Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator both work with images, but they are very different applications. The main differences between Photoshop and Illustrator are the types of files each program works with and whether you’re editing graphics or photos.

Illustrator is a graphic design application. Graphic designers use Illustrator to create vector graphics. Vector images and graphics are made of points, lines, shapes, and curves based on mathematical formulas rather than a set amount of pixels, and therefore can be scaled up or down while maintaining image quality. So, vector artwork can fit different sizes — larger or smaller — without losing any detail.

Vector art can appear on everything from enormous banners to wallet-sized business cards, and everything in between. This makes Illustrator a very good application for graphics that are going to be printed on signs or banners.

Photoshop is the industry-standard photo editing software, and the go-to application for everything from small retouching changes to mind-bending photo art. Photoshop is where editors crop photos, adjust photo composition, correct lighting, and make any subject imaginable look its absolute best. It’s also where skilled artists can create collages and photo composites, layer images together, and craft original images out of different photo files.

Illustrator and Photoshop are both part of Adobe Creative Cloud and are designed to work together. Photoshop files can incorporate assets made in Illustrator, integrating an image created as a vector file into a raster file. And the opposite is true too — a graphic design project in Illustrator can easily fit into a larger photo project in Photoshop. With other Creative Cloud apps, even video editing or animation can be a part of a single digital workspace.

Link files for easy changes.

Creators can link Illustrator files to Photoshop files. This means that the two files are technically independent, but everything in an Illustrator file will show up in a Photoshop file.

For instance, a creator could make a vector graphic in Illustrator and link that to a Photoshop file of someone wearing a blank t-shirt.

This will save the file to your Arts and Media folder!

This is where you will work on your images

There are MORE panels than just what you see originally in this area

Note you can click each TAB to change panels

To open other panels, click the WINDOW tab on the top and select the panel you would like to view

When you see a check mark, that means the channel is open

Located to the left is the TOOLS PANEL

Some of these tools work the same as in Illustrator

Some are new!

Select Essentials (Default)