Designing A Website from Scratch – Illustrator or Photoshop?
Question
If I'm designing a website from scratch and I intend to slice it and code it up in Adobe Dreamweaver later, should I create the design of the website in Illustrator or Photoshop? Why?
Accepted Answer
Quick literal answer: Between Illustrator and Photoshop, PhotoShop, as it's raster, as is the web site.
Slightly more detailed answer: you'd be using both.
Alternative answer: Consider using Adobe Fireworks. Fireworks is so much easier to use once you get the hang of it for producing web graphics.
Long boring lecture answer:
The "Slice-n-Dice" method is a bit dated. It was popular a decade ago but these days it's really not the recommended approach. I'd suggest:
Use whatever app (AI/PSD) to 'sketch' the site. Feel free to go high fidelity, but treat it merely as a mock-up.
once you have that established, start building the site. Dive into the HTML/CSS/JS.
as needed, jump into PhotoShop to create the individual graphical elements that you need.
Why? Well, designing in photoshop doesn't account for the medium you're working in. It's a fixed canvas and the web is not a fixed canvas, nor is it even standard canvas. It leads the team towards a pixel-perfect idea and the web simply isn't pixel perfect.
Popular Answer
Use Fireworks or Illustrator for logo and icon creation. For photo editing use Photoshop. For everything else it matters very little. I know there have been debates about which graphical software to use but it's really personal preference.
However, keep in mind:
Fireworks is better for PNG compression though. The file sizes tend to be 20%-30% smaller than Photoshop's.
If you know down the road you'll be designing other non-web content for the site(tshirts, posters, flyers, etc) it's better if you start in a vector based program.