Alternatives To Adobe's Creative Suite?

jsepeta writes "I've been using Adobe products for years, and own several older versions of the products from their Creative Suite: Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Acrobat Pro, and Dreamweaver. I'd like to teach some graphic design and web production skills to my coworkers in the marketing department, and realize that most of them can't afford $2500 to buy Adobe's premium suite and, frankly, shouldn't need to because there should be competitive products on the market. But I can't seem to locate software for graphic design and printing that outputs CMYK files that printing companies will accept. And I'm not familiar with any products that are better than FrontPage yet still easy to use for Web design. Any suggestions? Our company is notoriously frugal and would certainly entertain the idea of using open source products if we could implement them in a way that doesn't infringe upon our Microsoft-centric hegemony / daily work tasks in XP."

Wait...

[Rix]

You mean people actually buy photoshop?

I wish there is no alternative

[XPitrM]

I really hope anyone feeling the urgent need to do marketing for money will have to pay $2500 before being able to do it, frankly.

arrrr

[Anonymous Coward]

My dad was a programmer and thanks to pirates like you now he give homeless men blowjobs on the street in broad daylight for crack and meth. You ruined his life!

The first rule of The GIMP

[amyhughes]

The first rule of The GIMP is you don't talk about The GIMP.

Watch how many moderation points get blown stifling any suggestion that The GIMP isn't up to the level of Photoshop.

Watch how many moderation points get blown on this here comment :P

Re:I could compare GIMP to Photoshop

[soupforare]

It's an unfair analogy, the GIMP isn't economical or easy to drive.

Re:Wait...

[Crayon Kid]

Now now, don't put yourself down, it's perfectly possible to be both!

Re:Best replacements for Dreamweaver

[Anonymous Coward]

MySpace?

Of course that sets the technical bar so low a world champion limbo dancer couldn't get under it.

Re:Wait...

[daranz]

Ah, so you're the guy who bought a Photoshop copy and therefore covered the entirety of the development costs of the current and the next version. Thanks!

Re:arrrr

[Anonymous Coward]

Your dad was doing that before he lost his job.

Re:no alternative

[supersnail]

Car metaphors:-
                      OS-X -- Lexus - overpriced but kool.
                      Win XP. -- 2001 GM - cheap but uncool.
                      Win Vista -- 2007 Cadilac -- overpriced but still uncool.
                      Linux -- Ford pickup -- cheap, sort of kool anti-cool.

   

Re:arrrr

[Anonymous Coward]

yeah but not in broad daylight =(

Re:Let's all suggest mspaint...

[Dogtanian]

Apparently some people swear by mspaint.

Most people swear at it.

Re:no alternative

[Anonymous Coward]

OpenBSD -- Tank with Asgard shields - slow, but can withstand anything

Re:GIMP = low investment, great productivity

[the_mushroom_king]

You misspelled "pornography site"

Re:CYMK TIFF is a backwards tradition that must di

[AgNO3]

Right So the CMYK press should print in what colors? Oh RGB but RGB doesn't fit the same color Gamut as CMYK. SO Uh WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT. but what would I know I just have a masters in Digital pre-press from RIT.

Re:CYMK TIFF is a backwards tradition that must di

[shmlco]

"... but I rather suspect that CMYK has persisted because it makes people think that they look clever and to get people to hand over cash for something that now shouldn't exist."

Go look up additive and subtractive color systems and the circumstances under which each is used. Then come back when you have something not unimaginably dumb to contribute to the conversation.

Re:CYMK TIFF is a backwards tradition that must di

[suv4x4]

TIFF is a way to waste disk space. It's used by people who think "300 dpi" (used in place of pixel dimensions) is meaningful for a digital image, and by people who think that abusing CMYK makes you a Real Professional.

Yea! Idiots. Everyting today uses RGB! Why use CMYK, when you can use what everyone uses. You have CMYK printer? Get a RGB printer!

Be modern and smart, CMYK was very popular around Januari-Februari 1994, but then peopel realized this is very old, and no longer used it.

And I hav to completely agre about "300 dpi": what has "300 dpi" to do with dots per inch and print density?! LOL. Peopel who think "dpi" has anyting to do with dots per inch are morons!

For example this print shop I used few monts ago: I go there and tell them, please print this at 1024x768. They say "wat is this: A4, A5, A6?". I tell them: "Are you morons, I want you to print it 1024x768". I mean how much more cleer could I possibly tell them that?! They look at me as if Ive fallen from the sky or someting. They now absolutly about modenr printing!