Umm, I'm experienced with Photoshop, and I've used GoLive and even PageMaker and InDesign, but never Illustrator. What, exactly is the purpose of Illustrator, and what can it do that Photoshop can't? I'm trying it out right now, and I really don't understand what it's for. Anyone mind elucidating? Thanks.

Illustrator is different from Photoshop mainly because it is a vector program. That means, in a nutshell, it does not use pixels but rather mathematical calculations of line segments and can be resized without any loss of quality. Most logos are made in Illustrator because of that reason. It is a drawing program while Photoshop is mainly a photo editing program. It is most similar to InDesign but their are more tools for drawing instead of all the text and layout options available in InDesign. I hope that helps. If you have any more questions, don't be afraid to ask.

I see, and after messing around with it, I understand more. Is it fair to compare it to like Corel Paint? Also, is it necessary to have a Graphics Tablet to do complex pieces?

I'm not sure, but I believe Corel Painter is raster, like Photoshop, not vector based. A tablet would be nice, but if you can master the pen tool, then you can pretty much do anything because you can draw anything. Illustrator is my favorite program to use.

It would be closer to Corel Draw rather than Corel Paint. Andrew's right. The main difference is the vector/raster thing. It would probably help to look up some tutorials online that compare vector to raster.

Alright, thanks alot!