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Thread ID: 30606 2003-02-25 05:00:00 Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro (for a beginner) rockwood (3244) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
123784 2003-02-25 05:00:00 Hi
Being an absolute beginner with digital imaging, I am not sure what software to get for my new digital and other snaps.
I have been looking around the net and have found more free help for paintshop pro but I guess that means little.
Would appreciate any input
cheers Lou :)
rockwood (3244)
123785 2003-02-25 05:17:00 You might be better off trying adobe photoshop elements. It has a lot of the features that the full photoshop 7 package has, but it is a lot cheaper, and you can use it to get the hang of digital imaging before moving up to one of the bigger, better and more expensive tools.

I personally would recommend photoshop, but for a beginner it could be very frustrating to use, as I have been using it for my own projects for about 6 years now, and still don't know how to use a lot of the tools, so the elements version would probably be better.

Paint shop pro is quite good, but geared more to home users I think, and as such many of the tools are quite limited in their scope, so when you have the hang of digital editing, there is little room to grow and play with more complex editing methods later on.

My opinions anyway :) there are probably many image professionals who prefer paint shop pro, and would recommend you to that!

Hope that helps,
Craig.
craig_b (2740)
123786 2003-02-25 05:32:00 If you only wish to compare PaintShop and PhotoShop, Paintshop would be the easier one to use till you are ready to progress to better things.
You will be able to do more with Photoshop but there is a bigger learning curve and of course more money involved.

If you wnat Adobe without the cost consider Adobe Elements.

I use both Paintshop and Photoshop as part of my job and both are excellent programs.
Gordon. (2217)
123787 2003-02-25 06:22:00 I have not used Photoshop Elements but I have used Photoshop. Paintshop Pro is a powerfull program and probably the equivalent of the Elements. Usually if you buy a scanner or camera you get a graphics package with it.
From the reviews I have seen either PaintShop Pro or Photoshop Elements would be ideal initially.
mikebartnz (21)
123788 2003-02-25 07:21:00 Not too technically competent here, but my daughter has done graphics studies, and happened to find the Ability Office 2000 program on my computer, and the Ability Photopaint section in it.

After a short browse through it she commented that it looked 'really promising, a bit like Photoshop'. Might be worth a look, and the price is right!
Rod ger (316)
123789 2003-02-25 07:41:00 Well a very cheap (free) and powerful solution would be The Gimp (http://www.gimp.org). It may not be the most fully featured piece of software out there, but will do everything (and more) than what most people need to do. I think it supports PhotoShop plugins as well.

When it comes down to it Adobe Photoshop (the full one) is the most powerful. But most people don't need all that it can do.
-=JM=- (16)
123790 2003-02-25 09:25:00 And don't have the dollars. mikebartnz (21)
123791 2003-02-25 11:50:00 I agree with Gordon and JM. Greg S (201)
123792 2003-02-25 19:03:00 Depends waht you want to do? if its basic stuff like resizing and red eye removal all you need is something like ACDsee or Elements kiwibeat (304)
123793 2003-02-25 19:22:00 > I have been looking around the net and have found more free help for paintshop pro but I guess that means little.

No, it means quite a lot actually. Personally, if you are just wanting to crop, resize, enhance, etc your photos I think that going for Photoshop is total overkill. I have Paintshop Pro and have found the tutorials on the web invaluable for their ideas as well as instructions.

Remember too, that you can try Paintshop Pro for 30 days before you need to pay for it. Past issues of PC World have had it on their cover CD if you want to save yourself a download.

There is another excellent little free program, IrfanView, that will do the basics to your images such as crop, resize, resample, rotate, flip, etc, if that is all you want to do.
Susan B (19)
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