Good Image Editing Programs?

[Scarred4life]

So, I'm looking to purchase an image editing program, but I don't have very much experience or knowledge about them, and I know a lot of people here use these types of programs, so I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations.

I'm looking for a relatively inexpensive program, but I still would like it to be a good piece of software. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[Super Aurora]

So, I'm looking to purchase an image editing program, but I don't have very much experience or knowledge about them, and I know a lot of people here use these types of programs, so I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations.

I'm looking for a relatively inexpensive program, but I still would like it to be a good piece of software. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Do you mean like photoshop? I have Adobe Photoshop CS2 which works great.

[Elladorine]

I currently use Photoshop CS5, but any of the Photoshop suites are super-expensive as they are targeted toward large businesses and professionals. Adobe Photoshop Elements is a more limited and affordable version of Photoshop suited to the hobbyist; I haven't personally used it but it's certainly a program worth looking into.

In the past I've used Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X & X2 (they are now up to X3), which was pretty comparable in its image editing abilities (at least with my experience) and like Elements, is much cheaper than the Photoshop suites. Corel is what I used when I was first learning how to work with digital images, and I'd say the tools are slightly more intuitive (I'm completely self-taught, btw). I've mostly used these programs to draw and color, but I've also used them to manipulate, edit, & restore photos, create avatars & banners, etc.

[Scarred4life]

I was looking at the Photoshop prices earlier, and while they are extremely expensive, I can apply for the student discount, which takes a great deal off of the price, so those aren't totally out of the question. But

I've never heard of Photoshop Elements, but it sounds like a wise choice, and I am definitely going to be looking into that. And Corel Paint Shop Photo Pro has a free trial, which I might check out as well.

Thanks for the help!

[BellesPrince]

Why don't you download Gimp, it's free, and it also allows you to use photoshop brushes.

[DarthPrime]

Why don't you download Gimp, it's free, and it also allows you to use photoshop brushes.

I would try out Gimp before I purchased anything. Its a great piece of software and completely free.

[Elladorine]

No problem! One of my friends has Elements and she really likes it.

And as others have mentioned, Gimp's a good program that's absolutely free. I tend to forget about it though since I had issues figuring it out a few years back (to be fair I was pretty computer illiterate at the time).

[dvdjunkie]

It was never mentioned as to why you want this particular ability. So I will ask the questions - why do you need an image editing program?

[Scarred4life]

Well, I've been using a very, very simple image editing program that I found for free for avatars, banners, editing photographs I've taken, etc. Lately I've found that it's just not cutting it anymore.


Enigmawing, would you say that Paint Shop Pro or Elements is easier to figure out than GIMP? Because I have actually tried using GIMP, and found it extremely complicated.

[Elladorine]

I first started out with some crappy program that came free with a digital camera back in '04-'05, and when I needed something more I bought Corel after finding out how much Photoshop was!

I'm not sure about Elements simply because I'm not sure exactly how different it is from Photoshop, but I definitely had an easier time learning Corel compared to Photoshop. As I was saying, I felt it was slightly more intuitive. In retrospect Corel felt more like a program with artist-friendly tools while Photoshop felt more like it was for PC users, if that makes sense.

I'd tried out Gimp when my laptop crashed around 2006 and my hard drive had to be wiped; I no longer had the key for Corel so I was looking for a cheap alternative. It might be more user-friendly by now but I had trouble working with the different sets of tools and figuring out how to work with layers. I gladly went back to Corel again since it was a breeze for me when compared to Gimp, but switched to Photoshop in 2007. Photoshop took me a longer to learn and feel comfortable with beyond the most basic controls of resizing, cropping, skewing, etc., but I've found I have more control over settings with it than Corel (once again, I'm unsure of the exact differences between Photoshop and Elements, but there are lots of articles online that make direct comparisons).

This article and this article may help you out.

[Semaj]

I first started out with some crappy program that came free with a digital camera back in '04-'05, and when I needed something more I bought Corel after finding out how much Photoshop was!

I'm not sure about Elements simply because I'm not sure exactly how different it is from Photoshop, but I definitely had an easier time learning Corel compared to Photoshop. As I was saying, I felt it was slightly more intuitive. In retrospect Corel felt more like a program with artist-friendly tools while Photoshop felt more like it was for PC users, if that makes sense.

I'd tried out Gimp when my laptop crashed around 2006 and my hard drive had to be wiped; I no longer had the key for Corel so I was looking for a cheap alternative. It might be more user-friendly by now but I had trouble working with the different sets of tools and figuring out how to work with layers. I gladly went back to Corel again since it was a breeze for me when compared to Gimp, but switched to Photoshop in 2007. Photoshop took me a longer to learn and feel comfortable with beyond the most basic controls of resizing, cropping, skewing, etc., but I've found I have more control over settings with it than Corel (once again, I'm unsure of the exact differences between Photoshop and Elements, but there are lots of articles online that make direct comparisons).

This article and this article may help you out.

Between Photoshop CS5 and Photoshop Elements, which would you recommend for a Windows laptop?

[Elladorine]

Between Photoshop CS5 and Photoshop Elements, which would you recommend for a Windows laptop?

It really depends on what your needs are, either should run fine on a laptop (I do use Windows myself and have run both CS5 and Corel Paintshop on a couple of my laptops).

Do you anticipate having to work in CMYK, slice webpage designs, animate gif files, or work with layer masks? If so, you'll want CS5. If you're more concerned with cropping, retouching, editing, etc., Elements should probably be enough. I should mention one of the most awesome things about CS5 is Content Aware, which allows you to repair or replace unwanted images with ease, and one of my favorite features is the Rotate View Tool, which comes in really handy if you're drawing with a tablet. And once again, I haven't actually used Elements myself, just various versions of Photoshop ranging from CS to CS5; I'm only going by what I've been able to read about Elements here.

Hope this helps!

[Scarred4life]

It helps very much, thank you enigmawing! Those articles were a great help too.

[BellesPrince]

I don't really have too much difficulty working with layers in Gimp. Occassionally it will throw a bit of a wobbler and I struggle to select the layer I actually want to edit, but generally it's pretty good.

There are one or two things I haven't quite figured out how to do, which I used to do with ease on other packages, and that mainly revolves around doing logo's, and achieving a certain effect with text, but for the most part, it does what I want, and you never learn how to do everything in a program right off the bat.

Hey, it's free, no harm in downloading it and giving it a try for a few weeks.