Mac program for these specific graphic requirements

Content
1

I notice the topic before this one asks which graphics programs people use, but my question is more specific.

I currently use Photoshop and Illustrator from CS3 on an old PC, but they are overkill for me, expensive and I prefer to actually start using my top of the range iMac for this instead of that old PC.

I don’t create images myself (I’m rubbish and don’t have the time) but I want to be able to manipulate images, do a few basics (add text, remove background etc.) and then, most importantly, create the relevant files for the web.

Most importantly I want the program to strip out as much as possible and compress it so I just output the file and it’s ready to go - rather than have to upload to one of the many compression services out there (PNG Crush, Tiny PNG etc.)

So these I think cover all you could need for the final process to output for the web:

(1) PNG, GIF, JPG files
(2) Generate PNG, GIF, JPG Data URI code from an image (so press a button and it displays the code)
(3) SVG file (.svg)
(4) The relevant <svg> code (which is of course different to creating the .svg file in (3) above)
(5) Anything to help with editing of icon fonts / generating (if even necessary)
(6) Anything to help with generation of @2x images (for HiDPI/Retina) (if even necessary)

I want a Mac program (preferably on the Mac App store) that is simple, max $100, does the things I want but no need for all the extras and is easy to use without hardly any need to learn all the features.

Any ideas? Thanks.

2

Short of getting responses here, there are lots of posts on the web listing alternatives to Photoshop. I admit I haven’t tried them much, but the list includes things like GIMMP and Pixelmator. You might have to visit each program’s website to get a clear idea of what they do. This is an example of the many online pages that talk about such topics:

http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pixelbasedfreemac/tp/budgetphotoedm.htm

3

Thanks Ralph,

However, my problem seems to be finding ones that can do both raster and vector images (and export in those formats).

I’m hoping somebody has experience and can confirm that all of my requirements can be achieved in a particular package.

I don’t believe Pixelmator allows export in vector format.

4

Check out Inkscape, which is like a free version of Illustrator and is great for vector work. You my not be able to find one program that does everything.

5

Adobe fireworks does most of what you want, albeit out of your price range unless you can get academic pricing

6

Thanks to everyone for the advice.

I went for Pixelmator (bitmap) and iDraw (vector). They do a lot more than I need and get good file sizes on export. I didn’t want a free product.

However, I have a problem:

In Photoshop I can export to the web and add ‘dither’.

In Pixelmator, because I can’t seem to do this, images (PNG 8 bit) can look dreadful.

What do I do?

7

Not sure about that. I forgot to mention that Photoshop Elements might be fine for what you need to do, and a lot cheaper than Ps itself.

8

Anybody else know about dither in Pixelmator?

9

May be this will help you: http://benthinkin.net/articles/imagery/save-for-web-feature-comparisons