With technology and the internet taking hold like never before, web design has become an industry in itself. The world is filled with eager, talented graphic designers who are learning as the technology itself progresses, each with the goal of putting their own spin on the world of design. Many web designers who do their work professionally rely heavily on Adobe products such as Illustrator and In Design, which have become the standard for designing web pages. However, while Photoshop is not used as often as these programs, it can be an extremely versatile and valuable tool for the modern web designer and should never be ignored.

Illustrator and In Design are used frequently because they were both created as ways to graphically design images and pages for the web.
The web is an environment that must be respected when it comes to design, as some things will work and many others will not. That being said, these programs are well-suited to designing for the web environment, as they often will default to what will work online.
Photoshop is not used as often for design, as it doesn’t have the power that these other programs have for designing for web. However, it can be a powerful add-on tool to be used in conjunction with other Adobe products. After all, they are all part of the same creative suite and are meant specifically to play off of one another.

Design by Hubert Paderski

Photoshop’s power comes from its ability to enhance and alter images to great effect. Since web design is often made up of large amounts of images, Photoshop becomes a very powerful ally. From the ability to create collages for a web environment to the program’s ability to greatly enhance the quality of low-res images, what Photoshop lends to the web environment is absolutely critical. In fact, Photoshop can actually be used to enhance an alter entire web pages, which is a technique that many of the best web designers in the world use on a regular basis.

Design by Alexander Melia

Put simply, the web designer who doesn’t take advantage of Photoshop is not using all the tools available and is thus only seeing half the picture.

About the author

Mowery is a computer geek that writes about technology and related topics. To read more blog posts by him, go to laptop computers.