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I’m always seeing discussions and debates pop out of no where all over the web about what certain applications should be used for, how people aren’t using them properly, why people do this instead of that and so on. So to get a real debate going I’ve decided to start a debate series here at Circlebox Blog. Although for the time-being this topic idea is purely experimental, I would like to give it a go for a few weeks and see how you guys and girls like it; if all goes well, expect to see more.
If you had to give up all but one application, which one would you keep?
Think hard about the question and comment with a worthwhile response! Why have you chosen to keep this one particular application? Do you work with it on a day to day basis? Do you really need it? Discuss!
Callums Answer: I have chosen to keep Photoshop CS4. Why? Because I use it everyday, to design, to re-size images, to make great content for you guys. I would miss the capability of being able to produce vectors, but I could probably get around that by creating really large files – not the right way to do things in this modern world but with no application capable of producing vectors, I’m stuck!
Choosing Illustrator CS4 would be my second choice, but being no where near as powerful (in my opinion) as Photoshop in so many areas there would only be limited amount of things I could do with it!
So, what’s your chosen application?
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LukeSF : Visit LukeSF's website & twitter
Posted at 8:50 on 11/12/09
Well, first I thought of Photoshop but since recently I mostly deal with Illustrator, I would rather go for AI. But definitely wouldnt mind keeping the entire Master Suite
David : Visit David's website & twitter
Posted at 9:03 on 11/12/09
I would have to say Photoshop CS4 myself. Outside of my coding apps it falls in the most used category.
It’s not something I do use everyday though but the days I do use it between work and personal designing I can get caught up in it for hours.
Chad Trutt : Visit Chad Trutt's website
Posted at 9:22 on 11/12/09
I would have to keep Illustrator. I can do some photoshop effects and although I can not do multiple page layout like InDesign I would prefer to adjust text in Illustrator as opposed to photoshop. A big plus is to resize without loosing quality unlike photoshop.
Callum Chapman : Visit Callum Chapman's website & twitter
Posted at 9:25 on 11/12/09
Luke, I chose Photoshop but I would miss Illustrator a hell of a lot, I love working with vector graphics! I too would like to keep the full Creative Suite pack but I guess that doesn’t count as one app
David, Good choice! I guess when it comes to coding you don’t really need an application, you can just write
Chad, I would miss the capabilities Ai and ID have with setting type, especially as I usually design for print!
What about the more boring applications that all of us freelancers have to use to keep records such as excel, invoicing software and what not? I would quite enjoy designing the old-fashioned way with a pen and a piece of paper, but I’d hate to keep track of my income and expenditure on a piece of paper!
William Bithrey : Visit William Bithrey's website & twitter
Posted at 9:29 on 11/12/09
Tweetie, at least that way I would know about all the other cool applications everyone else was using
!, This is an impossible choice for me, Photoshop’s high up there but so is Firefox (& Firebug) and TextMate.
underpk : Visit underpk's website & twitter
Posted at 10:22 on 11/12/09
For me if I can choose only one, I would keep After Effect. I’m not a graphic designer then I don’t have much thing to do much with Photoshop and Illustrator, mostly when I open up Photoshop, I just do some leveling and for painting I love SAI it’s more traditional painting feeling but easier brush setting than Corel Painter.
But why After Effect? For photo manipulating, it really like Photoshop plus timeline. There’s tons of effect, just particular 2 plugin alone can let you do a lot of cool stuff, rain, stars, fire, smoke. And it also have some effect and filter that Photoshop has.
Nowaday I open up After Effect to do color correction, add film grain in my photo to make it more film looks. Because plugin like Red Giant Colorista or Magic Bullet Looks really make those thing easier. (I’ve ever try to do color correction without those plugins to see if I can match the color that I adjust with plugin but not success.)
*Sorry for my bas English >.<
Catalin Zorzini : Visit Catalin Zorzini's website
Posted at 10:26 on 11/12/09
Definitely TweetDeck
Callum Chapman : Visit Callum Chapman's website & twitter
Posted at 10:28 on 11/12/09
Underpk, Thanks for the detailed answer! I’ve never had the need to use After Effects but it sounds like it’s capable of doing minor editing. Mentioning plug-ins has given me a good idea for future ‘debates’.
Gavin
Posted at 11:07 on 11/12/09
I would keep Firefox. Your browser gives you access to the world, which can’t be said from Photoshop or Tweetie :p
michael : Visit michael's website & twitter
Posted at 11:08 on 11/12/09
If I could only keep one application that would be FireFox. By only having this, I still would be able to do everything else via the internet
Waheed Akhtar : Visit Waheed Akhtar's website & twitter
Posted at 11:15 on 11/12/09
I personally use photoshop in a day like hell and vote for it. Hey Callum, even with photoshop we can work with vector graphics. There is one more tool “Fireworks”… You can do both (Pixel & Vector graphic) work with this tool as well. And you can also get small animations (gif or swf) with this tool.
Callum Chapman : Visit Callum Chapman's website & twitter
Posted at 11:34 on 11/12/09
Gavin & Michael, Very true! I guess we would have to use a web-based image editing application
Waheed, Very true but for full on illustrations it’s veryyyyy time consuming!
Frans Gerber : Visit Frans Gerber's website & twitter
Posted at 11:39 on 11/12/09
Have to agree it will be photoshop. If you have to keep only one “social marketing, bookmarking” application which one will it be?
Callum Chapman : Visit Callum Chapman's website & twitter
Posted at 11:58 on 11/12/09
Frans, I would have to choose Tweetie, unless there was someway of classing Firefox with plenty of bookmarking add-ons as a social app
LukeSF : Visit LukeSF's website & twitter
Posted at 12:04 on 11/12/09
Well, well, well, if Firefox is on the list too, then I’m definitely puzzled:) Cuz a lot of online apps can substitute some desktop ones… ok, I will sacrifice Photoshop for Firefox
Waheed Akhtar : Visit Waheed Akhtar's website & twitter
Posted at 12:47 on 11/12/09
Firefox will be no longer there after Chrome
but have to wait for it for some time
Shane Jeffers : Visit Shane Jeffers's website & twitter
Posted at 13:28 on 11/12/09
I would cry myself to sleep at night because I only had one application… but I too would choose Photoshop. I use photoshop every day of the week so it would be hard not to keep that one. I am also into photography so I have the ability to enhance my photos and create stunning graphics!
Callum Chapman : Visit Callum Chapman's website & twitter
Posted at 13:42 on 11/12/09
Waheed, I dunno, Firefox is pretty popular!
Shane, haha! It would be a nightmare wouldn’t it! I’d have a very hard choice between Photoshop and Firefox… I’d probably fill a whole notepad writing good and bad points about each one!
Matt Ward : Visit Matt Ward's website & twitter
Posted at 15:43 on 11/12/09
Yeah man. I’ve tried Chrome and have to say no thank you. I only have it installed for testing purposes. The burning canine is the one for me.
And Firefox is probably the app I’d keep too… though I’d probably be up the proverbial creek without the proverbial paddle. Probably without a boat too! haha
I’m pretty stuck on Photoshop though, so I don’t know if I’d actually be able to design anything.
But at least with Firefox I could log into a hosted email service and contact all my clients about the sudden vanishing of all my other apps…
The Dock on my Mac would look pretty sad too…
sriganesh : Visit sriganesh's website & twitter
Posted at 15:53 on 11/12/09
hmm. for me i drop Photoshop Cs4, but have cs3 , for my old pc configuration. and love adobe illustrator cs4, very handy for creating twitter bird
Callum Chapman : Visit Callum Chapman's website & twitter
Posted at 15:59 on 11/12/09
Matt, haha my dock would look sad too! It would have Finder, Photoshop (or Firefox… still undecided!) and Trash. Woo
William Bithrey : Visit William Bithrey's website & twitter
Posted at 16:11 on 11/12/09
Quote: Callum Chapman – “David, Good choice! I guess when it comes to coding you don’t really need an application, you can just write
”
I take it you havn’t coded much
, writing code without a decent development environment is like comparing Photoshop to MS Paint 
!!!!!
Cameron Chapman : Visit Cameron Chapman's website & twitter
Posted at 16:49 on 11/12/09
For me it’s all about Firefox. With web apps I can do almost anything I need to do on a daily basis. I can edit images, write articles, FTP, write and edit code, contact anyone I need to contact, find out virtually anything I need to know, and generally do anything else worth doing.
Sure, web apps usually don’t have all the functionality I’d like, but I’ve designed entire websites using only online apps. Without Firefox, I absolutely couldn’t do my job.
Oridusartic : Visit Oridusartic's website & twitter
Posted at 17:25 on 11/12/09
Only one application.. Hmmm that’s real tough.
I think I’ll just keep iTunes. So I can listen to endless music while drawing manually. =D
Shane Jeffers : Visit Shane Jeffers's website & twitter
Posted at 17:42 on 11/12/09
@William
You have to remember we are limited here. He chose Photoshop over his coding apps, and Callum if I’m correct is just stating that you really don’t need any specific applications to code in. Obviously thats not the ideal but it works in this hypothetical situation.
Callum Chapman : Visit Callum Chapman's website & twitter
Posted at 17:45 on 11/12/09
William, I’ve coded, and yes it’s easier with a decent application.. BUT it’s not as important as some other software, at least code you can just code, you can’t design with no design software
Cameron, your comment has kind of made me want to change my first option to Firefox, too. I guess there are plenty of web apps, too, and we could always go round a friends house if we ever need to borrow Photoshop for the more detailed designs
Oridusartic, Interesting app to choose! It would most definitely make me draw more which I wish I had the time to do!
cag : Visit cag's website & twitter
Posted at 20:11 on 11/12/09
Firefox. It has everything because it connects me to the web. Ha!
Antoine Guédès : Visit Antoine Guédès's website & twitter
Posted at 14:56 on 12/12/09
Well, it’s really hard to choose for me. But I think I will be all about Photoshop. I do love so much Illustrator too but PS stays my first love.
Branden : Visit Branden's website & twitter
Posted at 6:40 on 15/12/09
Photoshop is my choice, but what would be the point of having Photoshop if no one is allowed to use a browser in this little scenario?
Callum Chapman : Visit Callum Chapman's website & twitter
Posted at 8:14 on 15/12/09
Branden, you could still design for print I guess, just not for web.. I think that’s why many have opted to keep Firefox!
John : Visit John's website
Posted at 22:55 on 20/2/10
Without a browser, you can’t access the web to sell your services or buy.
So, you’d have to stick with your favorite browser if the choice was that strict.
But, without suitable graphics applications, you wouldn’t be able to compete for web related graphic work.
If the question had been, “what graphic application would you like to put more time into?”, I’d be torn between Photoshop for work and Artrage from artrage.com for enjoyment and inspiration.