Photoshop vs. Illustrator vs. InDesign: Adobe Basics Explained

Brand new to Adobe Creative Cloud? Confused about when to use Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign? This beginner-friendly walkthrough breaks down the essentials of all three programs side by side so you can start designing with confidence! This lesson covers workspace setups, key differences between raster and vector graphics, layer controls, and file-saving best practices. -------- What You’ll Learn in this Adobe Software Beginner Overview: Photoshop: Pixel manipulation, photo editing, raster layers, and .psd files. Illustrator: Scalable vector shapes, artboards, sub-layer target selections, and .ai files. InDesign: Page layout, text reflow, multi-page publication setups, and .indd files. Universal Tools: Workspaces, toolbar navigation, hidden flyout tools, color modes (RGB vs. CMYK), and file-naming best practices. -------- Timestamps 00:00 – Intro to Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign 00:30 – Start Screen Similarities 01:10 – Photoshop: Creating a New Document & File Naming Best Practices 01:54 – Units of Measurement & Color Modes (RGB vs. CMYK) 04:10 – Understanding Form and Space in Graphic Design 04:43 – Photoshop: Working with Raster Images & Pixel Editing 05:53 – Illustrator: Creating a New Document & Resolution Options 07:01 – Illustrator: Workspace & Tools Overview 07:30 – InDesign: Creating a New Document & Layout Defaults 08:23 – InDesign: What InDesign is Used For (Multi-Page Publications) 08:53 – Workspace Settings & Customizing Toolbars 10:44 – Expanding Hidden Sub-Tools in Toolbars 11:08 – How to Disable Rich Tooltips / Hover Pop-ups 12:10 – Understanding the Layers Panel Across Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign 13:06 – Photoshop: Working with Layers (Raster, Text, Vector) 14:52 – Illustrator: Creating Vector Shapes & Placing Images 16:18 – Illustrator Layers vs. Photoshop Layers (Target Selection) 17:46 – InDesign: Text Frames, Placeholder Text, and Page Layouts 18:25 – Scaling Text & Frames in InDesign 19:18 – InDesign Layers Panel Behavior 20:14 – Summary of Key Similarities Between Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign 21:02 – Photoshop Move Tool Settings (Auto-Select & Transform Controls) 21:33 – Native File Types: Saving PSD, AI, and INDD Files _____________________________________________________________ JOIN MY EMAIL LIST Love quick, helpful tutorials? You’ll love the emails too. 💌 https://designertofullstack.com/join-... ABOUT ME Hello, world. I’m Kelly Barkhurst —an experienced Mac-based full-stack designer, educator, and entrepreneur passionately blending artistic vision and creativity with deep technical expertise. With a BFA and MFA in Graphic Design and a certificate in Full-Stack Web Development, I’m uniquely positioned to work at this intersection of design and tech. My driving force is creating meaningful solutions and helping clients and students do the same. What’s Kelly’s superpower? It’s using design thinking to strategically plan the BIG picture, then diving deep into the technical “weeds” to bring that vision to life—through beautiful visual design, compelling writing, or well-crafted, functional code. *What brought you JOY today? 👇 Share in the comments below *SOCIALS   / @designer2fstack     / designertofullstack      / @designertofullstack