I’ve been using Adobe Photoshop since version 5.5 and Sketch since version 3, which means that I’m coming into this debate very much a long term advocate of Photoshop but someone who also has opened his mind to try something new.
The purpose of this review is to objectively look at what positives and negatives I can conclude from each piece of software and how I plan to use that information going forward and hopefully that will help in guiding how you may use either software.
There are many areas that the software will go up against each other for the modern designer and I will break these up into sections for my upcoming reviews and analysis.
At the time of starting this review I have been using Sketch for about 2 months and Adobe Photoshop CC for about 8 months, though previous versions of Photoshop go on longer.
User Interface
Having used Photoshop a long time, I’ve quickly adapted it to get the tools and options in the correct areas, which ultimately helps your productivity but I thought for this I would take a look at how it presents itself to a fresh user and then how Sketch does the same.
When you first open Photoshop you are presented with the Essentials layout, this provides access to the basics that most designers need to get started, the tools (though I did move them in this screenshot to the right), history, properties, colour, adjustments and layers. There are more in tabbing, but those are all areas that get you started.
With Sketch you get a very basic layout with the toolbar along the top and the property settings to the right.
The first and obvious difference is how each dictates the base colour options you might want your UI to use, Sketch only has a single “light” theme at the moment, whereas Photoshop gives you the ability to manipulate this various levels.
As you can see there are 4 options in Photoshop and for me the ability to change the UI colour is important, because I might be designing during the day or day and the effect you want the UI will vary depending on this, not to mention the actual background colour to your canvas can be changed in Photoshop.
Sketch does not provide the ability to modify the UI colour or canvas background, though you can achieve the background issue quite easily with art-boards colours and then design within a vector.
Sketch has a very fixed layout with the UI, where you can move elements about in Photoshop and then save those layouts as needed. We will go further into the various tools provided by each software, but this flexibility that Photoshop provides gives it a considerable edge in UI.
User Interface Winner: Photoshop
Toolbars
Adobe has been working and perfecting the toolbar for Photoshop for a long time now and this has evolved as they have added more features into Photoshop.
If you have never used Photoshop before, the toolbar can be overwhelming, as well as having a large number of options, most come with secondary actions to adjust what is in a particular slot.
As an example on the image to the left, the Brush Tool is the first displayed option, but you can adjust that to a variety of secondary options.
The large number of choices allow you, the user to completely control how you want to adjust photoshop and the tools you need to use for the work you are doing. With the layout options you can customise every aspect of these tools and then save the layout to re-use as required.
The Sketch toolbar is essentially the entire top navigation and they too allow you to adjust which options are visible, however in the context of the Photoshop Toolbar, Sketch tries to bring all the key elements you will want to work with into a single drop-down menu.
The top left of the application has a inset + icon, which when selected brings down the menu you see on the left.
Sketch quickly wants to break down what it wants its users to do.
As a new user Sketch provides a very simple choice in options and allows users to quickly get straight into working without spending a large amount of time getting used to what options they have to work with.
You could debate that less options is less productive but I always bring that back to watching a film thats overblown with special effects and no cohesive story to follow leaves a user feeling lost.
Photoshop could use improvements to help make new users fit in better with their tools and improve workflow with that.
Toolbar Winner: Sketch
Price
Sketch 3 on the app store is £54.99 one-time
Photoshop CC + Lightroom is £8.78 per month, 12 month commitment
Not so long ago, the price was something that would not be up for debate, but with Adobe restricting their price plans for the various products the provided they have brought about viable solutions for designers.
I don’t want to get into the debate about bringing in Illustrator in the fold, as Sketch also covers that software, but for now the price debate will keep with the reasonable “Photographer” package.
Price itself is relative to what it gets you and how you plan to use each piece of software, there are arguments for both plans, because Sketch price is one-time but limited to that single version of Sketch (with minor updates) whereas Adobe is ongoing to latest versions.
We will re-review the price debate once we have completed a detailed review of the tasks both softwares provide
Price Winner: Sketch
Support
With any software, support, guides and tutorials are critical to help users learn and progress. Below is a none exhaustive list of sites to use for Sketch and Photoshop.
Sketch Support Sites
http://bohemiancoding.com/sketch/support/documentation/01-introduction/
http://sketchmine.co/
http://www.sketchappsources.com/
Photoshop Support Sites
http://www.photoshop.com/
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/tag/photoshop/
http://design.tutsplus.com/categories/photoshop
I could list a LARGE number of sites for Photoshop here, but a Google search alone demonstrates the number of sites where you can get guides for Photoshop.
It is obvious that with the history and amount of support available online right now, Photoshop is a clear winner in this category.
Support Winner: Photoshop
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