It goes without saying that Adobe is pretty much the industry leader in professional-level graphics software. But that isn’t to say that there aren’t plenty of other options out there.

Go Media Zine wants to know: Adobe or not? If you do use Adobe products, what version(s) are you using, and why? If you haven’t upgraded, is it a financial or a feature reason?

If you’re not an Adobe user, we want to know what software you’re using to edit and manipulate photos, sketch, create vector art and do page layout. What do these software applications offer that you prefer them over the industry leader? Or is it a financial or philosophical choice?

As usual, I’ll start things off:

I am an Adobe user. I use the Creative Suite CS4 Design Premium which includes Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat Pro, Fireworks and Dreamweaver. As a vector-based illustrator, I primarily use Illustrator as well as Photoshop for my sketching, in conjunction with a Wacom Intuos4 graphics tablet.

I’m a pretty big software geek, so I tend to try just about every graphics software app that comes out. I’ve yet to find a raster or vector editing/creation app that I’d replace Photoshop or Illustrator with, but have found some great alternatives as well as niche tools. InDesign I am a huge fan of, and besides Quark I am not aware of any competing apps out there—at least not on the professional level. I think one reason I stick with Adobe apps is the “industry standard” nature of them. Seems everyone has a copy, even if it’s not their primary tool for the job.

I see many fellow illustrators on Twitter griping about Adobe apps crashing or taking forever to launch, but I don’t have that experience at all. I suspect many who experience these issues may need to upgrade their RAM. If you don’t have at least 2 GB and preferably 4+ GB on your machine, that may be the culprit.

Overall I am pretty pleased as an Adobe customer, however I know that isn’t the case for everyone, and we want to know what your take is on the tools you’ve chosen to use. Please sound off in the comments section below. And let’s try to refrain from bashing any particular software company.

Go!