Adobe and the designer

Photoshop within book cover design is of course highly prominent and obviously set to stay that way for the near future too, there are of course alternatives to Adobe’s popular editing platform, but most designers and the industry we work in have taken to Adobe and are happy to stick loyally with them.

It was originally created back in 1987 by Tom and John Knoll they developed the first version (originally named ‘Display’ then updated to ‘ImagePro’) before finally settling upon the name ‘Photoshop’. After successfully pitching the product to both Apple and Adobe in 1988 they were made an offer by Adobe to buy the license for distribution of the software and it was released for Mac only in early 1990.

These early versions had names that were simply based on numbers and ran up to thirteen versions of the software, however in 2003 Adobe released their Create Suite (CS) and made the product more commercially available. From here we saw the launch of more user friendly tools and capabilities with each new product release, then in 2013 CreateCloud was launched which gave designers access to the whole Adobe software suite for one monthly charge, along with great updates, file sharing, storage, fonts and a whole host of apps for iPad/iPhone as well as several for Android.
 
Historically it is clear that Adobe’s suite of products will always keep evolving and that even the way in which we use their products will change with time.  Computers, tablets and even cellphones alter very quickly and Adobe are very good in keeping us in a position where we can use the product on multiple devices, again, this is another reason why so many people within design and the creative fields choose Adobe.

For ourselves in the book design industry it’s Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop that ensure we can create book covers which work for both printed and digital alike, they also have a seamless way of working together which leads to using artwork within multiple systems, giving the greatest artistic freedom.
 
Along with this creative freedom there is another important fact, and that is that it has become the industry standard. For any designer it is vital that your work can be used by others without the need for any conversion (which usually leads to some form of change to your design), keeping your work flow within the same systems ensures a smooth process and outcome which all parties are happy with.

However, it has to be said that with many companies which reach a near saturation point of the potential customer base, you have to hope that they don’t become complacent and forget about innovation too. Most designers will keep using their products as long as the industry has a need for them and that a competitor doesn’t out play them either.