Is photoshop better for graphic design or adobe illustrator?

Hi Justin!

This is not a question of which program is better, it is a question about which program is suited for the purpose you need it for.
The Adobe suite is the industry standard and I would highly recommend to get to know the different applications. as Mrs. Jennings comment above.

Each application has a different purpose to serve.

Photoshop is used for photo manipulation. It includes photo enhancement, or maybe creating your own interpretation of the photo by adding to the photo, or subtracting from it. You can scale, texturize, recolor, etc.. (options are limited by your imagination only).

Illustrator, unlike Photoshop, is a vector based program. It means that it uses math to compute the graphics, which means the work you produce won't get pixelate and be scaled to a very large elements (I mean billboard size big) without losing resolution. I personally prefer to work on Illustrator. It is not as intuitive as Photoshop, but it is well worth learning. It's a tool for you to draw and design. You can create logos, patterns, illustrations (like cartoons), anything that you wou can draw in hand - you are able to draw in illustrator. It is POWERFUL tool - and If to answer your question - focus on Illustrator for starters.

InDesign is another great tool to know. It's purpose is for layout. Let's say you design an advertisement, or a magazine, or maybe a portfolio. InDesign is your friend for setting up the layouts and in a very quick and efficient means you can add texts, images, edit the text wrapping, and manipulate texts and image objects. Very important, InDesign's experience is closer to Illustrator than Photoshop - so here's another point to learning Illustrator).

As you can see, each application serves different purpose, but you can and are encouraged to use all of them interchangeably to create a wholesome design experience for your users and yourself.

Your question is similar to this question: "What is the best tool for working on a car? A wrench or a screwdriver?" Without knowing both, your car will have issues.

You can definitely be better at one than the other (and you probably will be), but you need to know both if you're going to be a decent designer. You're going to need to know a few more as well too. InDesign, probably...maybe some AfterEffects, a 3D program and some others you think are interesting.

Photoshop & Illustrator work together very well.

Personally I use Illustrator to create vector elements, such as icons or logos that I combine together in Photoshop, with other pixel based elements.

As mentioned in other answers, it is worth knowing the difference between vector, and bitmap or pixel based graphics.
In brief, pixels are good for lifelike photos and vectors are good for clean lines that can be scaled up or down without losing quality.

Photoshop is a vast program, that can be a little daunting, but I would suggest starting with learning this.
If you can set yourself a small achievable project it will be easier than just diving in. Some great tutorials at linda.com and a lot of free help on YouTube .

The Pen and Shape tools in Photoshop are very similar to the way Illustrator works, as they are both vector.
So if you start with Photoshop you will be beginning to get to know Illustrator too in a way.

Good luck, and have fun.

You will need to know them both, as well as, indesign. Being a successful designer is more than just learning the programs though, unless you want to only do production work.