Design Software

Identify your design software’s purpose

You‘ve got to know how you will use your design software before you make a purchase.

All software is not created equal but is created to perform a specific task or function. Design software offers a wide range of design functions, including home decorating, painting, landscaping and home design including materials list and design images. What you plan to do with the design will be a baseline for your purchase. While you may use Image Edit for image editing, Photoshop would be handier for image manipulation.

Match design software to your profession

Some design software is geared toward a particular profession or application, depending upon features needed. So, while CorelDraw is good for advertising design where text and images must be integrated into a layout, PageMaker may be better suited for publishing with it page layout templates suitable for framing. If your work involves 3-D objects and images like cartoons, people, logos and backgrounds, you’ll need 3-D rendering software like 3D Studio Max or Maya.

If multimedia business presentations involving rich media objects like videos, animations and audio is what you do, you may choose Macromedia Flash. Though somewhat cumbersome, Macromedia Flash allows flexibility and ease of integration between music, movie clips, animated objects and backgrounds to provide a very rich multimedia experience.

Image editing design software

Basic image edits can be performed with any imaging software package like Image Edit, but more advanced image manipulations would require Adobe Photoshop or IrFranView. A number of image editing software programs will allow you to edit photographs of your last vacation and create photo albums stored on your computer. Most design software is suited for 2-Dimensional image applications but won’t work with 3-D objects. Other software like Macromedia Flash allows you to create 2-dimensional images that can be manipulated to work like 3-D images.

Read before you buy

Most advanced design software requires a lot of hard drive storage space and most are memory hogs. Always check computer system requirements recommended by the manufacturer to make sure the software will work on your PC or Mac. Most image editing software works best on a Mac and is easier to use on Apple computers, but this isn‘t always the case. Inadequate memory and too slow of a processor will make the software erratic and slow performance if it works at all. Remember, most retailers won’t accept software packages that have been opened.

Pick up the latest versions of the best design software from these source

Adobe offers a host of design software, including Macromedia Suite and Photoshop.

Allgraphicdesign.com provides a good selection of design software from basic image editing to complex 3-D modeling.

Software-wholesale.com. offers good deals on publishing, editing and modeling software programs.