Bruce,

To quote:
"quickly design, resize individual components, add components, and join these various conveniently"
As I'm sure you are aware, Photoshop can do these things but you have the rastering issue when you enlarge so you can still use Photoshop if you have a way to resize in vector. I think you are on the right path with Illustrator but personally, I would go with Freehand. It is still available on the Adobe website and you could pick it up on Ebay for a song. As Carie stated though, if you use Illustrator you can link to the originals, resize and not have to jump back and forth from program to program like you would in Freehand.

I would have to totally disagree with the suggestions in regards to using InDesign. The reason: InDesign is a program that was built to lay out pages, brochures, catalogs, etc. that just so happens to have a lot of elements built into it to that allow you to "draw" It was Adobe's answer to QwarkXpress.

Hope this helps.

--
Michael


-----Original Message-----
>From: Carie Nixon <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Sep 5, 2006 11:07 AM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: [SCIART] Advice please
>
>If I understand what you are saying correctly, either Illustrator or
>InDesign should work very well for you.  In both cases, you can link
>to your originals that are in Photoshop.  As long as they are linked
>and not imbedded, your design file remains small.  If some of your
>illustrations are in Illustrator, then you are better off using
>InDesign since you don't link an Illustrator file to a layout in
>Illustrator.  You can, however, group it and copy it over.  InDesign
>is less memory hungry than Illustrator.
>
>Carie Nixon
>Illinos Natural History Survey
>
>
>>I'm getting to the point where I need some software with which I can
>>quickly design, resize individual components, add components, and
>>join these various conveniently, without having to print and use
>>manual overlays.  While most of my work has been very detailed, and
>>basically overgrown scientific illustrations with a background,
>>these are all rather large paintings where the design process was
>>more in my head than on paper.  Tracing paper and Photoshop were my
>>tools.  But now I'm involved in three ongoing projects, each
>>requiring multiple pieces of work.  And as you might imagine, I've
>>discovered slow and cumbersome is just that.  Slow and cumbersome.
>>
>>Illustrator seems the most likely candidate, but I'm not sure I'd
>>need anything other than the basics of that program, and I couldn't
>>find anything but the latest CS version on the Adobe website.  I
>>don't want to buy pirated material, but just need a basic design and
>>illustration program.  Are there others available?  Am I kidding
>>myself about CS?
>>
>>Suggestions please, even if it's just a paper/inkjet printer combo
>>that would give me tight printed lines on a paper I can draw on.
>>
>>Thanks much,
>>Bruce
>>
>>--
>>Bruce Bartrug
>>PO Box 106
>>Nobleboro, ME 04555 USA
>>207 563-1867
>><mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask]