On your entry to college you'll find that the days of pen and paper are long behind you. The modern fields of expertise for all students now have many software options and it can be a daunting task when trying to pin point the right one for you. Often the industry standard is the way to go as you'll find yourself using it in most positions during, and of course after, your college years. With a steep learning curve, and often a steeper price tag, this isn't a decision you want to make on a whim so here I've compiled together a brief overview of my personal favourite software packages, what students they suit and hopefully, an insight to which is right for you.
Image Software
Winner: Photoshop Elements.
It's safe to assume that you've heard of photoshop before. Not alone is it the leading product in graphics design but it has went as far as to become the common term for any digitally enhanced image. The expression “photoshopped” in description of an edited picture is a term that most of us use daily. This very integration into everyday dialect stands testament to the product, and speaks volumes about it.
Photoshop is the industry standard, this is a huge plus in it's favour. You'll find that your college will be teaching primarily through photoshop, in most cases, and when you finish your degree and try to make head way into the business it'll most likely be the software presented to you to showcase your skills. There isn't much to say about photoshop really, it wins hands down in the image editing world. The major drawback about photoshop is that it does come with a hefty price tag.
Enter “Photoshop Elements” which is a much cheaper, although limited, version of it's big brother. Saying that though I'd recommend Elements due to it being very much suited to learning the software well without overwhelming you with all of the advanced features, or leaving you broke. Elements is in no way a weak package and you'll find yourself able to accomplish plenty with it, the best bonus is that when you feel yourself growing out of Elements you can upgrade it at a cheaper cost than buying the full version straight away. This makes for quite a realistic option for most students.
Head on over to www.photoshop.com where you can download a trial version of the software to try right now!
Pros: -Industry Standard.
-Huge user base, plenty of free and paid for tutorials online.
-Extremely powerful.
-Constantly improving, Adobe hold their flagship software with pride.
Cons: -Hefty price tag.
-Can be overwhelming to beginners.
Courses suitable for: Graphics design, Media, Web Design, Photography etc
Alternatives:
Corel Painter – This is a software package much more suited for painters and people creating art similar to real life work with a canvas and brush as opposed to image editing. Often used with a graphics tablet, Painter allows for incredibly similar to real life options and a vast array of tools that's any painter would use in real life. The modelling and real to life action of the tools is superb.
Paint Shop Pro – Similar to photoshop in a lot of ways but at a vastly lower price tag. Good entry level image editing software that still has plenty going on under the hood.
GIMP - The most impressive feature of Gimp is that it's free but don't let it's lack of a price tag fool you, it's still quite powerful and has some unique features that even photoshop doesn't have!
MS Paint - Alright, maybe not that one.
Print Design:
Winner: Adobe InDesign
Another Adobe product here. Again this is the industry standard in print publication and as such is often regarded as the quintessential software in the business.
While the business may not be as strictly one software based as image editing it is much more dependent on specific software at the individual business level. With Photoshop and image edting you can get away with using different software as it's the final exported image that is important but with print design the software , it's formatting and integration, is incredibly important. For this reason you'll find that any magazine, newspaper etc will have everyone working on the same software so it can all be brought together as one finished product. Without this “across the board” approach it would leave for quite a few headaches in the later stages of putting the final product together.
For this reason going with the right software is extremely important. InDesign does play off it's own merits though, there is a reason why it is the industry standard. Each version of InDesign has been received to critical acclaim with the lastest version, CS 5, being no exception. A major bonus to InDesign is it's incorporation with Flash. With it being from the same company it is safe to assume that it gets the most in depth treatment and integration with it's siblings but this proves especially useful for print software, what with Flash being such a large element of our modern online experience. This allows for seamless work through online publication which is an ever increasingly important aspect of the business.
InDesign, it's latest version in particular, is a well designed powerhouse. Once you get use to it's controls and how it works you'll find the work flow a joy. Take into account the fact that you'll find yourself most likely using it in the future regularly in your work place and it makes for a bit of a no-brainer. Although, as with any of the professional industry standards, it does come with a steep price tag. Thankfully there is a trial for you to test before hand and there is also an educational version available for students to get them in there early!
Pros: -Industry Standard.
-Powerful and well designed [excuse the pun].
-Integration with other Adobe products, particularly Flash.
Cons: -Price Tag
-You may find other software such as Photoshop more immediately useful and worthy of your money.
Courses suitable for: Graphics Design, Journalism, Media, Business etc
Alternatives: -Quark, this is the other big player in the field. It may be worth looking at potential companies you hope to work for and what software they use. Making your decision based upon that. It is more expensive though.
-Scribus, is a free alternative. Gaining more recognition all the time and it is capable. Especially when you take into account the lack of a price tag!
Web Design
Winner: Serif Webplus
While Webplus may seem like an unlikely choice and many would lean towards DreamWeaver, the industry standard. I do believe that Webplus wins in a few ways though, primarily in it's price tag and ease of use.
Webplus is much much more student friendly in this sense and can get great results. Having an industry standard software in web design isn't nearly as important as other fields due to the fact that you'll often find yourself working freelance so it's what suits you best, not the company. Most people don't mind what software you use so boasting the title of DreamWeaver doesn't have as much gravity as in other fields [such as music and branding with Pro Tools].
Webplus comes in at under 100 euro, vastly cheaper than Dreamweaver and many of the other web design software out there such as Fusion. While it may be cheaper it is still professional and can get the job done in most cases. For quite advanced work on major sites it may not hold up but by that stage you'll most likely be making a living of web design and looking to upgrade. Webplus suits students in many ways, it has built in tutorials, a well written manual and a strong online user base to help you out. It is a robust product that contains a large image library, powerful tool set and extremely easy to use interface while still allowing you to take on more advanced tasks. Take all this into regard with it's price tag, it's integration with youtube, flash etc and you have a winner.
Pros: - Price
- Professional
- Easy to use and pracitical for learning
- All in one solution, you'll not find yourself having to leave the software often.
Cons: - Not a huge number of templates at 75
- Not as widely used as some others
- Not any major complaints really though.
Courses suitable for: Web Design, Media, Business etc – The usefulness of a website to all modern students can't be overlooked, and with the ease of use and professional results of this software I'd say it really suits most courses both directly and indirectly.
Alternatives: -Dreamweaver, this is the big player in Web Design but it's reflected by it's price.
-Coffee Cup Visual Site Design, this is another easy to use and relatively inexpensive software. Also quite popular.
-www.wix.com , a site that allows you to develop a website online for free. Great for people just looking for one quick site, Also includes hosting and for a subscription you can be rid of ads and get yourself a .com domain name. Highly recommended for people looking for a single site but don't want to learn the entire skill set of developing a site or pay a professional.
Video Editing
Winner: CyberLink PowerDirector
Video editing is possibly the most competitive field of software due to the sheer number of packages on the market. For this reason it ranges in price tags similar to a night out and then to a new car.
The industry standard is generally hailed as Avid, which is an incredibly powerful package but can reach up to nearly 2 grand in it's price tag. Not realistic for a student but thankfully you don't need to go for such high-end software to get great results. CyberLink Powerdirector is an extremely useful package often a large amount of useful tools, a stable easy to use interface, and all at a reasonable price [under 80 euro in most places!]. Powerdirector is constantly growing in popularity and there are many tutorials out there on how to do professional effects and production techniques within it's capable walls.
It comes with quite a few usable transitions and effects. You'll also be glad to hear that many of them aren't completely “public access tv-esque” cheesy, as is common in this price range. For basic editing and creating a polished product it is quite capable and more restricted by the quality of your input than the software itself. It's compatible with all codecs and is a relatively easy program to run, leaving it suitable for even lower range laptops [just don't expect the preview video to run that smoothly]. Under the hood there is quite a bit going on, even though it may not seem apparent. You may find yourself jumping through menus the odd time for things but overall the clean and pleasant interface leaves it worth the menu hunting. Powerdirector can even do functions like green screen that you may not expect of such a low cost software package. The amount of “picture in picture” videos/images you can have is quite surprising and leaves for a lot of possibilities although if you're using many of these expect your computer to feel the strain. Also, there is a video wizard that will create all your transitions and effects for you. While this will not suit most it is a useful feature to have if you're really stuck for time and want to make a video seem somewhat more finished.
Overall a very capable and usable video editing software that is constantly being updated and growing. For under 80 euro you'll be extremely hard pushed to find anything better. Oh and there is a trial version available for you to get straight into it!
Pros: -Great price
-Up to date
-Plenty of useful options
-Definitely capable of professional productions
-Much faster than most video editing software
-You can up scale SD to HD and it actually looks good!
Cons: -Some tools aren't obvious and can be hidden away to keep the interface tidy
-Eh.. that's pretty much it! Not much bad can be said about PowerDirector!
Courses suitable for: Film, Media, Music, Business etc
The world of vlogging and viral marketing is so huge now that video is an important tool that all students should embrace to give themselves a step ahead of the rest!
Alternatives: -Avid, the industry standard and used by most major films. The price tag is representative of this though.
-AVS Video Editor, another cheap package. Offers few advanced features but quite affordable.
-Windows movie maker, it's free and can be quite useful. Just don't expect much.
Music Software:
Winner: Cubase Elements 6
Next to the video editing world there is audio editing, in terms of hefty price tags and competitiveness. Unlike Video there isn't many usable low cost consumer products that will sort you for years but thankfully all the big players have cheaper versions of their flagship softwares which can be gradually upgraded as suits you. Allowing you to grow with your software and at a realistic pace.
It's probably not totally untrue to say that audio software has some of the steepest learning curves of all, this is particularly due to a lot of audio software being based on principles of it's real life analogue counterparts, such as the order of which you do things affects the outcome. For this reason it goes further than just knowing the software, you must also know the history and the mechanics. For this reason the stripped down versions are actually a blessing in disguise [apart from the obvious blessing of a lower price tag!]. Throwing yourself in the deep end can often just be too overwhelming and slow down the whole learning process. It's also important to note that, unlike most other software types, audio software is vastly different from one to the next.
This makes it hard to really suggest a particular software to a person as it's pretty important to try all the available trials that you can to get a feel and find one that suits you best. In the end though I had to pick a winner and my final conclusion was the Cubase series. I am somewhat biased as I am a Cubase user myself but overall in recent years critics have agreed that Cubase is arguably the best, technically speaking. Too much of audio software is preference and a gray area so it does come down to technicality to pick a winner. Steinberg, the creators of Cubase, did invent most of the basis of modern music software so they do have a history to back up their claim to the throne as king. Or whatever leader type software would have, a monarchy doesn't seem likely. Ahem.
Anyway, Cubase itself is the winner due to it's range of useful features. In particular it's consistency across the board. While many audio software packages deal primarily with recording or with the digital midi side of things, Cubase is up to a high professional standard on both. It also is miles ahead in other aspects such as having built in video editing and timelines, extremely useful for scoring for film. Cubase also has notation editing built in which is often overlooked but does leave it as covering both your production software and your composition software. While software like Sibelius and Finale, which are primarily for writing sheet music, may be more advanced in their notation they also cost the same price as the full version of Cubase for only one tiny feature of it.
Cubase Elements is a realistic approach for any student that won't leave you stuck for cash but will leave you with a very much usable set up that you can upgrade over time and get professional results from the word go.
Pros: -Extremely professional and respected
-Completely capable for nearly all applications at the entry level Elements.
-Large userbase and online presence.
-Upgradable at anytime, even years later.
Cons: -You will need to upgrade for some of the more advanced stuff.
Courses suitable for: Music, Music Production, Film, Media and other courses that require professional audio.
Alternatives: -Pro Tools, the industry standard and often a sort after name.
-Logic, Mac only but competitively prices and comparable to Cubase in features.
-Reaper, free for private work and extremely usable. Also extremely cheap to buy a licence.
-Sibelius, this is just for students interested in writing sheet music and composition, this won't allow you to create a finished track or such but does allow for completely professional sheet music.
And there you have it. This covers some of the most common software types that students ask for, thankfully most companies now recognise the importance of students and how daunting the price and scale of their full software may be. Hence useful trials along with entry level versions of their software that can be upgraded over time.
Please leave a comment if you have any questions about specific software or would like to see another software category in here.
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