Should I get Adobe Photoshop?

[MeddyDuo]

I need some decent image editing software. Right now I have Paint Shop Pro 8, but there are hardly any tutorials for it. It seems like everybody thinks Photoshop is the best. Are they right?
Now I went to Adobe's site and found Photoshop CS2 for like $650. Is there a cheaper version?

 

[TheoPetro]

photoshop would be the best thing ever if I could figure out how to draw a curved line in it. Something similar to paint where you pick 3 points and the line goes through them and curves....ya it would be amazing if I could figure that one out.

A free one is "gimp". Its pretty neat but doesnt do everything. Paint.net is another one but it too is limited. Between the two of them they were pretty decent but there no match for what you can do in photoshop.

 

[gsaldivar]

Theo - I think you're referring to a Bezier curve:

http://www.webopedia.com/FIG/BEZIER.gif

Yes, you can do this in Photoshop by using the Pen tool:

http://www.informit.com/guides/content.asp?g=photoshop&seqNum=72

 

[EvanAdams]

It GREATLY depends on how you use your program. I am a devoted digital camera guy but I am a solid amature still. Thus I have found Photoshop Elements to be more than enough. It does basic layers and can handle what I need WRT pictures.

I think a lot of people say get X when Y will suffice. For me I used Photoshop back in the early 2000's and elements today does everything that I ever actualy used in photoshop.

 

[Kromis]

Is it true that you need Adobe Photoshop CS2 to buy/install CS3?

 

[nweaver]

The Gimp is good enough for all but pros, imho. I haven't found anything I can't do on it that I want to yet.

 

[StopSign]

The one reason why Photoshop is MUCH better than Elements: it supports masks. You can mask both layers and groups, with masks on top of masks. This is the sole reason why I love Photoshop and I refuse to use any other program that doesn't have masking functionalities like Photoshop.

 

[duragezic]

Well that's a pretty steep price to pay for something you are unsure if you need all of its capabilities. I actually prefer the pre-CS versions of Photoshop. Maybe you can find Photoshop 7 or so for cheaper, since it still has tons of features, but they might not sell it anymore. What exactly are you looking to do?

paint.NET is free and great for simple tasks but probably not as powerful as PSP 8 even. Gimp is free and quite similar to Photoshop, but I've never gotten the hang of it. I guess I"m too used to the Photoshop UI and shortcuts that I always get disgusted with Gimp when I use it. But that would be something you could download and try out before dropping down the $ on Photoshop.

Finally, PS Elements is a stripped-down version of Photoshop. It may or may not have all of the features you need, but there may be a trial version for Elements. After checking that out, you can decide if it'll work well enough for your needs. It's like $80 for v4 and $130 for v5 (includes Premiere, so try and find it by itself for cheaper).

It's probably worth the few hours to check out the alternatives before spending $650 on PS CS2, since depending on your skill level and features you require, the cheap/free alternatives or older versions may be plenty adequate.

edit: Yeah, you can find Photoshop for cheaper. Newegg has CS2 full for $570. Newegg also has a CS2 trial for $6, so there might be a downloadable trial for free. And Newegg is the only place I looked, so it might be slightly cheaper elsewhere.

 

[CP5670]

I also use PSP8 for occasional graphics work. I tried the Photoshop trial once and it didn't like my Windows color scheme (I use green text and a dark gray background, but the text in the program remained black and was unreadable), so it didn't stay on my hard drive much longer.

 

[MeddyDuo]

I would be using it for my website. I want to learn graphic design or whatever you call it, but it seems like it's better to learn Photoshop. I just downloaded GIMP, but I'm wondering if I should even take the time to learn it, because eventually I would probably get Photoshop anyways.

I'll look for that trial, hopfully it's a 30-day or something...

 

[EvanAdams]

Yea adobe has good trial versions. Also photoshop is a 'skill' program that once you know can go on a resume. Nobody in the real world knows GIMP and if they do you'll get the same respect or more if you know Photoshop.

 

[AllGoodNamesAreTaken]

I've used PSP since version 7 and the help content is horrible. I spent days trying to get text to follow a curve from above, not below. Then again, I'm a programmer, not a graphics artist.

You might want to give Pixel a glance if you don't need Photoshop compatibility.

 

[MeddyDuo]

Alright I finally finished dowloading the CS2 trial, so where are some good beginner (completely new to graphic stuff) tutorials?

 

[StopSign]

www.good-tutorials.com

 

[Rottie]

If you can't afford to go to graphic classes you can always go to any bookstore like Borders, Noble and Barnes store and they have a large collections of photoshop tutor books.