I know Illustrator is used to create vector graphics, but how is it different from Photoshop? What's the point of having Illustrator if you already have Photoshop? Is it better for sketching cartoons, or what? WHAT THE HECK IS ILLUSTRATOR!!!???
 
 

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Vector images are made up of shapes which are mathematically generated. so scale them up/down to any res. they'll be pixel perfect.(if you had ever scaled some svg icons on ubuntu desktop, you'll see)
 
the interesting thing is that you can also read a SVG file! its plain XML
(very much like html). something like  <svg>
                                                      <circle x=0 y=0 r=5 fill="#CCCCCC" stroke="none">
                                                      animate("opacity", 0,100, 4000)
                                                      </circle>
                                                  </svg>
 
files are compact and much more suitable for graphic development. for example it is way easy to tell
your software to alter some parameters of svg file to produce an animation, than to load hundred different
bitmap images and display them like in Gif. you can embed your javascripts etc to make them more interactive.
most cartoons, anime etc are in vectors, because they are easy to animate as you don't need to draw frame by frame animations.
 
but most of us use flash(which also uses vector graphics, and does the boring part automatically) for animations etc.
 
for their high scalability, vector graphics are extensively used on mobile devices, the icons and themes,
the tiny, yet readable fonts visible in our handhelds are mainly vector based.
 
so, you can't do vectors with Photoshop (the pen tool is an exception). neither you would like to create the whole XML in notepad (which takes the artistic part away), so you use illustrator, Xara, corel draw, inkscape etc. where you can drag and edit shapes with your cursor and export them to bitmap also.

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Ummm ... thanks, but I'm still very confused. You can do vectors in PS, I still don't get how AI is different. I mean, for example, I do all my tux in vector format. Not only is the Pen tool a vector, so are all the shape tools ... and I already know what vectors and SVG graphics are (you told me once earlier ). What I want to know is that if there is an advantage of having AI (or the other vector programs you mentioned) if you already have Photoshop.

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No, you can't do vectors in PS. The moment you stroke/fill the shapes or the paths, the data is stored
for each pixel of your canvas. All you get in the end, is a color value for every pixel of your image, a bitmap.

Do a zoom-in few times when making some thing in PS, and you'll see the little squares.
You can't create/export an svg with PS, and png ,gif, jpeg ain't vector.

PS manipulates pixels. for example, it pics a pixel, and the ones just next to it, and take an average of their
color and, impart this new color to this pixel. then goes to next pixel and does the same. and it produces a
blur effect.

In Vector graphics, you just have to create a blur filter with tags (if the software responsible for showing
the output understands what blur means) in your file and it will show blur.

Note that at the final point, even a vector file is processed to decide which pixel of your
monitor's LCD go which color. so the final image is produced in the realtime.

As you are seeing this web page in your browser, you may wonder that you can make an exact picture like this
using PS (even better and easy) and paste it here.

Why bother for typing html , calculating width and heights of elements , margins , font sizes, and long boring
CSS style sheets to create a page?

But then, you know what you'll miss, this web page isn't just pixels, there's more to it, it is interactive.

and it takes something more than PS to do that.(DW)

so, you just have to understand what you are trying to make.

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Well after all that, all I can get from your post is that PS does not support SVG, which is vector result. I'm sure they could develop a plug-in for that, though.

But here's where you're mistaken about Photoshop. If you make everything using vectors and shape tools, you do indeed get everything in vectors. Though the final image is indeed a bitmap, the PSD contains the mathematical representation in vector form. Of course, you're right about the blur thing (true for gradients in PS as well).

As for SVGs, let's face it, they're not very popular. So even a sketch artist who makes his image in vector form WILL have to store it in JPEG if he wants to share it with the world.

Of course, I understand that in Flash, vectors are useful for animation and the fact that they can be enlarged indefinitely. But I really don't see its use in still art. Right now, none of the popular image formats support vectors. And if you're going to submit your art in JPEG bitmap representation anyway, why bother with Illustrator? It would be the same as keeping your original PSD, but using the bitmap JPEG.

What I think would be REAL advantage would be if brush strokes and other effects created MANUALLY were stored in vector form in AI. Don't think that's how it is, or if it's even possible.

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Maybe SVG isn't so popular, but EPS is. It's vector file also. I think, that vector graphic programs (such as Illustrator) are very usefull in polygraphy. I am graphic designer and I know what I'm saying ;-) When you make business card, leaflet or poster and you need get there for example some logo and you have it in vector format, you can just resize it without losing quality of that logo.
 
Moreover, in vector program you can make vector graphic much easier than in PS, because they have a lot of tools for it :-)
 
And finally, vector files (such as SVG or EPS) are much smaller than vector graphic in PS. And if someone make some vector graphic in Illustrator, save it in EPS and share with others, you can use it in vector program (and resizing it as you wish) or in PS to save it as bitmap.
 
 
So, my conclusion is:
 
Photoshop is mainly used to bitmaps with couple vector tools. On the other hand, Illustrator have very very much tools that help making vector graphics. :-)

So ... any examples of said advantageous tools?

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