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All of us have heard of Photoshop’s amazing editing abilities. Quite often, the idea of taking a few images and morphing them together into a brand new masterpiece can seem like magic. While Photoshop may seem like the only tried-and-true editing software you will ever need, there are times when using it is not recommended. Below we have laid out a few simple ways to improve imagery for your business without Photoshop.

Flyers 

While Photoshop is fantastic for creating beautiful imagery, it is not so great for text. Why? Because Photoshop uses pixels, which are tiny squares that, when grouped together, can create an image. While pixels are great for imagery, they’re not so great for creating smooth and crisp text. So, when you want to create a flyer, you want to use another program like Adobe Illustrator.

Illustrator uses vectors, which uses points, lines, and mathematical equations in order to create the shapes you need and resize them as necessary. Illustrator recognizes text as shapes, and each letter will be smooth and crisp instead of blurry. When you save it as a PDF, the vectors stay in place, and you won’t have to worry about it looking a little fuzzy when you print it.

Logos

When designing a logo, you want to create it to be diverse. For example, your logo should be able to be used on both a business card and a billboard. As mentioned above, Photoshop uses pixels, which does not expand as the image enlarges. Instead, Photoshop will try to fill in the expanded area with extra pixels, which sometimes produces blurry results. Instead, you once again want to break out the vector graphics software that uses math to make sure your logo looks good at any size: Illustrator.

Photography (At Least Initially)

I know what you’re thinking: “Photoshop is photo-editing software. Why shouldn’t we use it to edit our photos?” While Photoshop is great for touching up advanced issues within a photo or morphing photos together to make it into a new masterpiece, it’s not always the best initial option for raw files. That is why, when you want to start your photo-editing project, you may want to switch gears to Adobe Lightroom.

Lightroom is a raw photo-editing software that is also great for organizing your photos too. While it adjusts the lighting, color balance, and sharpness of an image, Lightroom does not actually edit the native file. This feature alone is worth it because if you don’t like the way the image has been edited, you still have the original file to open and start again. Then once you’re done with the basics and want to do some advanced editing, you can open Photoshop and complete the process.

Photoshop is an amazing program that can help you create magic, but it’s not the only editing software you will ever need. There are a few other notable software programs out there that small business owners can utilize for their design needs. If you’re looking for more design tips, stay up to date with the latest trends on our monthly newsletter. And, if you ever need help with a project, let us know: We live to create, and we love it.