Adobe has nearly eliminated their competitors in most graphic design areas. In desktop publishing their main competitor to InDesign is Quark XPress (used to be very strong). In website design they have no competition at all, Microsoft Front Page does not mean anything now comparing to Dreamweaver. In illustration their Illustrator fights with Corel Draw, however most people are more comfortable in using Illustrator and that is why Corel looses its position. In photography there is only one king - Photoshop. Are they any alternatives to Adobe programs?

What is going to happen if Adobe becomes the most common graphic design software? By having no competition, can it maintain identical quality and drive for excellence? And what is going to happen to the price? Will it stay at the same level or simply continue upward. If you are the only one pizza shop in town, does it mean you can charge whatever you want for your double pepperoni?

Competition is the best thing for the consumer...... without it you become Google...and make the rules....IMHO...))

Hello Chris,

The only alternative would be Corel, that would be the only competition I could think of off hand. Right now Adobe is still king and they can set their prices, like everything else go upwards. As time goes on, things do change, I'm thinking of Microsoft, they have competition now, along with the IE browser whose competition is Firefox.

Personally I haven't anything against Adobe, but their pricing is very expensive, especially for a new upcoming Web Designer.

There is is certainly competition for Adobe products especially from the open source community.

The only difference is the amount of marketing that is done by Adobe. GIMP is certainly a match for Photoshop, I find Inkscape far easier to use than Illustrator, if you want DTP try Scribus, 3D modelling there is Blender, Web Dev software? There is NVU, Kompozer, Amaya, and so on. Much of the open source software is available for Windows, Linux and Mac so you can work in the same interface no matter what operating system you use, an added bonus is that many of these applications have "portable versions" which will run from a USB stick, portable drive or memory cards, so you could work "on the fly" in a clients office without needing to take a laptop with you.

Even Filezilla has a portable version.

Originally Posted by Giselle

Hello Chris,

The only alternative would be Corel, that would be the only competition I could think of off hand. Right now Adobe is still king and they can set their prices, like everything else go upwards. As time goes on, things do change, I'm thinking of Microsoft, they have competition now, along with the IE browser whose competition is Firefox.

Personally I haven't anything against Adobe, but their pricing is very expensive, especially for a new upcoming Web Designer.

I was working with Corel at my previous working place (printing company) and I must say it is much better than Illustrator in terms of interface and workflow. Corel combines a lot of functions which makes him a powerful tool for designing. On one side it can be used as an Illustrator, on other hand it works like a InDesign, and comparing Corel's price to Adobe, I would choose Corel.

Originally Posted by hypernovadesign

I was working with Corel at my previous working place (printing company) and I must say it is much better than Illustrator in terms of interface and workflow. Corel combines a lot of functions which makes him a powerful tool for designing. On one side it can be used as an Illustrator, on other hand it works like a InDesign, and comparing Corel's price to Adobe, I would choose Corel.

Back a few years ago, some of the the Web Designers purchased both along with other graphic software. Even present time some of the older Corel users (PSP) are now using Adobe along with Paint Shop Pro. Like you mentioned, one software can do things the other can't, and visa versa. Personally I am still using Paint Shop Pro.

I would like to purchase a copy of Adobe myself, I can read their tutorials but can only go so far even with free and paid for plugins as helpers to PSP. If one purchases a copy of Adobe, their upgrades aren't exactly inexpensive either. But I would still like to secure a purchased copy of Adobe sometime in the future.

Adobe does have a lot of the media market cornered but they saw their most recent defeat with Flash. It is old technology and they know it. HTML5 replaced it everywhere.

Originally Posted by cantletugo

Adobe does have a lot of the media market cornered but they saw their most recent defeat with Flash. It is old technology and they know it. HTML5 replaced it everywhere.

Flash is not a defeat. Far from it and html5 has not and will not replace it. HTML5 is still a hyper-text markup language - yes the html5 stack, which combines the use of CSS3 and JS to create videos and simple animations has potential but it hasn't been fully adopted and supported by all browsers. And show me one complex game or RIA created with html5.

Flash is a proprietary framework made to create video, sound and raster/vector graphic content. HTML5 is processed and interpreted by a browser which then renders the page according to the "standardized standard". But different browsers are still rendering pages differently from each other - so much for the "standardized standard". And there are still some tasks that cannot be achieved with JS/CSS. Flash has its own platform delivery system rather than the content delivery system through a browser so there's no rendering issue.

Sure, you can create dynamic content and videos for the web using the html5-stack if and only if you're extremely knowledgeable in all 3 languages but it still lacks enough creative tools to work free of concern. (and please spare me the 'Canvas' argument because its crap - its about as "free hand" as Microsoft's Paint!) It also inhibits creativity if you're worried about how to code it.

Eventually, html5 might surpass Flash but for now its just another viable option not a replacement. you're going to have to wait until html6 comes out and all the browsers to support it to "defeat" Flash and that will take years.

Originally Posted by hypernovadesign

Adobe has nearly eliminated their competitors in most graphic design areas...... In website design they have no competition at all......comparing to Dreamweaver.....Illustrator fights with Corel Draw, however most people are more comfortable using Illustrator and that is why Corel looses its position. In photography there is only one king - Photoshop. Are they any alternatives?

What is going to happen if Adobe becomes the most common graphic design software? By having no competition, can it maintain identical quality and drive for excellence?

Years ago Adobe was the only design software - there was no competition. This was before Front Page, Paint, Corel or Quark. The closest thing to an art program was Etch a Sketch! back then you had to be a super geek to understand how to use these programs because engineers were writing the learning manuals

Adobe has done well in the advancement of perfecting their programs. I believe its because the level of education of their engineering team, their constant strive for new innovation and an intense dedication to research and refinement. I don't think you have to worry about them maintaining their drive for excellence.

As with any popular product or service, given time a competitor (or copycat) will rise so today there are a lot of other art programs out there like Chris was so apt to point out - I doubt there is any danger of Adobe becoming a monopoly.

Haven't tried Corel in about 6yrs - when I did I found it too limiting. didn't like the pen tool and you couldn't mix paints to create custom gradients. I've never used GIMP but I sat with someone while they made a video and watched again too limiting for me. It is very popular though and its free!

IMO there's no better drawing/painting program than Illustrator. And as you said Photoshop is the king. unlike Chris I can't just open a new program at 8am and have it down by noon.

pricing has a lot to do with product popularity, demand and inflation. The good news is that whenever a new version of CS comes out the old version gets really cheap. If you look hard enough you can find CS5.5 for about $450

Originally Posted by Mystical Pippin

Flash is not a defeat. Far from it and html5 has not and will not replace it. HTML5 is still a hyper-text markup language - yes the html5 stack, which combines the use of CSS3 and JS to create videos and simple animations has potential but it hasn't been fully adopted and supported by all browsers. And show me one complex game or RIA created with html5.

Flash is a proprietary framework made to create video, sound and raster/vector graphic content. HTML5 is processed and interpreted by a browser which then renders the page according to the "standardized standard". But different browsers are still rendering pages differently from each other - so much for the "standardized standard". And there are still some tasks that cannot be achieved with JS/CSS. Flash has its own platform delivery system rather than the content delivery system through a browser so there's no rendering issue.

Sure, you can create dynamic content and videos for the web using the html5-stack if and only if you're extremely knowledgeable in all 3 languages but it still lacks enough creative tools to work free of concern. (and please spare me the 'Canvas' argument because its crap - its about as "free hand" as Microsoft's Paint!) It also inhibits creativity if you're worried about how to code it.

Eventually, html5 might surpass Flash but for now its just another viable option not a replacement. you're going to have to wait until html6 comes out and all the browsers to support it to "defeat" Flash and that will take years.

I agree, both Flash and HTML5 are separate "products" and none of them replaces the other. Flash is still in use. Yes, it flattens you phone battery quicker, it takes more memory, more processing time, however Flash Script (or whatever it called) has been adopted by lots of people who still write in this language and make use of Flash. Thanks