What program to design chips?

kayos · #1 (**permalink**) 06-06-2006, 10:58 PM

I am new so plz bear with me. I keep seeing these really neat mock ups of actual chips people are making with some type of ps or other software program or something. How are you all doing that? I want to start getting mine on there....thx!

rakdesign · #2 (**permalink**) 06-07-2006, 09:11 AM

i use photoshop and indesign....but there are some freeware/shareware programs I have read about here..unfortunately I don't know the names..last place I saw a reference to it was in the protege inlay design thread..might give that a look

beowulfe · #3 (**permalink**) 06-07-2006, 09:16 AM

GIMP - (GNU Image Manipulation Program) - open source photoshop clone. Free!
http://www.gimp.org

BlondWidow · #4 (**permalink**) 06-07-2006, 09:18 AM

Personally, I prefer Illustrator for chip design.

Poboy · #5 (**permalink**) 06-07-2006, 10:32 AM

For the chip body, use the Chip Factory under site tools above. For the inlay, either Photoshop or Illustrator.

kayos · #6 (**permalink**) 06-07-2006, 12:17 PM

Once again....Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!

JM · #7 (**permalink**) 06-09-2006, 04:29 PM

Illustrator is your best bet for the inlay. You can get a 30 day full function trial free from Adobe.com

Magus 23 · #8 (**permalink**) 06-11-2006, 10:45 AM

I use Illustrator for the basic design, and then bring it into Photoshop for the actual printing. Because my design uses special brushes in Illustrator (a variable-opacity "flame" brush that I designed myself), it takes forever for Illustrator to rasterize the image. I can bring it into Photoshop, repeat the image multiple times for the printing sheet, and then print them out a lot more quickly than if I tried to print right out of Illustrator.

Generally speaking (and particularly if the design weren't too complex), I'd definitely go with Illustrator over Photoshop for initial design -- you've just got a lot more control over the drawing itself. You can do a lot of the same thing in Photoshop (filled vector paths, etc.), but it's a lot less intuitive, and you don't have the same number of tools to work with.

That said, I did use Photoshop for one of my initial designs, but decided I wanted a "cleaner" look in the end, and recreated my design in Illustrator. I was just going to post the final chip design in the gallery, but maybe I'll also put in some of the interim designs as well...