The best logo designing program for mac?

[l0zo]

I always seem to use photoshop, but it isn't very good for vector images, or having see through background im never sur ehow to save my logo without it have a white background!

Help please!

 

[redeye be]

I always seem to use photoshop, but it isn't very good for vector images, or having see through background im never sur ehow to save my logo without it have a white background!

Help please!

use illustrator for vector images

gif files preserve transparency

The app you should use depends on the result you want to get...

 

[Blue Velvet]

Illustrator or Freehand are the two apps best for logo designing.

An EPS produced from either of those two programs will not have a white background unless you put one in yourself.

It's best to work on it in B&W first, then introduce colour when you're sure all elements will work on different media and in different sizes.

 

[Seasought]

I'll also cast my vote for Illustrator.

I'm not sure if I'm quite understanding your post properly, but if you're having issues with saving images with a transparent background you'll want to look at File--->Save for Web, select GIF, select white (or whatever color you want transparent) then select the transparency icon (will update your image when you hit it).

If you weren't asking about this, feel free to ignore my advice .

 

[ipacmm]

I also vote Illustrator, it works really good for creating logos.

 

[Mr. Anderson]

What Blue Velvet said

B&W allows you to get the *icon* effect for the logo without worrying about what the colors are. And at some point most logos will end up B&W or limited color, so its good to know what it looks like in a simple graphic.

The other thing is that Macromedia (Freehand) was bought out by Adobe (Illustrator) so Freehand's future is somewhat questionable. If you haven't used either app, go with Illustrator.

D

 

[speleoterra]

Freehand is WAY more intuitive that Illustrator, as i was trained on both. It is more "Mac" in interface that Illustrator is more PC in thought. Both are good though, too bad Adobe will probably kill Freehand.

 

[Lacero]

You can use the Path tools in Photoshop to design logos. Export as an EPS file. Problem solved.

 

[ATD]

For me it's always Illustrator first. Even if the logo is only going to be used in animation and/or 3D, it still starts with a B&W Illustrator file first.

 

[cgratti]

Illustrator.. never photoshop...

 

[p0intblank]

Definitely Illustrator; there's no better application.

 

[XNine]

Illustrator or Freehand are the two apps best for logo designing.

An EPS produced from either of those two programs will not have a white background unless you put one in yourself.

It's best to work on it in B&W first, then introduce colour when you're sure all elements will work on different media and in different sizes.

Ah, and so the old saying goes: "If it doesn't look good in black and white it won't look good in color."

 

[makisushi]

Freehand is WAY more intuitive that Illustrator, as i was trained on both. It is more "Mac" in interface that Illustrator is more PC in thought. Both are good though, too bad Adobe will probably kill Freehand.

DING! DING!
I prefer Freehand over Illustrator. In college, we used Illustrator. I didn't really even know much about freehand. When I got out of school and into the "real" design world, the firm I worked for used Freehand. It didn't take me long to learn it, and I was suprised at how much easier it was to do things. If Adobe decides to can Freehand, I only hope they have the foresight to reconize the short comings of Illustrator and meld the Freehand features into it.

 

[joepunk]

I like Freehand as I can have many pages in one document. I actually use both Freehand and Illustrator.

 

[fradac]

illustrator

illustrator all the way, here is one i made recently. its png format so transparent background

 

[xli_ne]

illustrator on the mac. if pc then i really like corel draw as well, but you can't go wrong with illustrator.

 

[OutThere]

Stay away from saving as GIF files...they're lossy and ugly, and while they're small, they can't touch PNG or EPS (both with transparency). If you're going to print, most of the time you'll be going to EPS, and if you're going online you'll probably want to use PNG.

 

[eclipse]

Illustrator because you get it in CS2.

I mean, does CS2 have everything you need or what?

 

[Sirus The Virus]

Illustrator.

 

[eclipse]

Is Sirus the Virus a novel character?

Anyway, I agree. Go Illustrator!

 

[Err]

crayons and napkins are where my best work comes from

 

[eclipse]

Ha! You remind me of my wife.

She's the designer, my "Master"... I am her sworn apprentice and so have to learn Quark even though I like buying CS2 and knowing I have EVERYTHING NECESSARY!

I am still going to have to buy Quark... and it's even more expensive here in Australia.

 

[radiantm3]

Stay away from saving as GIF files...they're lossy and ugly, and while they're small, they can't touch PNG or EPS (both with transparency). If you're going to print, most of the time you'll be going to EPS, and if you're going online you'll probably want to use PNG.

You are somewhat wrong. PNG files are great, but they still don't have complete support. The colors shift on older browsers and alpha channels don't work in IE (natively). GIFs and JPGs are still the way to go until PNG becomes widely accepted. I only use png if I need an alpha channel or if a gif doesn't look good enough. Most of the time it is sufficient.

 

[iGary]

Corel Draw, definitely.

 

[eclipse]

You are somewhat wrong. PNG files are great, but they still don't have complete support. The colors shift on older browsers and alpha channels don't work in IE (natively). GIFs and JPGs are still the way to go until PNG becomes widely accepted. I only use png if I need an alpha channel or if a gif doesn't look good enough. Most of the time it is sufficient.

Sorry, I'm very new to all this and would love to learn some of the terminology to impress my designer wife. What on earth are you talking about? In English please?