line by clicking on the remaining one.

example of closing up a path using photoshop

If we switch over to Illustrator, the software uses the same process, where in order to remove an anchor point you first have to select it using the Direct Selection Tool (A) and then erase it by pressing Delete.

example of opening up a path in illustrator

When it comes to closing the resulting path, things are a little bit easier this time around, since all you have to do is use the Control-J keyboard shortcut, which will join the disconnected anchors back to one another using a straight path segment.

example of closing up a path in illustrator

5. How Does Advanced Shape Adjustment Work?

At this point, we’ve seen what the two can do when it comes to basic shape adjustments, so let’s turn things up a little bit and play with more advanced adjustments.

Compared to Illustrator, Photoshop lacks Pathfinder’s Shape Modes which allow you to adjust one shape using another, but hold on, don’t panic since it does have a set of similar functions hidden within one of its menus.

Before we move on, I wanted to point out that, yes, I’m aware of the Path operations panel, but believe me, it works so strangely that you’re better off staying away from it.

So let’s say that we have a pretty basic 32 x 32 px square that we want to adjust by removing a 20 x 20 px circle from its top-right corner.

example of shapes to be adjusted in photoshop

Once we have our shapes in place, we can select them both and go to Layers > Combine Shapes > Subtract Front Shape.

example of subtracting a shape in photoshop

Now, even though the subtraction took place correctly, the path of the circle ended up being attached to that of the square, which we will want to fix by opening up the Path operations panel, and then using its Merge Shape Components function.

example of merging paths in photoshop

I won’t go over the remaining three Path operations, since they’re pretty self-explanatory. Just remember that as long as you follow the above process, you should be totally fine.

If we switch over to Illustrator, we’ll find that it comes with a different implementation of the path adjustments available within Photoshop, which to be honest are a little easier to use.

By default, the panel is hidden, so you’ll have to select multiple shapes in order for it to appear within the right Tools panel.

As soon as the panel becomes visible, we can achieve the same result as in Photoshop, by selecting the two created shapes and then simply using the Minus Front Shape Mode. It’s that simple.

example of using minus front in illustrator

Illustrator will immediately perform the operation, giving us a nice clean path. 

example of resulting subtracted shape in illustrator

Again, I’m not going to go over all of the remaining Shape Modes since they’re pretty descriptive, but I really encourage you to try them out, especially if this is your first time using Illustrator.

6. How Do the Two Take Advantage of the Pixel Grid?

When creating small assets such as icons, you’ll always find yourself in the position where you need to be able to see how their different composing shapes behave in relation to one another, and more importantly to their underlying Artboard.

This is where the ability to use a Pixel Grid comes in handy, since it allows you to see the actual underlying fabric, and thus have a higher degree of control over your shapes when it comes to anchor positioning and, more importantly, Artboard positioning.

By default, Photoshop comes with the grid enabled, but as you can see, it’s only visible within the actual surface of a shape, which isn’t the best approach that Adobe could have taken.

example of pixel grid in photoshop

When it comes to making basic shape adjustments, the software allows us to keep track of the number of pixels that our anchor points travel, but it forces us to actually count the pixels themselves, which is only possible when using the click-and-drag method.

example of positioning an anchor using the click and drag method in photoshop

If you need to position a shape in relation to another, this time around Photoshop does a better job, since its smart guides and info panel help you keep a perfect track of both the horizontal and vertical movements of the shape, as long as you’re using the click-and-drag method.

positioning a shape using the click and drag method within the pixel grid in photoshop

So far so good, but here comes the part that kind of renders the tool useless, since if you want to use the Pen Tool (P) to draw a shape using specific values, there’s no way of doing so, since the Grid isn’t visible outside the surface of a shape.

drawing a path using the pen tool onto the pixel grid within photoshop

From what I could see, this is mainly due to the color of the Grid’s lines, which can’t be changed. The only solution to the problem as of now would be to create a shape that fills in the entire surface of the Artboard, and set its color to something darker like a grey, which again would require you to take extra steps.

Now, let’s switch over to Illustrator and see how it handles these type of situations.

Similarly to Photoshop, the software comes with its own dedicated version of the Pixel Grid, which can be turned on by heading over to View > Pixel Preview or by using the Alt-Control-Y keyboard shortcut.

As soon as we turn it on, we’ll quickly notice that compared to Photoshop, where the grid was visible only within the surface of its shapes, here the grid is applied to the entire document.

example of pixel preview inside of illustrator

By taking this different approach, the software does a better job of helping you keep track of the pixel count, as we will see in the following moments.

As with Photoshop, we can easily adjust the position of an anchor point and keep a perfect track of the number of pixels traveled, only this time around the entire process is easier since it comes with its own dedicated info panel.

example of adjusting the position of an anchor using the click and drag method inside of pixel preview mode

When it comes to positioning a shape in relation to one another, we can easily do so as long as we use the click-and-drag method, since it will allow us to keep track of the pixel count using the little info panel.

example of positioning a shape using the click and drag method inside of the pixel preview mode

Now, here comes the part that truly sets Illustrator apart, since if we need to draw a shape using the Pen Tool (P), we can easily keep track of the distance found between its composing anchor points using the little info panel.

drawing a path using the pen tool tool inside of pixel preview mode

At this point, we’ve covered most of the basic aspects that you need to take into consideration when choosing the “right” software, which means that we can now finally move on to the conclusion part.

Conclusion

The number of advantages Illustrator has makes it the clear winner here:

  • better Artboard support
  • shape selection is faster and more intuitive
  • both basic and advanced shape adjustments are easier to perform
  • an overall better Pixel Grid experience

That being said, I truly hope this information comes in useful, and if you have any questions, feel free to post them within the comments section, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

Further Develop Your Icon-Building Skills

Just finished going through this in-depth article, and feel like learning more? Well, if that’s the case, you’re in luck, since I took the time to put together this little list that should keep you going for the following days!

Web Tools

Best Software for Icon Design: Photoshop vs. Illustrator

Post pobrano z: Best Software for Icon Design: Photoshop vs. Illustrator

Final product image
What You’ll Be Creating

As a designer, you’ve probably wondered which Adobe product does a better job when it comes to the process of creating icons.

Some love Photoshop, while others rely exclusively on Illustrator, but if you search the web, you’ll find that there’s no really comprehensive comparison between the two.

That being the case, I did what I always do and took the time to put the two to the test in order to find out.

If you want to learn how to make icons, whether it’s a line icon pack, a set of social media icons, or maybe even a couple of Mac icon sets, you first have to find out which software is a better fit for you. 

Today, with the whole minimal icon style trend, icon design is becoming more and more accessible, which means that as long as you put in the time and energy, you should be able to grow your craft, assuming you have the right tool for the job. 

From a simple help icon to a development icon set, the software can and will affect the way you design your assets, which is why I want to show you how the two behave when it comes to this creative process.

That being said, let’s jump straight into it!

1. What Is the Intended Creative Purpose of Each Software?

Even though both Photoshop and Illustrator are part of the same Creative Cloud family of products, they actually serve different creative needs, or at least they used to until Photoshop was reimagined from a dedicated photo editing/manipulation tool into an all-around creative one, capable of doing much more.

So then, what are the main differences between the two?

Well, if we take a quick look at Photoshop’s official web page, we’ll see that Adobe advertises the product as:

The world’s best imaging and graphic design software. Create and enhance photographs, illustrations, and 3d artwork. Design websites and mobile apps. Edit videos, simulate real-life paintings, and more. It’s everything you need to make any idea real.

At first glance, that seems to be a pretty good product description, since you get a clear idea of what the software is capable of doing.

Now, let’s move over to Illustrator and see how Adobe describes its other product:

The industry-standard vector graphics software lets you create logos, icons, drawings, typography, and illustrations for print, web, video, and mobile.

Well, as you can see, the two are actually pretty similar in terms of their intended use cases, especially when it comes to icon design, since both are advertised as capable of handling this sort of a creative process.

So how do you actually decide which software might be better when it comes to creating icons?

Well, the answer is a bit more complicated than you might think, as we will get to see in the following moments, since it all comes down to a few key factors.

2. What Is the Artboard Support Like?

The first thing that an icon designer should truly care about is Artboard support.

This is where the two set themselves apart, since Illustrator gives you the option of setting up multiple Artboards from the start, using its New Document window prompt, making the entire process really simple and intuitive.

setting up a new document in illustrator

With the latest update, the software is now able of creating a whopping 1,000 Artboards, which for an icon designer is… truly amazing.

Photoshop, on the other hand, whether you’re using the new slick-looking window prompt or the legacy one, doesn’t seem to give you this ability.

With the more modern interface, you have the option of using Artboards, but there’s no actual way of setting a specific number or adjusting simple things such as spacing, the number of columns, or the distribution method.

photoshop new document setup

Of course, you can go around this little setup bump by switching over to the Artboard Tool and manually adding the desired number of Artboards by clicking on one of the plus signs depending on where you want the software to position them, but that’s a lot more time-consuming than it should be.

example of setting up multiple artboards in photoshop

When it comes to the maximum number of Artboards that you can set up, I couldn’t find any official information, but I’m pretty sure it’s up there with Illustrator, so 1,000—I gave up after Artboard number 500.

3. How Does Basic Shape Selection Work?

Now that we’ve seen how the two handle the process of setting up Artboards, let’s take a close look at shape selection.

In Photoshop, to select a shape, you’ll first want to make sure that the Move Tool (V) is currently the active tool, and then you can simply click or drag over the surface of the desired shape in order to make a selection.

example of selecting a single shape in photoshop

Now, the problem is that once a shape is selected, there’s no actual way of telling if the selection was made or not, which to be honest is pretty annoying.

The only way to make sure that a selection was actually made is to take a close look at the Layers panel, where you’ll get a darker background underneath the shape layer itself.

example of shape selection visible in the layers panel in photoshop

Luckily for us, we can actually change this behavior, by first selecting the shape, then going over to the top Application Bar, and then checking the Show Transform Controls option.

example of enabling the bounding box in photoshop

If we move on over to Illustrator, we’ll quickly see that when it comes to selection, the software does a better job since it feels more intuitive from the start, without you having to make any adjustments.

To select a single shape, we can easily do so by first switching over to the Selection Tool and then left-clicking or dragging over its surface, which will immediately bring up its bounding box, letting us know that a selection was indeed made.

example of selecting a single shape using the click method in illustrator

Compared to Photoshop, Illustrator has an ace up its sleeve when it comes to selection, since it gives you the option of targeting and selecting multiple shapes based on similar traits such as Appearance, Fill Color, Opacity, Stroke Color, etc.

To do this, simply select one of the shapes, and then head over to Select > Same and choose one of its 12 available options.

4. How Does Basic Shape Adjustment Work?

Now that we’ve seen how the two handle shape selection, let’s dig in a little deeper and see how they behave when it comes to shape adjustment.

By definition, a vector shape is composed of a closed or open path that is defined by a set of two or more anchor points.

In Photoshop, you can easily adjust a shape by first selecting its anchor point(s) using the Direct Selection Tool (A), and then dragging it in the desired direction.

example of re positioning the anchor of a shape in photoshop

Illustrator uses the same basics, where you use its dedicated Direct Selection Tool (A) to select a shape’s composing anchor point, and then click and drag it in the desired direction in order to adjust the shape of the object.

Now, compared to Photoshop, Illustrator gives you a little info window where you can see the number of pixels that the anchor point travels as you drag it around.

example of adjusting the position of an anchor in illustrator

If you need to combine high precision with a fast workflow, you’re going to find that Illustrator does a better job, since it allows you to select the anchor and then use its Move tool, by right-clicking and then going to Transform > Move, which should bring up a new window where you can individually adjust its position on the Horizontal and Vertical axes.

adjusting the position of an anchor using the move tool

The process of adjusting the position of an anchor point is actually fun and easy to do, but what about those situations when you need to completely remove one from a shape’s path?

Well, in Photoshop, you can easily remove an anchor by selecting it using the Direct Selection Tool (A) and then pressing the Delete key, which will open up the shape’s path, as you can see.

example of removing an anchor in photoshop

To close the resulting path, we’ll need to grab the Pen Tool (P), click on one of the disconnected anchor points, and then close the line by clicking on the remaining one.

example of closing up a path using photoshop

If we switch over to Illustrator, the software uses the same process, where in order to remove an anchor point you first have to select it using the Direct Selection Tool (A) and then erase it by pressing Delete.

example of opening up a path in illustrator

When it comes to closing the resulting path, things are a little bit easier this time around, since all you have to do is use the Control-J keyboard shortcut, which will join the disconnected anchors back to one another using a straight path segment.

example of closing up a path in illustrator

5. How Does Advanced Shape Adjustment Work?

At this point, we’ve seen what the two can do when it comes to basic shape adjustments, so let’s turn things up a little bit and play with more advanced adjustments.

Compared to Illustrator, Photoshop lacks Pathfinder’s Shape Modes which allow you to adjust one shape using another, but hold on, don’t panic since it does have a set of similar functions hidden within one of its menus.

Before we move on, I wanted to point out that, yes, I’m aware of the Path operations panel, but believe me, it works so strangely that you’re better off staying away from it.

So let’s say that we have a pretty basic 32 x 32 px square that we want to adjust by removing a 20 x 20 px circle from its top-right corner.

example of shapes to be adjusted in photoshop

Once we have our shapes in place, we can select them both and go to Layers > Combine Shapes > Subtract Front Shape.

example of subtracting a shape in photoshop

Now, even though the subtraction took place correctly, the path of the circle ended up being attached to that of the square, which we will want to fix by opening up the Path operations panel, and then using its Merge Shape Components function.

example of merging paths in photoshop

I won’t go over the remaining three Path operations, since they’re pretty self-explanatory. Just remember that as long as you follow the above process, you should be totally fine.

If we switch over to Illustrator, we’ll find that it comes with a different implementation of the path adjustments available within Photoshop, which to be honest are a little easier to use.

By default, the panel is hidden, so you’ll have to select multiple shapes in order for it to appear within the right Tools panel.

As soon as the panel becomes visible, we can achieve the same result as in Photoshop, by selecting the two created shapes and then simply using the Minus Front Shape Mode. It’s that simple.

example of using minus front in illustrator

Illustrator will immediately perform the operation, giving us a nice clean path. 

example of resulting subtracted shape in illustrator

Again, I’m not going to go over all of the remaining Shape Modes since they’re pretty descriptive, but I really encourage you to try them out, especially if this is your first time using Illustrator.

6. How Do the Two Take Advantage of the Pixel Grid?

When creating small assets such as icons, you’ll always find yourself in the position where you need to be able to see how their different composing shapes behave in relation to one another, and more importantly to their underlying Artboard.

This is where the ability to use a Pixel Grid comes in handy, since it allows you to see the actual underlying fabric, and thus have a higher degree of control over your shapes when it comes to anchor positioning and, more importantly, Artboard positioning.

By default, Photoshop comes with the grid enabled, but as you can see, it’s only visible within the actual surface of a shape, which isn’t the best approach that Adobe could have taken.

example of pixel grid in photoshop

When it comes to making basic shape adjustments, the software allows us to keep track of the number of pixels that our anchor points travel, but it forces us to actually count the pixels themselves, which is only possible when using the click-and-drag method.

example of positioning an anchor using the click and drag method in photoshop

If you need to position a shape in relation to another, this time around Photoshop does a better job, since its smart guides and info panel help you keep a perfect track of both the horizontal and vertical movements of the shape, as long as you’re using the click-and-drag method.

positioning a shape using the click and drag method within the pixel grid in photoshop

So far so good, but here comes the part that kind of renders the tool useless, since if you want to use the Pen Tool (P) to draw a shape using specific values, there’s no way of doing so, since the Grid isn’t visible outside the surface of a shape.

drawing a path using the pen tool onto the pixel grid within photoshop

From what I could see, this is mainly due to the color of the Grid’s lines, which can’t be changed. The only solution to the problem as of now would be to create a shape that fills in the entire surface of the Artboard, and set its color to something darker like a grey, which again would require you to take extra steps.

Now, let’s switch over to Illustrator and see how it handles these type of situations.

Similarly to Photoshop, the software comes with its own dedicated version of the Pixel Grid, which can be turned on by heading over to View > Pixel Preview or by using the Alt-Control-Y keyboard shortcut.

As soon as we turn it on, we’ll quickly notice that compared to Photoshop, where the grid was visible only within the surface of its shapes, here the grid is applied to the entire document.

example of pixel preview inside of illustrator

By taking this different approach, the software does a better job of helping you keep track of the pixel count, as we will see in the following moments.

As with Photoshop, we can easily adjust the position of an anchor point and keep a perfect track of the number of pixels traveled, only this time around the entire process is easier since it comes with its own dedicated info panel.

example of adjusting the position of an anchor using the click and drag method inside of pixel preview mode

When it comes to positioning a shape in relation to one another, we can easily do so as long as we use the click-and-drag method, since it will allow us to keep track of the pixel count using the little info panel.

example of positioning a shape using the click and drag method inside of the pixel preview mode

Now, here comes the part that truly sets Illustrator apart, since if we need to draw a shape using the Pen Tool (P), we can easily keep track of the distance found between its composing anchor points using the little info panel.

drawing a path using the pen tool tool inside of pixel preview mode

At this point, we’ve covered most of the basic aspects that you need to take into consideration when choosing the “right” software, which means that we can now finally move on to the conclusion part.

Conclusion

The number of advantages Illustrator has makes it the clear winner here:

  • better Artboard support
  • shape selection is faster and more intuitive
  • both basic and advanced shape adjustments are easier to perform
  • an overall better Pixel Grid experience

That being said, I truly hope this information comes in useful, and if you have any questions, feel free to post them within the comments section, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

Further Develop Your Icon-Building Skills

Just finished going through this in-depth article, and feel like learning more? Well, if that’s the case, you’re in luck, since I took the time to put together this little list that should keep you going for the following days!

Web Tools

Best Software for Icon Design: Photoshop vs. Illustrator

Post pobrano z: Best Software for Icon Design: Photoshop vs. Illustrator

Final product image
What You’ll Be Creating

As a designer, you’ve probably wondered which Adobe product does a better job when it comes to the process of creating icons.

Some love Photoshop, while others rely exclusively on Illustrator, but if you search the web, you’ll find that there’s no really comprehensive comparison between the two.

That being the case, I did what I always do and took the time to put the two to the test in order to find out.

If you want to learn how to make icons, whether it’s a line icon pack, a set of social media icons, or maybe even a couple of Mac icon sets, you first have to find out which software is a better fit for you. 

Today, with the whole minimal icon style trend, icon design is becoming more and more accessible, which means that as long as you put in the time and energy, you should be able to grow your craft, assuming you have the right tool for the job. 

From a simple help icon to a development icon set, the software can and will affect the way you design your assets, which is why I want to show you how the two behave when it comes to this creative process.

That being said, let’s jump straight into it!

1. What Is the Intended Creative Purpose of Each Software?

Even though both Photoshop and Illustrator are part of the same Creative Cloud family of products, they actually serve different creative needs, or at least they used to until Photoshop was reimagined from a dedicated photo editing/manipulation tool into an all-around creative one, capable of doing much more.

So then, what are the main differences between the two?

Well, if we take a quick look at Photoshop’s official web page, we’ll see that Adobe advertises the product as:

The world’s best imaging and graphic design software. Create and enhance photographs, illustrations, and 3d artwork. Design websites and mobile apps. Edit videos, simulate real-life paintings, and more. It’s everything you need to make any idea real.

At first glance, that seems to be a pretty good product description, since you get a clear idea of what the software is capable of doing.

Now, let’s move over to Illustrator and see how Adobe describes its other product:

The industry-standard vector graphics software lets you create logos, icons, drawings, typography, and illustrations for print, web, video, and mobile.

Well, as you can see, the two are actually pretty similar in terms of their intended use cases, especially when it comes to icon design, since both are advertised as capable of handling this sort of a creative process.

So how do you actually decide which software might be better when it comes to creating icons?

Well, the answer is a bit more complicated than you might think, as we will get to see in the following moments, since it all comes down to a few key factors.

2. What Is the Artboard Support Like?

The first thing that an icon designer should truly care about is Artboard support.

This is where the two set themselves apart, since Illustrator gives you the option of setting up multiple Artboards from the start, using its New Document window prompt, making the entire process really simple and intuitive.

setting up a new document in illustrator

With the latest update, the software is now able of creating a whopping 1,000 Artboards, which for an icon designer is… truly amazing.

Photoshop, on the other hand, whether you’re using the new slick-looking window prompt or the legacy one, doesn’t seem to give you this ability.

With the more modern interface, you have the option of using Artboards, but there’s no actual way of setting a specific number or adjusting simple things such as spacing, the number of columns, or the distribution method.

photoshop new document setup

Of course, you can go around this little setup bump by switching over to the Artboard Tool and manually adding the desired number of Artboards by clicking on one of the plus signs depending on where you want the software to position them, but that’s a lot more time-consuming than it should be.

example of setting up multiple artboards in photoshop

When it comes to the maximum number of Artboards that you can set up, I couldn’t find any official information, but I’m pretty sure it’s up there with Illustrator, so 1,000—I gave up after Artboard number 500.

3. How Does Basic Shape Selection Work?

Now that we’ve seen how the two handle the process of setting up Artboards, let’s take a close look at shape selection.

In Photoshop, to select a shape, you’ll first want to make sure that the Move Tool (V) is currently the active tool, and then you can simply click or drag over the surface of the desired shape in order to make a selection.

example of selecting a single shape in photoshop

Now, the problem is that once a shape is selected, there’s no actual way of telling if the selection was made or not, which to be honest is pretty annoying.

The only way to make sure that a selection was actually made is to take a close look at the Layers panel, where you’ll get a darker background underneath the shape layer itself.

example of shape selection visible in the layers panel in photoshop

Luckily for us, we can actually change this behavior, by first selecting the shape, then going over to the top Application Bar, and then checking the Show Transform Controls option.

example of enabling the bounding box in photoshop

If we move on over to Illustrator, we’ll quickly see that when it comes to selection, the software does a better job since it feels more intuitive from the start, without you having to make any adjustments.

To select a single shape, we can easily do so by first switching over to the Selection Tool and then left-clicking or dragging over its surface, which will immediately bring up its bounding box, letting us know that a selection was indeed made.

example of selecting a single shape using the click method in illustrator

Compared to Photoshop, Illustrator has an ace up its sleeve when it comes to selection, since it gives you the option of targeting and selecting multiple shapes based on similar traits such as Appearance, Fill Color, Opacity, Stroke Color, etc.

To do this, simply select one of the shapes, and then head over to Select > Same and choose one of its 12 available options.

4. How Does Basic Shape Adjustment Work?

Now that we’ve seen how the two handle shape selection, let’s dig in a little deeper and see how they behave when it comes to shape adjustment.

By definition, a vector shape is composed of a closed or open path that is defined by a set of two or more anchor points.

In Photoshop, you can easily adjust a shape by first selecting its anchor point(s) using the Direct Selection Tool (A), and then dragging it in the desired direction.

example of re positioning the anchor of a shape in photoshop

Illustrator uses the same basics, where you use its dedicated Direct Selection Tool (A) to select a shape’s composing anchor point, and then click and drag it in the desired direction in order to adjust the shape of the object.

Now, compared to Photoshop, Illustrator gives you a little info window where you can see the number of pixels that the anchor point travels as you drag it around.

example of adjusting the position of an anchor in illustrator

If you need to combine high precision with a fast workflow, you’re going to find that Illustrator does a better job, since it allows you to select the anchor and then use its Move tool, by right-clicking and then going to Transform > Move, which should bring up a new window where you can individually adjust its position on the Horizontal and Vertical axes.

adjusting the position of an anchor using the move tool

The process of adjusting the position of an anchor point is actually fun and easy to do, but what about those situations when you need to completely remove one from a shape’s path?

Well, in Photoshop, you can easily remove an anchor by selecting it using the Direct Selection Tool (A) and then pressing the Delete key, which will open up the shape’s path, as you can see.

example of removing an anchor in photoshop

To close the resulting path, we’ll need to grab the Pen Tool (P), click on one of the disconnected anchor points, and then close the line by clicking on the remaining one.

example of closing up a path using photoshop

If we switch over to Illustrator, the software uses the same process, where in order to remove an anchor point you first have to select it using the Direct Selection Tool (A) and then erase it by pressing Delete.

example of opening up a path in illustrator

When it comes to closing the resulting path, things are a little bit easier this time around, since all you have to do is use the Control-J keyboard shortcut, which will join the disconnected anchors back to one another using a straight path segment.

example of closing up a path in illustrator

5. How Does Advanced Shape Adjustment Work?

At this point, we’ve seen what the two can do when it comes to basic shape adjustments, so let’s turn things up a little bit and play with more advanced adjustments.

Compared to Illustrator, Photoshop lacks Pathfinder’s Shape Modes which allow you to adjust one shape using another, but hold on, don’t panic since it does have a set of similar functions hidden within one of its menus.

Before we move on, I wanted to point out that, yes, I’m aware of the Path operations panel, but believe me, it works so strangely that you’re better off staying away from it.

So let’s say that we have a pretty basic 32 x 32 px square that we want to adjust by removing a 20 x 20 px circle from its top-right corner.

example of shapes to be adjusted in photoshop

Once we have our shapes in place, we can select them both and go to Layers > Combine Shapes > Subtract Front Shape.

example of subtracting a shape in photoshop

Now, even though the subtraction took place correctly, the path of the circle ended up being attached to that of the square, which we will want to fix by opening up the Path operations panel, and then using its Merge Shape Components function.

example of merging paths in photoshop

I won’t go over the remaining three Path operations, since they’re pretty self-explanatory. Just remember that as long as you follow the above process, you should be totally fine.

If we switch over to Illustrator, we’ll find that it comes with a different implementation of the path adjustments available within Photoshop, which to be honest are a little easier to use.

By default, the panel is hidden, so you’ll have to select multiple shapes in order for it to appear within the right Tools panel.

As soon as the panel becomes visible, we can achieve the same result as in Photoshop, by selecting the two created shapes and then simply using the Minus Front Shape Mode. It’s that simple.

example of using minus front in illustrator

Illustrator will immediately perform the operation, giving us a nice clean path. 

example of resulting subtracted shape in illustrator

Again, I’m not going to go over all of the remaining Shape Modes since they’re pretty descriptive, but I really encourage you to try them out, especially if this is your first time using Illustrator.

6. How Do the Two Take Advantage of the Pixel Grid?

When creating small assets such as icons, you’ll always find yourself in the position where you need to be able to see how their different composing shapes behave in relation to one another, and more importantly to their underlying Artboard.

This is where the ability to use a Pixel Grid comes in handy, since it allows you to see the actual underlying fabric, and thus have a higher degree of control over your shapes when it comes to anchor positioning and, more importantly, Artboard positioning.

By default, Photoshop comes with the grid enabled, but as you can see, it’s only visible within the actual surface of a shape, which isn’t the best approach that Adobe could have taken.

example of pixel grid in photoshop

When it comes to making basic shape adjustments, the software allows us to keep track of the number of pixels that our anchor points travel, but it forces us to actually count the pixels themselves, which is only possible when using the click-and-drag method.

example of positioning an anchor using the click and drag method in photoshop

If you need to position a shape in relation to another, this time around Photoshop does a better job, since its smart guides and info panel help you keep a perfect track of both the horizontal and vertical movements of the shape, as long as you’re using the click-and-drag method.

positioning a shape using the click and drag method within the pixel grid in photoshop

So far so good, but here comes the part that kind of renders the tool useless, since if you want to use the Pen Tool (P) to draw a shape using specific values, there’s no way of doing so, since the Grid isn’t visible outside the surface of a shape.

drawing a path using the pen tool onto the pixel grid within photoshop

From what I could see, this is mainly due to the color of the Grid’s lines, which can’t be changed. The only solution to the problem as of now would be to create a shape that fills in the entire surface of the Artboard, and set its color to something darker like a grey, which again would require you to take extra steps.

Now, let’s switch over to Illustrator and see how it handles these type of situations.

Similarly to Photoshop, the software comes with its own dedicated version of the Pixel Grid, which can be turned on by heading over to View > Pixel Preview or by using the Alt-Control-Y keyboard shortcut.

As soon as we turn it on, we’ll quickly notice that compared to Photoshop, where the grid was visible only within the surface of its shapes, here the grid is applied to the entire document.

example of pixel preview inside of illustrator

By taking this different approach, the software does a better job of helping you keep track of the pixel count, as we will see in the following moments.

As with Photoshop, we can easily adjust the position of an anchor point and keep a perfect track of the number of pixels traveled, only this time around the entire process is easier since it comes with its own dedicated info panel.

example of adjusting the position of an anchor using the click and drag method inside of pixel preview mode

When it comes to positioning a shape in relation to one another, we can easily do so as long as we use the click-and-drag method, since it will allow us to keep track of the pixel count using the little info panel.

example of positioning a shape using the click and drag method inside of the pixel preview mode

Now, here comes the part that truly sets Illustrator apart, since if we need to draw a shape using the Pen Tool (P), we can easily keep track of the distance found between its composing anchor points using the little info panel.

drawing a path using the pen tool tool inside of pixel preview mode

At this point, we’ve covered most of the basic aspects that you need to take into consideration when choosing the “right” software, which means that we can now finally move on to the conclusion part.

Conclusion

The number of advantages Illustrator has makes it the clear winner here:

  • better Artboard support
  • shape selection is faster and more intuitive
  • both basic and advanced shape adjustments are easier to perform
  • an overall better Pixel Grid experience

That being said, I truly hope this information comes in useful, and if you have any questions, feel free to post them within the comments section, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

Further Develop Your Icon-Building Skills

Just finished going through this in-depth article, and feel like learning more? Well, if that’s the case, you’re in luck, since I took the time to put together this little list that should keep you going for the following days!

Web Tools

Best Software for Icon Design: Photoshop vs. Illustrator

Post pobrano z: Best Software for Icon Design: Photoshop vs. Illustrator

Final product image
What You’ll Be Creating

As a designer, you’ve probably wondered which Adobe product does a better job when it comes to the process of creating icons.

Some love Photoshop, while others rely exclusively on Illustrator, but if you search the web, you’ll find that there’s no really comprehensive comparison between the two.

That being the case, I did what I always do and took the time to put the two to the test in order to find out.

If you want to learn how to make icons, whether it’s a line icon pack, a set of social media icons, or maybe even a couple of Mac icon sets, you first have to find out which software is a better fit for you. 

Today, with the whole minimal icon style trend, icon design is becoming more and more accessible, which means that as long as you put in the time and energy, you should be able to grow your craft, assuming you have the right tool for the job. 

From a simple help icon to a development icon set, the software can and will affect the way you design your assets, which is why I want to show you how the two behave when it comes to this creative process.

That being said, let’s jump straight into it!

1. What Is the Intended Creative Purpose of Each Software?

Even though both Photoshop and Illustrator are part of the same Creative Cloud family of products, they actually serve different creative needs, or at least they used to until Photoshop was reimagined from a dedicated photo editing/manipulation tool into an all-around creative one, capable of doing much more.

So then, what are the main differences between the two?

Well, if we take a quick look at Photoshop’s official web page, we’ll see that Adobe advertises the product as:

The world’s best imaging and graphic design software. Create and enhance photographs, illustrations, and 3d artwork. Design websites and mobile apps. Edit videos, simulate real-life paintings, and more. It’s everything you need to make any idea real.

At first glance, that seems to be a pretty good product description, since you get a clear idea of what the software is capable of doing.

Now, let’s move over to Illustrator and see how Adobe describes its other product:

The industry-standard vector graphics software lets you create logos, icons, drawings, typography, and illustrations for print, web, video, and mobile.

Well, as you can see, the two are actually pretty similar in terms of their intended use cases, especially when it comes to icon design, since both are advertised as capable of handling this sort of a creative process.

So how do you actually decide which software might be better when it comes to creating icons?

Well, the answer is a bit more complicated than you might think, as we will get to see in the following moments, since it all comes down to a few key factors.

2. What Is the Artboard Support Like?

The first thing that an icon designer should truly care about is Artboard support.

This is where the two set themselves apart, since Illustrator gives you the option of setting up multiple Artboards from the start, using its New Document window prompt, making the entire process really simple and intuitive.

setting up a new document in illustrator

With the latest update, the software is now able of creating a whopping 1,000 Artboards, which for an icon designer is… truly amazing.

Photoshop, on the other hand, whether you’re using the new slick-looking window prompt or the legacy one, doesn’t seem to give you this ability.

With the more modern interface, you have the option of using Artboards, but there’s no actual way of setting a specific number or adjusting simple things such as spacing, the number of columns, or the distribution method.

photoshop new document setup

Of course, you can go around this little setup bump by switching over to the Artboard Tool and manually adding the desired number of Artboards by clicking on one of the plus signs depending on where you want the software to position them, but that’s a lot more time-consuming than it should be.

example of setting up multiple artboards in photoshop

When it comes to the maximum number of Artboards that you can set up, I couldn’t find any official information, but I’m pretty sure it’s up there with Illustrator, so 1,000—I gave up after Artboard number 500.

3. How Does Basic Shape Selection Work?

Now that we’ve seen how the two handle the process of setting up Artboards, let’s take a close look at shape selection.

In Photoshop, to select a shape, you’ll first want to make sure that the Move Tool (V) is currently the active tool, and then you can simply click or drag over the surface of the desired shape in order to make a selection.

example of selecting a single shape in photoshop

Now, the problem is that once a shape is selected, there’s no actual way of telling if the selection was made or not, which to be honest is pretty annoying.

The only way to make sure that a selection was actually made is to take a close look at the Layers panel, where you’ll get a darker background underneath the shape layer itself.

example of shape selection visible in the layers panel in photoshop

Luckily for us, we can actually change this behavior, by first selecting the shape, then going over to the top Application Bar, and then checking the Show Transform Controls option.

example of enabling the bounding box in photoshop

If we move on over to Illustrator, we’ll quickly see that when it comes to selection, the software does a better job since it feels more intuitive from the start, without you having to make any adjustments.

To select a single shape, we can easily do so by first switching over to the Selection Tool and then left-clicking or dragging over its surface, which will immediately bring up its bounding box, letting us know that a selection was indeed made.

example of selecting a single shape using the click method in illustrator

Compared to Photoshop, Illustrator has an ace up its sleeve when it comes to selection, since it gives you the option of targeting and selecting multiple shapes based on similar traits such as Appearance, Fill Color, Opacity, Stroke Color, etc.

To do this, simply select one of the shapes, and then head over to Select > Same and choose one of its 12 available options.

4. How Does Basic Shape Adjustment Work?

Now that we’ve seen how the two handle shape selection, let’s dig in a little deeper and see how they behave when it comes to shape adjustment.

By definition, a vector shape is composed of a closed or open path that is defined by a set of two or more anchor points.

In Photoshop, you can easily adjust a shape by first selecting its anchor point(s) using the Direct Selection Tool (A), and then dragging it in the desired direction.

example of re positioning the anchor of a shape in photoshop

Illustrator uses the same basics, where you use its dedicated Direct Selection Tool (A) to select a shape’s composing anchor point, and then click and drag it in the desired direction in order to adjust the shape of the object.

Now, compared to Photoshop, Illustrator gives you a little info window where you can see the number of pixels that the anchor point travels as you drag it around.

example of adjusting the position of an anchor in illustrator

If you need to combine high precision with a fast workflow, you’re going to find that Illustrator does a better job, since it allows you to select the anchor and then use its Move tool, by right-clicking and then going to Transform > Move, which should bring up a new window where you can individually adjust its position on the Horizontal and Vertical axes.

adjusting the position of an anchor using the move tool

The process of adjusting the position of an anchor point is actually fun and easy to do, but what about those situations when you need to completely remove one from a shape’s path?

Well, in Photoshop, you can easily remove an anchor by selecting it using the Direct Selection Tool (A) and then pressing the Delete key, which will open up the shape’s path, as you can see.

example of removing an anchor in photoshop

To close the resulting path, we’ll need to grab the Pen Tool (P), click on one of the disconnected anchor points, and then close the line by clicking on the remaining one.

example of closing up a path using photoshop

If we switch over to Illustrator, the software uses the same process, where in order to remove an anchor point you first have to select it using the Direct Selection Tool (A) and then erase it by pressing Delete.

example of opening up a path in illustrator

When it comes to closing the resulting path, things are a little bit easier this time around, since all you have to do is use the Control-J keyboard shortcut, which will join the disconnected anchors back to one another using a straight path segment.

example of closing up a path in illustrator

5. How Does Advanced Shape Adjustment Work?

At this point, we’ve seen what the two can do when it comes to basic shape adjustments, so let’s turn things up a little bit and play with more advanced adjustments.

Compared to Illustrator, Photoshop lacks Pathfinder’s Shape Modes which allow you to adjust one shape using another, but hold on, don’t panic since it does have a set of similar functions hidden within one of its menus.

Before we move on, I wanted to point out that, yes, I’m aware of the Path operations panel, but believe me, it works so strangely that you’re better off staying away from it.

So let’s say that we have a pretty basic 32 x 32 px square that we want to adjust by removing a 20 x 20 px circle from its top-right corner.

example of shapes to be adjusted in photoshop

Once we have our shapes in place, we can select them both and go to Layers > Combine Shapes > Subtract Front Shape.

example of subtracting a shape in photoshop

Now, even though the subtraction took place correctly, the path of the circle ended up being attached to that of the square, which we will want to fix by opening up the Path operations panel, and then using its Merge Shape Components function.

example of merging paths in photoshop

I won’t go over the remaining three Path operations, since they’re pretty self-explanatory. Just remember that as long as you follow the above process, you should be totally fine.

If we switch over to Illustrator, we’ll find that it comes with a different implementation of the path adjustments available within Photoshop, which to be honest are a little easier to use.

By default, the panel is hidden, so you’ll have to select multiple shapes in order for it to appear within the right Tools panel.

As soon as the panel becomes visible, we can achieve the same result as in Photoshop, by selecting the two created shapes and then simply using the Minus Front Shape Mode. It’s that simple.

example of using minus front in illustrator

Illustrator will immediately perform the operation, giving us a nice clean path. 

example of resulting subtracted shape in illustrator

Again, I’m not going to go over all of the remaining Shape Modes since they’re pretty descriptive, but I really encourage you to try them out, especially if this is your first time using Illustrator.

6. How Do the Two Take Advantage of the Pixel Grid?

When creating small assets such as icons, you’ll always find yourself in the position where you need to be able to see how their different composing shapes behave in relation to one another, and more importantly to their underlying Artboard.

This is where the ability to use a Pixel Grid comes in handy, since it allows you to see the actual underlying fabric, and thus have a higher degree of control over your shapes when it comes to anchor positioning and, more importantly, Artboard positioning.

By default, Photoshop comes with the grid enabled, but as you can see, it’s only visible within the actual surface of a shape, which isn’t the best approach that Adobe could have taken.

example of pixel grid in photoshop

When it comes to making basic shape adjustments, the software allows us to keep track of the number of pixels that our anchor points travel, but it forces us to actually count the pixels themselves, which is only possible when using the click-and-drag method.

example of positioning an anchor using the click and drag method in photoshop

If you need to position a shape in relation to another, this time around Photoshop does a better job, since its smart guides and info panel help you keep a perfect track of both the horizontal and vertical movements of the shape, as long as you’re using the click-and-drag method.

positioning a shape using the click and drag method within the pixel grid in photoshop

So far so good, but here comes the part that kind of renders the tool useless, since if you want to use the Pen Tool (P) to draw a shape using specific values, there’s no way of doing so, since the Grid isn’t visible outside the surface of a shape.

drawing a path using the pen tool onto the pixel grid within photoshop

From what I could see, this is mainly due to the color of the Grid’s lines, which can’t be changed. The only solution to the problem as of now would be to create a shape that fills in the entire surface of the Artboard, and set its color to something darker like a grey, which again would require you to take extra steps.

Now, let’s switch over to Illustrator and see how it handles these type of situations.

Similarly to Photoshop, the software comes with its own dedicated version of the Pixel Grid, which can be turned on by heading over to View > Pixel Preview or by using the Alt-Control-Y keyboard shortcut.

As soon as we turn it on, we’ll quickly notice that compared to Photoshop, where the grid was visible only within the surface of its shapes, here the grid is applied to the entire document.

example of pixel preview inside of illustrator

By taking this different approach, the software does a better job of helping you keep track of the pixel count, as we will see in the following moments.

As with Photoshop, we can easily adjust the position of an anchor point and keep a perfect track of the number of pixels traveled, only this time around the entire process is easier since it comes with its own dedicated info panel.

example of adjusting the position of an anchor using the click and drag method inside of pixel preview mode

When it comes to positioning a shape in relation to one another, we can easily do so as long as we use the click-and-drag method, since it will allow us to keep track of the pixel count using the little info panel.

example of positioning a shape using the click and drag method inside of the pixel preview mode

Now, here comes the part that truly sets Illustrator apart, since if we need to draw a shape using the Pen Tool (P), we can easily keep track of the distance found between its composing anchor points using the little info panel.

drawing a path using the pen tool tool inside of pixel preview mode

At this point, we’ve covered most of the basic aspects that you need to take into consideration when choosing the “right” software, which means that we can now finally move on to the conclusion part.

Conclusion

The number of advantages Illustrator has makes it the clear winner here:

  • better Artboard support
  • shape selection is faster and more intuitive
  • both basic and advanced shape adjustments are easier to perform
  • an overall better Pixel Grid experience

That being said, I truly hope this information comes in useful, and if you have any questions, feel free to post them within the comments section, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

Further Develop Your Icon-Building Skills

Just finished going through this in-depth article, and feel like learning more? Well, if that’s the case, you’re in luck, since I took the time to put together this little list that should keep you going for the following days!

Web Tools

Best Software for Icon Design: Photoshop vs. Illustrator

Post pobrano z: Best Software for Icon Design: Photoshop vs. Illustrator

Final product image
What You’ll Be Creating

As a designer, you’ve probably wondered which Adobe product does a better job when it comes to the process of creating icons.

Some love Photoshop, while others rely exclusively on Illustrator, but if you search the web, you’ll find that there’s no really comprehensive comparison between the two.

That being the case, I did what I always do and took the time to put the two to the test in order to find out.

If you want to learn how to make icons, whether it’s a line icon pack, a set of social media icons, or maybe even a couple of Mac icon sets, you first have to find out which software is a better fit for you. 

Today, with the whole minimal icon style trend, icon design is becoming more and more accessible, which means that as long as you put in the time and energy, you should be able to grow your craft, assuming you have the right tool for the job. 

From a simple help icon to a development icon set, the software can and will affect the way you design your assets, which is why I want to show you how the two behave when it comes to this creative process.

That being said, let’s jump straight into it!

1. What Is the Intended Creative Purpose of Each Software?

Even though both Photoshop and Illustrator are part of the same Creative Cloud family of products, they actually serve different creative needs, or at least they used to until Photoshop was reimagined from a dedicated photo editing/manipulation tool into an all-around creative one, capable of doing much more.

So then, what are the main differences between the two?

Well, if we take a quick look at Photoshop’s official web page, we’ll see that Adobe advertises the product as:

The world’s best imaging and graphic design software. Create and enhance photographs, illustrations, and 3d artwork. Design websites and mobile apps. Edit videos, simulate real-life paintings, and more. It’s everything you need to make any idea real.

At first glance, that seems to be a pretty good product description, since you get a clear idea of what the software is capable of doing.

Now, let’s move over to Illustrator and see how Adobe describes its other product:

The industry-standard vector graphics software lets you create logos, icons, drawings, typography, and illustrations for print, web, video, and mobile.

Well, as you can see, the two are actually pretty similar in terms of their intended use cases, especially when it comes to icon design, since both are advertised as capable of handling this sort of a creative process.

So how do you actually decide which software might be better when it comes to creating icons?

Well, the answer is a bit more complicated than you might think, as we will get to see in the following moments, since it all comes down to a few key factors.

2. What Is the Artboard Support Like?

The first thing that an icon designer should truly care about is Artboard support.

This is where the two set themselves apart, since Illustrator gives you the option of setting up multiple Artboards from the start, using its New Document window prompt, making the entire process really simple and intuitive.

setting up a new document in illustrator

With the latest update, the software is now able of creating a whopping 1,000 Artboards, which for an icon designer is… truly amazing.

Photoshop, on the other hand, whether you’re using the new slick-looking window prompt or the legacy one, doesn’t seem to give you this ability.

With the more modern interface, you have the option of using Artboards, but there’s no actual way of setting a specific number or adjusting simple things such as spacing, the number of columns, or the distribution method.

photoshop new document setup

Of course, you can go around this little setup bump by switching over to the Artboard Tool and manually adding the desired number of Artboards by clicking on one of the plus signs depending on where you want the software to position them, but that’s a lot more time-consuming than it should be.

example of setting up multiple artboards in photoshop

When it comes to the maximum number of Artboards that you can set up, I couldn’t find any official information, but I’m pretty sure it’s up there with Illustrator, so 1,000—I gave up after Artboard number 500.

3. How Does Basic Shape Selection Work?

Now that we’ve seen how the two handle the process of setting up Artboards, let’s take a close look at shape selection.

In Photoshop, to select a shape, you’ll first want to make sure that the Move Tool (V) is currently the active tool, and then you can simply click or drag over the surface of the desired shape in order to make a selection.

example of selecting a single shape in photoshop

Now, the problem is that once a shape is selected, there’s no actual way of telling if the selection was made or not, which to be honest is pretty annoying.

The only way to make sure that a selection was actually made is to take a close look at the Layers panel, where you’ll get a darker background underneath the shape layer itself.

example of shape selection visible in the layers panel in photoshop

Luckily for us, we can actually change this behavior, by first selecting the shape, then going over to the top Application Bar, and then checking the Show Transform Controls option.

example of enabling the bounding box in photoshop

If we move on over to Illustrator, we’ll quickly see that when it comes to selection, the software does a better job since it feels more intuitive from the start, without you having to make any adjustments.

To select a single shape, we can easily do so by first switching over to the Selection Tool and then left-clicking or dragging over its surface, which will immediately bring up its bounding box, letting us know that a selection was indeed made.

example of selecting a single shape using the click method in illustrator

Compared to Photoshop, Illustrator has an ace up its sleeve when it comes to selection, since it gives you the option of targeting and selecting multiple shapes based on similar traits such as Appearance, Fill Color, Opacity, Stroke Color, etc.

To do this, simply select one of the shapes, and then head over to Select > Same and choose one of its 12 available options.

4. How Does Basic Shape Adjustment Work?

Now that we’ve seen how the two handle shape selection, let’s dig in a little deeper and see how they behave when it comes to shape adjustment.

By definition, a vector shape is composed of a closed or open path that is defined by a set of two or more anchor points.

In Photoshop, you can easily adjust a shape by first selecting its anchor point(s) using the Direct Selection Tool (A), and then dragging it in the desired direction.

example of re positioning the anchor of a shape in photoshop

Illustrator uses the same basics, where you use its dedicated Direct Selection Tool (A) to select a shape’s composing anchor point, and then click and drag it in the desired direction in order to adjust the shape of the object.

Now, compared to Photoshop, Illustrator gives you a little info window where you can see the number of pixels that the anchor point travels as you drag it around.

example of adjusting the position of an anchor in illustrator

If you need to combine high precision with a fast workflow, you’re going to find that Illustrator does a better job, since it allows you to select the anchor and then use its Move tool, by right-clicking and then going to Transform > Move, which should bring up a new window where you can individually adjust its position on the Horizontal and Vertical axes.

adjusting the position of an anchor using the move tool

The process of adjusting the position of an anchor point is actually fun and easy to do, but what about those situations when you need to completely remove one from a shape’s path?

Well, in Photoshop, you can easily remove an anchor by selecting it using the Direct Selection Tool (A) and then pressing the Delete key, which will open up the shape’s path, as you can see.

example of removing an anchor in photoshop

To close the resulting path, we’ll need to grab the Pen Tool (P), click on one of the disconnected anchor points, and then close the line by clicking on the remaining one.

example of closing up a path using photoshop

If we switch over to Illustrator, the software uses the same process, where in order to remove an anchor point you first have to select it using the Direct Selection Tool (A) and then erase it by pressing Delete.

example of opening up a path in illustrator

When it comes to closing the resulting path, things are a little bit easier this time around, since all you have to do is use the Control-J keyboard shortcut, which will join the disconnected anchors back to one another using a straight path segment.

example of closing up a path in illustrator

5. How Does Advanced Shape Adjustment Work?

At this point, we’ve seen what the two can do when it comes to basic shape adjustments, so let’s turn things up a little bit and play with more advanced adjustments.

Compared to Illustrator, Photoshop lacks Pathfinder’s Shape Modes which allow you to adjust one shape using another, but hold on, don’t panic since it does have a set of similar functions hidden within one of its menus.

Before we move on, I wanted to point out that, yes, I’m aware of the Path operations panel, but believe me, it works so strangely that you’re better off staying away from it.

So let’s say that we have a pretty basic 32 x 32 px square that we want to adjust by removing a 20 x 20 px circle from its top-right corner.

example of shapes to be adjusted in photoshop

Once we have our shapes in place, we can select them both and go to Layers > Combine Shapes > Subtract Front Shape.

example of subtracting a shape in photoshop

Now, even though the subtraction took place correctly, the path of the circle ended up being attached to that of the square, which we will want to fix by opening up the Path operations panel, and then using its Merge Shape Components function.

example of merging paths in photoshop

I won’t go over the remaining three Path operations, since they’re pretty self-explanatory. Just remember that as long as you follow the above process, you should be totally fine.

If we switch over to Illustrator, we’ll find that it comes with a different implementation of the path adjustments available within Photoshop, which to be honest are a little easier to use.

By default, the panel is hidden, so you’ll have to select multiple shapes in order for it to appear within the right Tools panel.

As soon as the panel becomes visible, we can achieve the same result as in Photoshop, by selecting the two created shapes and then simply using the Minus Front Shape Mode. It’s that simple.

example of using minus front in illustrator

Illustrator will immediately perform the operation, giving us a nice clean path. 

example of resulting subtracted shape in illustrator

Again, I’m not going to go over all of the remaining Shape Modes since they’re pretty descriptive, but I really encourage you to try them out, especially if this is your first time using Illustrator.

6. How Do the Two Take Advantage of the Pixel Grid?

When creating small assets such as icons, you’ll always find yourself in the position where you need to be able to see how their different composing shapes behave in relation to one another, and more importantly to their underlying Artboard.

This is where the ability to use a Pixel Grid comes in handy, since it allows you to see the actual underlying fabric, and thus have a higher degree of control over your shapes when it comes to anchor positioning and, more importantly, Artboard positioning.

By default, Photoshop comes with the grid enabled, but as you can see, it’s only visible within the actual surface of a shape, which isn’t the best approach that Adobe could have taken.

example of pixel grid in photoshop

When it comes to making basic shape adjustments, the software allows us to keep track of the number of pixels that our anchor points travel, but it forces us to actually count the pixels themselves, which is only possible when using the click-and-drag method.

example of positioning an anchor using the click and drag method in photoshop

If you need to position a shape in relation to another, this time around Photoshop does a better job, since its smart guides and info panel help you keep a perfect track of both the horizontal and vertical movements of the shape, as long as you’re using the click-and-drag method.

positioning a shape using the click and drag method within the pixel grid in photoshop

So far so good, but here comes the part that kind of renders the tool useless, since if you want to use the Pen Tool (P) to draw a shape using specific values, there’s no way of doing so, since the Grid isn’t visible outside the surface of a shape.

drawing a path using the pen tool onto the pixel grid within photoshop

From what I could see, this is mainly due to the color of the Grid’s lines, which can’t be changed. The only solution to the problem as of now would be to create a shape that fills in the entire surface of the Artboard, and set its color to something darker like a grey, which again would require you to take extra steps.

Now, let’s switch over to Illustrator and see how it handles these type of situations.

Similarly to Photoshop, the software comes with its own dedicated version of the Pixel Grid, which can be turned on by heading over to View > Pixel Preview or by using the Alt-Control-Y keyboard shortcut.

As soon as we turn it on, we’ll quickly notice that compared to Photoshop, where the grid was visible only within the surface of its shapes, here the grid is applied to the entire document.

example of pixel preview inside of illustrator

By taking this different approach, the software does a better job of helping you keep track of the pixel count, as we will see in the following moments.

As with Photoshop, we can easily adjust the position of an anchor point and keep a perfect track of the number of pixels traveled, only this time around the entire process is easier since it comes with its own dedicated info panel.

example of adjusting the position of an anchor using the click and drag method inside of pixel preview mode

When it comes to positioning a shape in relation to one another, we can easily do so as long as we use the click-and-drag method, since it will allow us to keep track of the pixel count using the little info panel.

example of positioning a shape using the click and drag method inside of the pixel preview mode

Now, here comes the part that truly sets Illustrator apart, since if we need to draw a shape using the Pen Tool (P), we can easily keep track of the distance found between its composing anchor points using the little info panel.

drawing a path using the pen tool tool inside of pixel preview mode

At this point, we’ve covered most of the basic aspects that you need to take into consideration when choosing the “right” software, which means that we can now finally move on to the conclusion part.

Conclusion

The number of advantages Illustrator has makes it the clear winner here:

  • better Artboard support
  • shape selection is faster and more intuitive
  • both basic and advanced shape adjustments are easier to perform
  • an overall better Pixel Grid experience

That being said, I truly hope this information comes in useful, and if you have any questions, feel free to post them within the comments section, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

Further Develop Your Icon-Building Skills

Just finished going through this in-depth article, and feel like learning more? Well, if that’s the case, you’re in luck, since I took the time to put together this little list that should keep you going for the following days!

Web Tools

Best Software for Icon Design: Photoshop vs. Illustrator

Post pobrano z: Best Software for Icon Design: Photoshop vs. Illustrator

Final product image
What You’ll Be Creating

As a designer, you’ve probably wondered which Adobe product does a better job when it comes to the process of creating icons.

Some love Photoshop, while others rely exclusively on Illustrator, but if you search the web, you’ll find that there’s no really comprehensive comparison between the two.

That being the case, I did what I always do and took the time to put the two to the test in order to find out.

If you want to learn how to make icons, whether it’s a line icon pack, a set of social media icons, or maybe even a couple of Mac icon sets, you first have to find out which software is a better fit for you. 

Today, with the whole minimal icon style trend, icon design is becoming more and more accessible, which means that as long as you put in the time and energy, you should be able to grow your craft, assuming you have the right tool for the job. 

From a simple help icon to a development icon set, the software can and will affect the way you design your assets, which is why I want to show you how the two behave when it comes to this creative process.

That being said, let’s jump straight into it!

1. What Is the Intended Creative Purpose of Each Software?

Even though both Photoshop and Illustrator are part of the same Creative Cloud family of products, they actually serve different creative needs, or at least they used to until Photoshop was reimagined from a dedicated photo editing/manipulation tool into an all-around creative one, capable of doing much more.

So then, what are the main differences between the two?

Well, if we take a quick look at Photoshop’s official web page, we’ll see that Adobe advertises the product as:

The world’s best imaging and graphic design software. Create and enhance photographs, illustrations, and 3d artwork. Design websites and mobile apps. Edit videos, simulate real-life paintings, and more. It’s everything you need to make any idea real.

At first glance, that seems to be a pretty good product description, since you get a clear idea of what the software is capable of doing.

Now, let’s move over to Illustrator and see how Adobe describes its other product:

The industry-standard vector graphics software lets you create logos, icons, drawings, typography, and illustrations for print, web, video, and mobile.

Well, as you can see, the two are actually pretty similar in terms of their intended use cases, especially when it comes to icon design, since both are advertised as capable of handling this sort of a creative process.

So how do you actually decide which software might be better when it comes to creating icons?

Well, the answer is a bit more complicated than you might think, as we will get to see in the following moments, since it all comes down to a few key factors.

2. What Is the Artboard Support Like?

The first thing that an icon designer should truly care about is Artboard support.

This is where the two set themselves apart, since Illustrator gives you the option of setting up multiple Artboards from the start, using its New Document window prompt, making the entire process really simple and intuitive.

setting up a new document in illustrator

With the latest update, the software is now able of creating a whopping 1,000 Artboards, which for an icon designer is… truly amazing.

Photoshop, on the other hand, whether you’re using the new slick-looking window prompt or the legacy one, doesn’t seem to give you this ability.

With the more modern interface, you have the option of using Artboards, but there’s no actual way of setting a specific number or adjusting simple things such as spacing, the number of columns, or the distribution method.

photoshop new document setup

Of course, you can go around this little setup bump by switching over to the Artboard Tool and manually adding the desired number of Artboards by clicking on one of the plus signs depending on where you want the software to position them, but that’s a lot more time-consuming than it should be.

example of setting up multiple artboards in photoshop

When it comes to the maximum number of Artboards that you can set up, I couldn’t find any official information, but I’m pretty sure it’s up there with Illustrator, so 1,000—I gave up after Artboard number 500.

3. How Does Basic Shape Selection Work?

Now that we’ve seen how the two handle the process of setting up Artboards, let’s take a close look at shape selection.

In Photoshop, to select a shape, you’ll first want to make sure that the Move Tool (V) is currently the active tool, and then you can simply click or drag over the surface of the desired shape in order to make a selection.

example of selecting a single shape in photoshop

Now, the problem is that once a shape is selected, there’s no actual way of telling if the selection was made or not, which to be honest is pretty annoying.

The only way to make sure that a selection was actually made is to take a close look at the Layers panel, where you’ll get a darker background underneath the shape layer itself.

example of shape selection visible in the layers panel in photoshop

Luckily for us, we can actually change this behavior, by first selecting the shape, then going over to the top Application Bar, and then checking the Show Transform Controls option.

example of enabling the bounding box in photoshop

If we move on over to Illustrator, we’ll quickly see that when it comes to selection, the software does a better job since it feels more intuitive from the start, without you having to make any adjustments.

To select a single shape, we can easily do so by first switching over to the Selection Tool and then left-clicking or dragging over its surface, which will immediately bring up its bounding box, letting us know that a selection was indeed made.

example of selecting a single shape using the click method in illustrator

Compared to Photoshop, Illustrator has an ace up its sleeve when it comes to selection, since it gives you the option of targeting and selecting multiple shapes based on similar traits such as Appearance, Fill Color, Opacity, Stroke Color, etc.

To do this, simply select one of the shapes, and then head over to Select > Same and choose one of its 12 available options.

4. How Does Basic Shape Adjustment Work?

Now that we’ve seen how the two handle shape selection, let’s dig in a little deeper and see how they behave when it comes to shape adjustment.

By definition, a vector shape is composed of a closed or open path that is defined by a set of two or more anchor points.

In Photoshop, you can easily adjust a shape by first selecting its anchor point(s) using the Direct Selection Tool (A), and then dragging it in the desired direction.

example of re positioning the anchor of a shape in photoshop

Illustrator uses the same basics, where you use its dedicated Direct Selection Tool (A) to select a shape’s composing anchor point, and then click and drag it in the desired direction in order to adjust the shape of the object.

Now, compared to Photoshop, Illustrator gives you a little info window where you can see the number of pixels that the anchor point travels as you drag it around.

example of adjusting the position of an anchor in illustrator

If you need to combine high precision with a fast workflow, you’re going to find that Illustrator does a better job, since it allows you to select the anchor and then use its Move tool, by right-clicking and then going to Transform > Move, which should bring up a new window where you can individually adjust its position on the Horizontal and Vertical axes.

adjusting the position of an anchor using the move tool

The process of adjusting the position of an anchor point is actually fun and easy to do, but what about those situations when you need to completely remove one from a shape’s path?

Well, in Photoshop, you can easily remove an anchor by selecting it using the Direct Selection Tool (A) and then pressing the Delete key, which will open up the shape’s path, as you can see.

example of removing an anchor in photoshop

To close the resulting path, we’ll need to grab the Pen Tool (P), click on one of the disconnected anchor points, and then close the line by clicking on the remaining one.

example of closing up a path using photoshop

If we switch over to Illustrator, the software uses the same process, where in order to remove an anchor point you first have to select it using the Direct Selection Tool (A) and then erase it by pressing Delete.

example of opening up a path in illustrator

When it comes to closing the resulting path, things are a little bit easier this time around, since all you have to do is use the Control-J keyboard shortcut, which will join the disconnected anchors back to one another using a straight path segment.

example of closing up a path in illustrator

5. How Does Advanced Shape Adjustment Work?

At this point, we’ve seen what the two can do when it comes to basic shape adjustments, so let’s turn things up a little bit and play with more advanced adjustments.

Compared to Illustrator, Photoshop lacks Pathfinder’s Shape Modes which allow you to adjust one shape using another, but hold on, don’t panic since it does have a set of similar functions hidden within one of its menus.

Before we move on, I wanted to point out that, yes, I’m aware of the Path operations panel, but believe me, it works so strangely that you’re better off staying away from it.

So let’s say that we have a pretty basic 32 x 32 px square that we want to adjust by removing a 20 x 20 px circle from its top-right corner.

example of shapes to be adjusted in photoshop

Once we have our shapes in place, we can select them both and go to Layers > Combine Shapes > Subtract Front Shape.

example of subtracting a shape in photoshop

Now, even though the subtraction took place correctly, the path of the circle ended up being attached to that of the square, which we will want to fix by opening up the Path operations panel, and then using its Merge Shape Components function.

example of merging paths in photoshop

I won’t go over the remaining three Path operations, since they’re pretty self-explanatory. Just remember that as long as you follow the above process, you should be totally fine.

If we switch over to Illustrator, we’ll find that it comes with a different implementation of the path adjustments available within Photoshop, which to be honest are a little easier to use.

By default, the panel is hidden, so you’ll have to select multiple shapes in order for it to appear within the right Tools panel.

As soon as the panel becomes visible, we can achieve the same result as in Photoshop, by selecting the two created shapes and then simply using the Minus Front Shape Mode. It’s that simple.

example of using minus front in illustrator

Illustrator will immediately perform the operation, giving us a nice clean path. 

example of resulting subtracted shape in illustrator

Again, I’m not going to go over all of the remaining Shape Modes since they’re pretty descriptive, but I really encourage you to try them out, especially if this is your first time using Illustrator.

6. How Do the Two Take Advantage of the Pixel Grid?

When creating small assets such as icons, you’ll always find yourself in the position where you need to be able to see how their different composing shapes behave in relation to one another, and more importantly to their underlying Artboard.

This is where the ability to use a Pixel Grid comes in handy, since it allows you to see the actual underlying fabric, and thus have a higher degree of control over your shapes when it comes to anchor positioning and, more importantly, Artboard positioning.

By default, Photoshop comes with the grid enabled, but as you can see, it’s only visible within the actual surface of a shape, which isn’t the best approach that Adobe could have taken.

example of pixel grid in photoshop

When it comes to making basic shape adjustments, the software allows us to keep track of the number of pixels that our anchor points travel, but it forces us to actually count the pixels themselves, which is only possible when using the click-and-drag method.

example of positioning an anchor using the click and drag method in photoshop

If you need to position a shape in relation to another, this time around Photoshop does a better job, since its smart guides and info panel help you keep a perfect track of both the horizontal and vertical movements of the shape, as long as you’re using the click-and-drag method.

positioning a shape using the click and drag method within the pixel grid in photoshop

So far so good, but here comes the part that kind of renders the tool useless, since if you want to use the Pen Tool (P) to draw a shape using specific values, there’s no way of doing so, since the Grid isn’t visible outside the surface of a shape.

drawing a path using the pen tool onto the pixel grid within photoshop

From what I could see, this is mainly due to the color of the Grid’s lines, which can’t be changed. The only solution to the problem as of now would be to create a shape that fills in the entire surface of the Artboard, and set its color to something darker like a grey, which again would require you to take extra steps.

Now, let’s switch over to Illustrator and see how it handles these type of situations.

Similarly to Photoshop, the software comes with its own dedicated version of the Pixel Grid, which can be turned on by heading over to View > Pixel Preview or by using the Alt-Control-Y keyboard shortcut.

As soon as we turn it on, we’ll quickly notice that compared to Photoshop, where the grid was visible only within the surface of its shapes, here the grid is applied to the entire document.

example of pixel preview inside of illustrator

By taking this different approach, the software does a better job of helping you keep track of the pixel count, as we will see in the following moments.

As with Photoshop, we can easily adjust the position of an anchor point and keep a perfect track of the number of pixels traveled, only this time around the entire process is easier since it comes with its own dedicated info panel.

example of adjusting the position of an anchor using the click and drag method inside of pixel preview mode

When it comes to positioning a shape in relation to one another, we can easily do so as long as we use the click-and-drag method, since it will allow us to keep track of the pixel count using the little info panel.

example of positioning a shape using the click and drag method inside of the pixel preview mode

Now, here comes the part that truly sets Illustrator apart, since if we need to draw a shape using the Pen Tool (P), we can easily keep track of the distance found between its composing anchor points using the little info panel.

drawing a path using the pen tool tool inside of pixel preview mode

At this point, we’ve covered most of the basic aspects that you need to take into consideration when choosing the “right” software, which means that we can now finally move on to the conclusion part.

Conclusion

The number of advantages Illustrator has makes it the clear winner here:

  • better Artboard support
  • shape selection is faster and more intuitive
  • both basic and advanced shape adjustments are easier to perform
  • an overall better Pixel Grid experience

That being said, I truly hope this information comes in useful, and if you have any questions, feel free to post them within the comments section, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

Further Develop Your Icon-Building Skills

Just finished going through this in-depth article, and feel like learning more? Well, if that’s the case, you’re in luck, since I took the time to put together this little list that should keep you going for the following days!

Web Tools

10 Amazing Backgrounds Every Graphic Designer Should Own

Post pobrano z: 10 Amazing Backgrounds Every Graphic Designer Should Own

Backgrounds and textures are the unspoken heroes of graphic design—adding depth, interest and detail to layouts, they’ll be the hardest-working images in your collection. 

In this article, you’ll find ten essential backgrounds and textures to download once and cherish forever.  

Ink Paper Marble Textures pack, Volume 6

From cool grunge styles to gritty concretes and starry nebulas, here you’ll find a background or texture style to suit almost every sort of design, from website projects to magazine layouts.

Looking for a wider selection of backgrounds and textures? Discover a huge range of pro-quality texture and background images over on Envato Market and Envato Elements.

Read on to discover the background textures that will play an indispensable role in your everyday design process…

1. The Concrete Background Texture

Looking to give your designs an instant cool edge? Concrete textures can look grungy and distressed, or minimal and urban—take your pick from this selection of concrete backgrounds to find the perfect partner for your designs.

concrete textures
Gritty concrete textures

Concrete is an on-trend material across the board right now—in interior and product design, as well as graphics—so it makes a great addition to designs that need to look contemporary and aspirational. 

concrete
Gritty concrete textures

Designing a website for a new retail brand? Putting together a promo flyer for a design event? Consider integrating a concrete texture* into your artwork, and make your media seem on-trend in an instant.

Check out this vector background pack for example. This pack comes with 40 background textures featuring concrete, stone, and so much more. Add some grit to your designs with a few simple clicks.

vector backgrounds
40 Vector Background Textures
vector backgrounds
40 Vector Background Textures

*Top Tip: Concrete can appear cold in the wrong context—warm up your design by pairing the texture with a warmer metallic tone, like copper.

2. The Space Background Texture

We all wanted to be an astronaut at some point in our childhood (or, indeed, adulthood), but you can bring a touch of celestial wonder to your designs without leaving Earth.

Scenic space backgrounds might not be the plainest of backgrounds, but they are surprisingly versatile. They look fantastic layered behind poster artwork, and can help to create a more immersive online experience when placed as a background skin on a homepage.

Space Nebula Backgrounds
Space Nebula Backgrounds

Space backgrounds have an instant psychological effect on the viewer—they can inspire feelings of adventure and intellectualism (perfect for science media or business pitch documents), but they can also be calming and spiritual. Their stunning beauty requires only simple typography in the foreground to make them shine. 

Check out this selection of space backgrounds, which has a huge range of different color tones to suit any project. Add them to your posters or websites for a sublime space effect.

Space Backgrounds
Space Backgrounds
Space Backgrounds
Space Backgrounds

3. The Grunge Background Texture

Grunge backgrounds and grunge textures will never go out of style—they always give a cool, edgy look to designs. Look for peeled paint textures, faded edges, and gritty color schemes. 

Grunge backgrounds and textures look great because they contain so much detail and visual interest. They are versatile too—try layering them under photos and setting the opacity to multiply to bring through some of that interesting texture and give your images an aged, vintage-style effect.

grunge backgrounds
Grunge Texture Backgrounds

Try adding a grunge background to a festival flyer, a gig poster or a magazine cover to add depth and interest. These unique grunge backgrounds will also look fantastic placed in games and apps, bringing a more immersive quality to digital designs.

Enjoy a premium selection of 12 painted backgrounds featuring beautiful colors and more. Created with a variety of tools, this set has high resolution backgrounds you’ll definitely want to add to your collection. 

Painted Grunge Backgrounds
Painted Grunge Backgrounds
Painted Grunge Backgrounds
Painted Grunge Backgrounds

4. The Polygon Background Texture

Polygons might not seem like the most exciting building block for a background, but the final effect is incredibly versatile and professional-looking.

Polygon textures have a tech-forward style that suits corporate media, like reports, business websites or expo displays. 

They are a great way to add polished texture quickly, which is a great timesaver for corporate pitches. They also have a very modern, even futuristic quality that helps businesses to look forward-thinking.

Polygon Backgrounds
Polygon Backgrounds

If you’re looking to add texture to apps, polygon designs are perfectly suited for the job—they’re stylish without being obtrusive, and they balance flat and 3D styles to keep your designs looking on-trend.

Polygon Backgrounds
Polygon Backgrounds

You can adapt polygon textures easily to different color schemes too—take a look at the beautiful selection of colors in this polygon backgrounds package. 

This pack contains 10 noisy polygon backgrounds with incredible colors and textures. Use the abstract shapes to complement your next project.

Polygon Backgrounds
Polygon Backgrounds

5. The Blackboard Background Texture

Blackboard Backgrounds
Blackboard Backgrounds pack

Blackboard backgrounds will be a real workhorse for your design projects. Set behind simple or cursive typography, they’re great for emphasizing points in sales pitches, on educational materials, or on motivational posters or flyers.

Team a blackboard texture with a handwritten or, even better, chalkboard typeface for the ultimate back-to-school pairing. This will work just as well on college lecture slides as it will for advertising early Fall sales with a back-to-school theme.

Blackboard backgrounds don’t need to be black either! Liven up a conventional blackboard texture with chalky, muted shades, as in this blackboard image collection.

blackboard backgrounds
Blackboard Backgrounds pack

Or dress up your designs with blackboard backgrounds in different grey shades. This pack contains nine blackboard backgrounds at 300 dpi. Make any clean design pop with these incredible graphics. 

blackboard
Blackboard Patterns and backgrounds
Blackboard Patterns and backgrounds
Blackboard Patterns and backgrounds

6. The Watercolor Background Texture

Want to add a painterly, artistic touch to your designs? Watercolor backgrounds and painterly textures are perfect for bringing a craft-inspired look to your designs, without needing to pick up a paintbrush. 

Colorful Watercolor Backgrounds
Colorful Watercolor Backgrounds

Watercolor textures aren’t just suited to advertising art sales or craft fairs—because they represent something that is hand-crafted, they are perfectly suited to branding and packaging for organic products or independent businesses. 

Try integrating them into cosmetics or jewellery box designs to add a home-made, authentic touch to packaging designs.

Colorful Watercolor Backgrounds
Colorful Watercolor Backgrounds

Watercolor textures can bring a very different character to your layouts when set in different colorways. In this watercolor texture collection, a clear turquoise blue has a summer holiday vibe (great for hotel flyers or websites); a bright red gives has a bold graffiti feel, and an olive green, navy blue and black blend has a natural style, which would also swing towards a grungy look if darkened.

This watercolor texture pack contains 10 high quality backgrounds with gorgeous colors. Use it to add beautiful texture to your posters or stationery.

Handmade Watercolor Backgrounds
Handmade Watercolor Backgrounds
Handmade Watercolor Backgrounds
Handmade Watercolor Backgrounds

7. The Bokeh Background Texture

Bokeh backgrounds and abstract light textures are made up of diffused light pixels to create an ethereal effect. They can add a dreamy, idealistic quality to your designs. 

Abstract Light Bokeh Background
Abstract Light Bokeh Background

Suited to all sorts of media, bokeh textures are great for softening layouts, helping to add a beautiful, soft-focus style to websites, magazines, book covers—you name it. 

Bokeh backgrounds are also perfect for fashion catalogues, wedding stationery, or for simply showcasing beautiful photos or typography.

Keep a collection of bokeh backgrounds on hand for when a client wants to tone down a design or make it appear more soft and calming. This bokeh backgrounds pack features 10 high resolution images perfect for any website or app. 

Colorful Blurred Bokeh Backgrounds
Colorful Blurred Bokeh Backgrounds
Colorful Blurred Bokeh Backgrounds
Colorful Blurred Bokeh Backgrounds

8. The Paper Background Texture

I personally find paper backgrounds to be one of the most versatile and heavily-used texture styles in my own work, and I’m building quite the collection as a result. 

Paper backgrounds add subtle texture to posters, flyers, stationery, and web pages. 

Worn Paper Backgrounds
Worn Paper Backgrounds

For vintage-inspired and flat-style designs, a paper background is indispensable—see your designs magically transform from crisp and contemporary to suitably aged in an instant. 

Even if you’re intending to print your items on paper or card, adding a ‘fake’ paper background will only add to the tactile feel of your finished item. It’s also a great trick for making a printed item feel more luxurious if your budget won’t stretch to printing on expensive paper.

Worn Paper Backgrounds
Worn Paper Backgrounds

This collection of wrinkled backgrounds includes an interesting texture that will add a cool grunge element to your designs. 

Enjoy 10 high quality images all at 3000×2000 pixels to make the most of your designs. Download this set of versatile paper textures today!

Wrinkled Paper Backgrounds
Wrinkled Paper Backgrounds
Wrinkled Paper Backgrounds
Wrinkled Paper Backgrounds

9. The Brick Background Texture

Bricks are a fantastic texture to have to hand, ideal for placing behind mocked-up framed images, or for sitting behind graffiti-style typography.

Brick backgrounds provide enough interest to be the main visual feature of a layout, while remaining uniform enough to allow text to stand out. 

They can have a worn, grungy look, or a clean, red-brick style, making them suitable for a range of projects and styles.

Brick Backgrounds Pack
Brick Backgrounds Pack

This broad range of brick textures has styles to suit every taste, from clean burnt terracotta to distressed painted walls. Download 20 different textures for the perfect brick background for your designs. Also included is a quick vignette layer for a dramatic effect.

Brick Wall Textures and Backgrounds
Brick Wall Textures and Backgrounds
Brick Wall Textures and Backgrounds
Brick Wall Textures and Backgrounds

10. The White Background Texture

Likely to be the most versatile of all the backgrounds in your collection, a basic range of white backgrounds and textures will no doubt become a firm favorite for using in your design projects.

While white backgrounds lack in color, they are infinitely adaptable as a result and are an instant hack for giving print designs a polished look. 

Layered behind or over graphics, typography and other textures on posters, stationery, websites, cards and covers, they give an instant ‘texture-boost’ to layouts.

White Backgrounds Bundle
White Backgrounds Bundle

This collection of white abstract textures contains 10 hi-res backgrounds, with bokeh and glittered effects. Add some subtle sparkle to your work by trying this pack of stylish white textures today. Watch it quickly become the most used backgrounds in your collection.

White Abstract Backgrounds
White Abstract Backgrounds
White Abstract Backgrounds
White Abstract Backgrounds

Your Ultimate Background and Texture Collection

Backgrounds and textures are the backbone of any great design layout, adding subtle detail, depth and color while allowing the main elements to shine. 

This collection of 10 essential backgrounds will see you through any design project, whatever the theme and whoever the client:

  1. The concrete background
  2. The space background
  3. The grunge background
  4. The polygon background
  5. The blackboard background
  6. The watercolor background
  7. The bokeh background
  8. The paper background
  9. The brick background
  10. And don’t forget…the white background

With this unbeatable team of textures to hand you’ll be able to take your future design projects to the next level in an instant.

If you’re still on the hunt for an elusive background or texture style, be sure to swing by Envato Market and Envato Elements and check out the huge range of great-value textures there.

Discover our essential edits of the best graphics, templates and fonts to add to your collection:

Web Tools

10 Amazing Backgrounds Every Graphic Designer Should Own

Post pobrano z: 10 Amazing Backgrounds Every Graphic Designer Should Own

Backgrounds and textures are the unspoken heroes of graphic design—adding depth, interest and detail to layouts, they’ll be the hardest-working images in your collection. 

In this article, you’ll find ten essential backgrounds and textures to download once and cherish forever.  

Ink Paper Marble Textures pack, Volume 6

From cool grunge styles to gritty concretes and starry nebulas, here you’ll find a background or texture style to suit almost every sort of design, from website projects to magazine layouts.

Looking for a wider selection of backgrounds and textures? Discover a huge range of pro-quality texture and background images over on Envato Market and Envato Elements.

Read on to discover the background textures that will play an indispensable role in your everyday design process…

1. The Concrete Background Texture

Looking to give your designs an instant cool edge? Concrete textures can look grungy and distressed, or minimal and urban—take your pick from this selection of concrete backgrounds to find the perfect partner for your designs.

concrete textures
Gritty concrete textures

Concrete is an on-trend material across the board right now—in interior and product design, as well as graphics—so it makes a great addition to designs that need to look contemporary and aspirational. 

concrete
Gritty concrete textures

Designing a website for a new retail brand? Putting together a promo flyer for a design event? Consider integrating a concrete texture* into your artwork, and make your media seem on-trend in an instant.

Check out this vector background pack for example. This pack comes with 40 background textures featuring concrete, stone, and so much more. Add some grit to your designs with a few simple clicks.

vector backgrounds
40 Vector Background Textures
vector backgrounds
40 Vector Background Textures

*Top Tip: Concrete can appear cold in the wrong context—warm up your design by pairing the texture with a warmer metallic tone, like copper.

2. The Space Background Texture

We all wanted to be an astronaut at some point in our childhood (or, indeed, adulthood), but you can bring a touch of celestial wonder to your designs without leaving Earth.

Scenic space backgrounds might not be the plainest of backgrounds, but they are surprisingly versatile. They look fantastic layered behind poster artwork, and can help to create a more immersive online experience when placed as a background skin on a homepage.

Space Nebula Backgrounds
Space Nebula Backgrounds

Space backgrounds have an instant psychological effect on the viewer—they can inspire feelings of adventure and intellectualism (perfect for science media or business pitch documents), but they can also be calming and spiritual. Their stunning beauty requires only simple typography in the foreground to make them shine. 

Check out this selection of space backgrounds, which has a huge range of different color tones to suit any project. Add them to your posters or websites for a sublime space effect.

Space Backgrounds
Space Backgrounds
Space Backgrounds
Space Backgrounds

3. The Grunge Background Texture

Grunge backgrounds and grunge textures will never go out of style—they always give a cool, edgy look to designs. Look for peeled paint textures, faded edges, and gritty color schemes. 

Grunge backgrounds and textures look great because they contain so much detail and visual interest. They are versatile too—try layering them under photos and setting the opacity to multiply to bring through some of that interesting texture and give your images an aged, vintage-style effect.

grunge backgrounds
Grunge Texture Backgrounds

Try adding a grunge background to a festival flyer, a gig poster or a magazine cover to add depth and interest. These unique grunge backgrounds will also look fantastic placed in games and apps, bringing a more immersive quality to digital designs.

Enjoy a premium selection of 12 painted backgrounds featuring beautiful colors and more. Created with a variety of tools, this set has high resolution backgrounds you’ll definitely want to add to your collection. 

Painted Grunge Backgrounds
Painted Grunge Backgrounds
Painted Grunge Backgrounds
Painted Grunge Backgrounds

4. The Polygon Background Texture

Polygons might not seem like the most exciting building block for a background, but the final effect is incredibly versatile and professional-looking.

Polygon textures have a tech-forward style that suits corporate media, like reports, business websites or expo displays. 

They are a great way to add polished texture quickly, which is a great timesaver for corporate pitches. They also have a very modern, even futuristic quality that helps businesses to look forward-thinking.

Polygon Backgrounds
Polygon Backgrounds

If you’re looking to add texture to apps, polygon designs are perfectly suited for the job—they’re stylish without being obtrusive, and they balance flat and 3D styles to keep your designs looking on-trend.

Polygon Backgrounds
Polygon Backgrounds

You can adapt polygon textures easily to different color schemes too—take a look at the beautiful selection of colors in this polygon backgrounds package. 

This pack contains 10 noisy polygon backgrounds with incredible colors and textures. Use the abstract shapes to complement your next project.

Polygon Backgrounds
Polygon Backgrounds

5. The Blackboard Background Texture

Blackboard Backgrounds
Blackboard Backgrounds pack

Blackboard backgrounds will be a real workhorse for your design projects. Set behind simple or cursive typography, they’re great for emphasizing points in sales pitches, on educational materials, or on motivational posters or flyers.

Team a blackboard texture with a handwritten or, even better, chalkboard typeface for the ultimate back-to-school pairing. This will work just as well on college lecture slides as it will for advertising early Fall sales with a back-to-school theme.

Blackboard backgrounds don’t need to be black either! Liven up a conventional blackboard texture with chalky, muted shades, as in this blackboard image collection.

blackboard backgrounds
Blackboard Backgrounds pack

Or dress up your designs with blackboard backgrounds in different grey shades. This pack contains nine blackboard backgrounds at 300 dpi. Make any clean design pop with these incredible graphics. 

blackboard
Blackboard Patterns and backgrounds
Blackboard Patterns and backgrounds
Blackboard Patterns and backgrounds

6. The Watercolor Background Texture

Want to add a painterly, artistic touch to your designs? Watercolor backgrounds and painterly textures are perfect for bringing a craft-inspired look to your designs, without needing to pick up a paintbrush. 

Colorful Watercolor Backgrounds
Colorful Watercolor Backgrounds

Watercolor textures aren’t just suited to advertising art sales or craft fairs—because they represent something that is hand-crafted, they are perfectly suited to branding and packaging for organic products or independent businesses. 

Try integrating them into cosmetics or jewellery box designs to add a home-made, authentic touch to packaging designs.

Colorful Watercolor Backgrounds
Colorful Watercolor Backgrounds

Watercolor textures can bring a very different character to your layouts when set in different colorways. In this watercolor texture collection, a clear turquoise blue has a summer holiday vibe (great for hotel flyers or websites); a bright red gives has a bold graffiti feel, and an olive green, navy blue and black blend has a natural style, which would also swing towards a grungy look if darkened.

This watercolor texture pack contains 10 high quality backgrounds with gorgeous colors. Use it to add beautiful texture to your posters or stationery.

Handmade Watercolor Backgrounds
Handmade Watercolor Backgrounds
Handmade Watercolor Backgrounds
Handmade Watercolor Backgrounds

7. The Bokeh Background Texture

Bokeh backgrounds and abstract light textures are made up of diffused light pixels to create an ethereal effect. They can add a dreamy, idealistic quality to your designs. 

Abstract Light Bokeh Background
Abstract Light Bokeh Background

Suited to all sorts of media, bokeh textures are great for softening layouts, helping to add a beautiful, soft-focus style to websites, magazines, book covers—you name it. 

Bokeh backgrounds are also perfect for fashion catalogues, wedding stationery, or for simply showcasing beautiful photos or typography.

Keep a collection of bokeh backgrounds on hand for when a client wants to tone down a design or make it appear more soft and calming. This bokeh backgrounds pack features 10 high resolution images perfect for any website or app. 

Colorful Blurred Bokeh Backgrounds
Colorful Blurred Bokeh Backgrounds
Colorful Blurred Bokeh Backgrounds
Colorful Blurred Bokeh Backgrounds

8. The Paper Background Texture

I personally find paper backgrounds to be one of the most versatile and heavily-used texture styles in my own work, and I’m building quite the collection as a result. 

Paper backgrounds add subtle texture to posters, flyers, stationery, and web pages. 

Worn Paper Backgrounds
Worn Paper Backgrounds

For vintage-inspired and flat-style designs, a paper background is indispensable—see your designs magically transform from crisp and contemporary to suitably aged in an instant. 

Even if you’re intending to print your items on paper or card, adding a ‘fake’ paper background will only add to the tactile feel of your finished item. It’s also a great trick for making a printed item feel more luxurious if your budget won’t stretch to printing on expensive paper.

Worn Paper Backgrounds
Worn Paper Backgrounds

This collection of wrinkled backgrounds includes an interesting texture that will add a cool grunge element to your designs. 

Enjoy 10 high quality images all at 3000×2000 pixels to make the most of your designs. Download this set of versatile paper textures today!

Wrinkled Paper Backgrounds
Wrinkled Paper Backgrounds
Wrinkled Paper Backgrounds
Wrinkled Paper Backgrounds

9. The Brick Background Texture

Bricks are a fantastic texture to have to hand, ideal for placing behind mocked-up framed images, or for sitting behind graffiti-style typography.

Brick backgrounds provide enough interest to be the main visual feature of a layout, while remaining uniform enough to allow text to stand out. 

They can have a worn, grungy look, or a clean, red-brick style, making them suitable for a range of projects and styles.

Brick Backgrounds Pack
Brick Backgrounds Pack

This broad range of brick textures has styles to suit every taste, from clean burnt terracotta to distressed painted walls. Download 20 different textures for the perfect brick background for your designs. Also included is a quick vignette layer for a dramatic effect.

Brick Wall Textures and Backgrounds
Brick Wall Textures and Backgrounds
Brick Wall Textures and Backgrounds
Brick Wall Textures and Backgrounds

10. The White Background Texture

Likely to be the most versatile of all the backgrounds in your collection, a basic range of white backgrounds and textures will no doubt become a firm favorite for using in your design projects.

While white backgrounds lack in color, they are infinitely adaptable as a result and are an instant hack for giving print designs a polished look. 

Layered behind or over graphics, typography and other textures on posters, stationery, websites, cards and covers, they give an instant ‘texture-boost’ to layouts.

White Backgrounds Bundle
White Backgrounds Bundle

This collection of white abstract textures contains 10 hi-res backgrounds, with bokeh and glittered effects. Add some subtle sparkle to your work by trying this pack of stylish white textures today. Watch it quickly become the most used backgrounds in your collection.

White Abstract Backgrounds
White Abstract Backgrounds
White Abstract Backgrounds
White Abstract Backgrounds

Your Ultimate Background and Texture Collection

Backgrounds and textures are the backbone of any great design layout, adding subtle detail, depth and color while allowing the main elements to shine. 

This collection of 10 essential backgrounds will see you through any design project, whatever the theme and whoever the client:

  1. The concrete background
  2. The space background
  3. The grunge background
  4. The polygon background
  5. The blackboard background
  6. The watercolor background
  7. The bokeh background
  8. The paper background
  9. The brick background
  10. And don’t forget…the white background

With this unbeatable team of textures to hand you’ll be able to take your future design projects to the next level in an instant.

If you’re still on the hunt for an elusive background or texture style, be sure to swing by Envato Market and Envato Elements and check out the huge range of great-value textures there.

Discover our essential edits of the best graphics, templates and fonts to add to your collection: