Graphic design software meets standard formats and protocols for rendering graphics in a digital environment. Also, graphic designing software supports the transition of completed work from the computer desktop to hard-copy form.
Features and Advantages of Graphic Design Software
All modern graphic designer software supports both bitmap and vector graphics. Bitmaps are composed of pixels and grids, and have a specific resolution which defines how many pixels there are per unit of space. Conversely, vectors use lines and points instead of pixels. This means that they can be increased in size without any loss of quality, since they're not dependent on pixel resolution.
The best graphic design software also offers a wide range of stylizing tools. Drop shadowing, feathering, shading and manual drawing are must-have features, though there are many others. Also, the most versatile programs allow you to import a virtually limitless number of file types. Look for software that can, at minimum, import PDFs, BMPs, TIFFs and JPGs. Ideally, though, you want compatibility with others including GIF, DOC, TXT, EPS, PSD, DWG and XLS.
Standard photo editing features of graphic designer software include color correction, scaling, batch processing, image filtering, retouching capabilities, layering, rendering and channel mixing. Graphic design software also provides numerous vector illustration tools, including pens, 3-D effects, tracing effects, raster effects, pen and brush tools, and AutoCAD compatibilities.
The major advantage of graphic design software is that it provides a professional set of tools to make image manipulation and visual compositions more striking and effective. In this sense, it is like Web design software; it offers the user many, many more options than the free graphic design software that comes built into many packaged computer systems.
Popular Graphic Design Software Applications
CorelDRAW's Graphics Suite X4 and Adobe's Creative Suite Design Standard are very highly regarded tools in the graphic design industry. Photoshop, perhaps the best-known name in graphic design software, is part of Adobe's Creative Suite.
Adobe also offers Flash and Illustrator, which are vector graphics editing programs, and Microsoft's Visio and Expression Design programs are the software giant's entries in the field. However, CorelDRAW and Adobe Photoshop are, by and large, considered the gold standards. Most graphic design schools use these applications to instruct students in principles of graphic design. Make sure that your computer system can handle these powerful applications, however. They will function better with specialized video cards and lots of memory.