Alternatives to Photoshop

[Galactus]

For those of you that think $700 is too much to pay for a program, what program do you use instead of Photoshop. From looking around it seems the top alternatives everyone uses is the Gimp, Paint.Net, and Paint Shop Pro.

What I want to know is if Paint Shop Pro is better than the free versions. If it is not then what would be the point in using it. When I look at reviews I see the Gimp as the best but then I see other times that Paint.net is listed. So which of these is better?

 

[Australis]

Gimp is good, but the interface is a bugger to get used to, if yoú're new to these kinds of apps. If you've been using PS, not so hard but still different.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

I prefer Paint.Net to GIMP just because it had an easier interface (not quite a greater feature set from what I could see), and I was using it a lot when I found Paint Shop Pro 9 wasn't working very well in Vista.

 

[john titor]

As an aside I find the UI for Photoshop CS4 to be a distinct dis-improvement over earlier versions as its very clunky to navigated between menus.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Either GIMP or Paint.NET, for me.

If you do pixel-level editing, GraphicsGale is very good for that, although the free version kinda sucks.

 

[JustAFriend]

...you can also download Gimpshop, a free program that forces Gimp to look like Photoshop....

 

[Canadave]

I'd definitely recommend GIMP. As others have said, it's not quite as intuitive, but it can do 90-95% of what Photoshop can for a very reasonable price (in other words: for free).

Paint.NET is good and all, but it's really more of an improved version of Paint. It's good to have around for basic stuff (cropping, resizing and the like), but if you want to do any real graphics editing, then you've got to go with GIMP.

 

[Jadzia]

I'll be honest that I've never used photoshop. I have tried Gimp but found it very confusing, nor is it the fastest of applications. What I have used for a long time is PaintShopPro v6.x, which has most functions I need, and is pretty quick. I have not tried paint.net because I don't use vista for the required .net framework.

PSP allows me to work with advanced features like layers, alpha blending, and clone/effects tools. The only feature I feel I'm missing is tool to distort/reshape large areas of a photo, such as toning somebody's stomach. And a perspective adjustment tool.

How much more would photoshop offer me than what I'm using at the moment?

 

[Zulu Romeo]

PSP allows me to work with advanced features like layers, alpha blending, and clone/effects tools. The only feature I feel I'm missing is tool to distort/reshape large areas of a photo, such as toning somebody's stomach. And a perspective adjustment tool.

The latest version of PSP (PSP Photo X2) has exactly those features. Somewhere.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Don't know if it helps, but I bought PS-CS3 Extended a little over a year ago (maybe a little earlier than that), before CS4 came out. I only paid around $350 "student price". Got the full boxed version.

Might've been lower due to CS4 coming out, I'm not sure.

Found it HERE for $125. It says it's the full retail box. I'm sure there's a lot more places it can be found on the cheap, maybe even ebay.

 

[Brent]

I use Photoshop

 

[Galactus]

I guess the Gimp it is. I heard of Gimpshop but I heard it was bad and didn't work with the current version of Gimp 2.6 I think it is. I don't want to do anything too major just minor tweaks and such. Photoshop is like the Windows of image editing. Everyone only uses it. Like there is nothing that even comes close.

I thought about getting CS2 but then folks started telling me Elements 7 was better and cheaper. So that got me back to the Gimp since it is free and a lot of people say it is on par with Photoshop what could be better. I took a quick look at Paint.NEt and don't think I can work with that. So I guess it is time to learn Gimp and maybe give Gimpshop a try. Besides the best thing is that it works on linux which I will be moving to next year if I can figure Ubuntu out.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

GIMP is great. Like any complex application, you just have to learn it. Nobody is born knowing how to use Photoshop, after all.