What program to use?

[victorb]

For those people that do a lot of stamp artwork, what's your computer program of choice? I'm seriously considering getting into stamp creation, and my wife does a lot of work making brochures, school projects, and tournament programs.

Give me some good recommendations!

[ferretdance03]

Any vector based program will work. The usual suspects are Illustrator, CorelDraw, Inkscape and while not vector based Photoshop and Gimp.

[Leopard]

inkscape and illustrator = teebird

photoshop = eagle

[victorb]

inkscape and illustrator = teebird

photoshop = eagle

any particular versions of photoshop I should look for that are good for stamp creation as well as photo editing? Not looking to drop a huge amount of money and there are lots of box versions out there so any suggestions would be most appreciated.

[JHern]

inkscape and illustrator = teebird

photoshop = eagle

any particular versions of photoshop I should look for that are good for stamp creation as well as photo editing? Not looking to drop a huge amount of money and there are lots of box versions out there so any suggestions would be most appreciated.

Photoshop (bitmap-based) doesn't include a great deal of vector editing capability, since Adobe doesn't want it to overlap too much with Illustrator (vector-based).

After converting artwork for stamps and such a number of times from bitmap to raster, I would highly recommend people STOP COMPOSING DISC STAMP ARTWORK USING BITMAP IMAGES!!!

Note that Illustrator is expensive to buy, but it is the bee's knees. It is a critical tool for me in my work, as well.

[Leopard]

for most people, Illustrator or a comparable vector program will produce fewer issues after submission. AI compositions have their own set of downfalls too -- not outlining fonts or expanding appearances can wreck shit.

regarding versions of Photoshop, i honestly don't know what all non-premium versions are out there now. i'd bet the ranch that even PS Elements or whatever entry-level version they have will do everything you'd need for photo editing and some design. as they go up in price/complexity, it just includes more and more wild-ass features that most people don't use (and go way beyond normal imaging).

regarding stamp-making in PS...
composing in Photoshop is an expert-level approach, as is designing with PS/AI in tandem using embedded files. i haven't submitted a vector file for a stamp master in about 3 years, either to a manufacturer or directly to the engraver. if you read the Stamp Guidelines doc from any manufacturer, even the one that i wrote for DN, you won't find these practices endorsed.
PS for better stamp design: you must know exactly what you're doing, so it's not for most people.

For those people that do a lot of stamp artwork, what's your computer program of choice?

my program of choice is Photoshop CS4 or above, but vector programs are more widely appropriate