Vaguely OT: Graphics Editor Recommendations?

[Mike Wickham]

> I care for three kinds of graphics.
> * Simple line-art drawings, similar to kindergarten mechanical
> drawings
> * Photos for inclusion in both printed and PDF media
> * Software dialog screenshots for both printed and PDF media
>
> I'm running Vista with FM8.0. I'm considering upgrading to either TC2 or a
> combination of FM9 and Acrobat 9 ProExt, depending on whether the latter
> will support round-tripping PDFs in the review process.

Lea,

Line-art drawings are vector art. Adobe Illustrator is probably the favorite 
program there, but there are similar programs. Just this week, someone 
posted a link to a very cheap version of Xara Extreme, but you'd have to 
hunt the archives for the link.

Photos are bitmaps. Adobe Photoshop is the standard. Make sure you get the 
full version, not Photoshop Elements. Elements doesn't handle CMYK, which 
you need for press. Corel makes Paint Shop Pro, and there are other third 
party choices.

SnagIt is probably the far and away favorite for capturing screenshots. It's 
very powerful and inexpensive. In Windows, you can also use the Print Screen 
key on your keyboard. It captures the whole screen. Then you open a new file 
in Photoshop and hit Ctrl-V to paste the capture into Photoshop. You then 
will have to crop out the part of the view that you don't want. Then save 
the file. If you rarely need screen captures, this is enough. If you do it 
often, SnagIt lets you point to a window and it can capture only the window. 
You may also have a capability, depending on your graphic card. My Matrox 
graphic card lets me select a region for capture, by drawing a box.

I'm not sure you need the extended version of Acrobat 9 Pro for the 
round-tripping of PDF comments. So you might want to look at one of the 
Creative Suites containing Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat Pro.

Mike Wickham