Photoshop vs InDesign or both?

Question

Hi everyone,I have a question about wich software to use. I am making assembly manuals (kinda LEGO style) for multiple mechanical installations wich i render out in another software. I have been working with photoshop for a few months now, but it has some difficulties, and when i ask about it here on the forums i almost always get told to move to another Software like InDesign. Yet my renders are not always 100% correct and i also sometimes need to tweak it a little. But then i can render the image again for 1,5 hours or edit it within PS for 10/20 minutes. So my question is, if im making manuals/ workbooks, yet also need to edit some things, what should i do? Should i stay with PS and just try to work around the problems, or switch to InDesign, where i dont know for certain that i can edit my renders? Maybe both? But i dont know if the company wants to give me that budget... Would love to hear all of you guys opinion. -Nick

davescm · Accepted Answer

Thanks Dave!By rendering i do indeed mean with a 3D rendering software, i use Autodesk 3ds Max wich can output in many types of formats. but by the looks of it thats all raster image's (indeed .tiff .jpg .tga etc.). But your advice would be to get both? And not just PS ór ID? Would love to hear from you, then i can discuss it with the higher ups. -NickYes my advice would be to get both and probably the most cost effective way would be a subscription to the CC package . That way you get access to Photoshop , InDesign and Illustrator along with many other applications some of which you may not use or only use occasionally, but they can get you out of trouble in specific scenarios. InDesign is designed from the ground up for page layout and that includes multiple pages,spreads (where an image crosses the centre of a double page) for books and booklets. Text flows easliy from one text box to another so that, as you adjust the layout on teh page, your text is adjusted as you work.  It has all the formatting tools for setting up bleed, margins and columns for text. Images placed in InDesign are linked to their originals so if an image is edited, you will see a warning in InDesign and clicking it will update the image in InDesign. Image formats can be mixed in a document as can different colour profiles. As far as quality is concerned, it can directly print to a postscript printer (many laser printers) without rasterising the text. This leads to clearer, sharper text particularly in small sizes. Preparing industry standard, print ready PDFs for commercial printing, is also straightforward. Using the right tool for the right job means that you are not constantly looking for workarounds or putting up with poorer quality output.Dave

D Fosse · Answer

Photoshop is the worst possible tool for anything involving text and graphics. It will rasterize (i.e. butcher) everything on output. Photoshop is strictly for pixel-based raster images.

If you have vector illustrations, use Illustrator.

Then Place the images in InDesign. Text and layout elements are made in InDesign.

In short, you need both (or all three depending on type of illustration)

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded