Graphics/Photoshop Reccomendations

[Lady Jedi]

I'm looking in to getting Photoshop or at least some form of graphics software, but I have a few questions.

 

1) What do you guys reccomend? Adobe Photoshop, Coral Photo Paint, Paint Shop Pro, etc.

 

2) What do you reccomend for photo processing software?

 

3) What digital cameras work the best with your preferred software?

[Boba Rhett]

Well, Photoshop is by far the best but it costs about 6 times what Paint Shop Pro does. What are you wanting to accomplish with the program? That will help us give you an idea of what program is best for you.

 

Most digital cameras come with their own software. I'd prefer to just have a usb drive for the flash cards and drag them directly into photoshop or whatever program you'd use.

[Lady Jedi]

Originally posted by Boba Rhett

Well, Photoshop is by far the best but it costs about 6 times what Paint Shop Pro does. What are you wanting to accomplish with the program? That will help us give you an idea of what program is best for you.

Well, my folks own a book distributing company, and my sister is taking a Web Page Designer program. So it would be used for web page design for the company site, as well as for brochures, press kits, company logos, etc. BTW what is the price range on these things.?

 

Most digital cameras come with their own software. I'd prefer to just have a usb drive for the flash cards and drag them directly into photoshop or whatever program you'd use.

Okay, thanks.

[Samuel Dravis]

Like Rhett says, Photoshop is $599; Paint Shop Pro 9 is only $99. I've never used PS, but PSP seems to work well. It apparently takes a bit more effort to get the same interesting effects as in Photoshop, but I've not really noticed it being especially hard to do.

 

You may be able to get an academic license for Photoshop. That'll bring its cost down to a more managable $250.

 

Photo processing? What do you mean by that? Red eye removal and the like? You can do that easily in both PS and PSP. I know that PSP has an image browser so you can see thumbnails of the images in a folder if you're searching for one - a very useful feature.

 

Preferred software = above, and either one can handle almost any image format you're likely to come across. Certainly whatever format that any digital camera will use.

 

 

 

EDIT - for web page design etc, you might wish to look at Macromedia Fireworks.

[lukeiamyourdad]

The Gimp: http://www.gimp.org/

 

If you're a cheapo like me

 

It's free but it does the job. Not as great as Adobe Photoshop does but it's alright.

[Lady Jedi]

Originally posted by Samuel Dravis

Like Rhett says, Photoshop is $599; Paint Shop Pro 9 is only $99. I've never used PS, but PSP seems to work well. It apparently takes a bit more effort to get the same interesting effects as in Photoshop, but I've not really noticed it being especially hard to do.

You may be able to get an academic license for Photoshop. That'll bring its cost down to a more managable $250.

Really? Interesting...

 

Photo processing? What do you mean by that? Red eye removal and the like? You can do that easily in both PS and PSP. I know that PSP has an image browser so you can see thumbnails of the images in a folder if you're searching for one - a very useful feature.

I don't know. My sis handed me a piece of paper with quesions on it and asked if I'd ask you guys. I'll have to ask her...

EDIT: Okay, she said, "Ya know. Photoshop or Paint Shop.That sort of thing." So, yeah, we'll go with that. Here's the three questions that she listed exactly: What vector graphics system/software do you reccomend? What photo processing software? and What digital cam?

Preferred software = above, and either one can handle almost any image format you're likely to come across. Certainly whatever format that any digital camera will use.

EDIT - for web page design etc, you might wish to look at Macromedia Fireworks.

 

Thanks!

[Pad]

I do my vectir drawing in Adobe Illustrator but I think Photoshop can do that aswell. I´m not sure as I haven´t used that option before.

 

What do you mean by photo processing software?

 

As for a digital cam, I have a Nikon Coolpix cam which does the thing I want it to do nicely. I like, it´s small and not that expensive.

[jon_hill987]

Well i use MGI Photosuite, It does the job, the only thing I don't like about it is it has no text tool. Dunno how much the latest version costs now though...

[Samuel Dravis]

Originally posted by Lady Jedi

What vector graphics system/software do you reccomend?

Fireworks is primarily for vector drawing, with an emphasis on web development. Photoshop is the more powerful tool, but you may want to seriously consider Fireworks.

 

It's price is $299 ($99 educational, though I doubt you'll qualify since it's for a commercial enterprise).

 

What do you mean by photo processing software?

Yeah. What exactly does your sister want to do with it?

[MTV2]

if its a web page, Dreamweaver, 1&1

Photos, Photoshop Elements, Photodeluxe(For Budget)Photoshop(For the best you can buy)

 

 

Or you can try a 30 Day trial of Photoshop, then a 30 day trial of Photoshop Elements, then a 30 day traio of Paint shop Pro.

[PR-0927]

Originally posted by lukeiamyourdad

The Gimp: http://www.gimp.org/

 

If you're a cheapo like me

 

It's free but it does the job. Not as great as Adobe Photoshop does but it's alright.

 

 

Word. Plus, they keep updating it to make it better...free!!

 

[Lady Jedi]

Fireworks is primarily for vector drawing, with an emphasis on web development. Photoshop is the more powerful tool, but you may want to seriously consider Fireworks.

Yes, she said that Fireworks was reccomended in her textbook, so that sounds good.

if its a web page, Dreamweaver, 1&1

Ya know, I think that she gets Dreamweaver as a part of the program. I'll have to ask her.

Yeah. What exactly does your sister want to do with it?

She says that she basically wants to be able to take any pic and change to the way she wants it to be, to fit whatever her needs are for the site, brochures, etc.

 

Well, you guys have been really helpful. I'll have my sister check it all out. Thanks a lot.

[Nalukai]

Originally posted by Boba Rhett

Well, Photoshop is by far the best but it costs about 6 times what Paint Shop Pro does.

 

.

 

its A LOT less than that if you know where and how to get it... ^^

[El Sitherino]

Originally posted by Nalukai

its A LOT less than that if you know where and how to get it... ^^

talk like that is not permitted. We know what you're implicating, and it's not appreciated here.

 

 

Anyway, if you can I'd go for Photoshop, but if you can't photoshop elements works just as well.

[Nokill]

its good that i work whit the stuf its pretty expencife but gimps is also a good alternative same options only some harder to find

[edlib]

I'm a Paint Shop Pro guy. I've been using it for years, and it does 95% of what the latest version of Photoshop does for a fraction of the price. I happen to like owning legal, licenced versions of my software, thankyouverymuch.

 

Most typical users won't ever use all the features that PSP can do, let alone everything PS can do.

 

Still... it hard to beat the GIMP on price.

I have that on a spare PC I have that I installed Linux on, and it seems really capable.

[MTV2]

i have a Light Edition of Photoshop 5 so i dont need anything else...

 

 

 

what about Adobe PhotoDeluxe? i have that too, its alright

[toms]

Photoshop is an incredibly powerful peice of software... but to be honest, even top class graphic designers probably only regularly use about 30% of its features.

 

It would probably be overkill for a small business, and definately takes a while to learn, and a lot longer to master all its intricasies.

 

I haven't used PSP in a while, but each version seems to add old photoshop features, so it must be pretty close to matching most of the common photoshop functionality by now.

 

Macromedia Fireworks is probably the best for producing images for the web (something photoshop isn't that great at, better for print imho).

For simple photo manipulation you may find some of the cut down photosuite ones to be more useful.

 

I'd start with a paint shop pro demo and see if it suits...

[GothiX]

I find PS to be highly efficient, and haven't ever really had the need for another program. *shrug*

[MTV2]

Originally posted by toms

Photoshop is an incredibly powerful peice of software... but to be honest, even top class graphic designers probably only regularly use about 30% of its features.

Matters what your doing though

 

 

so ya try some of the demos first

 

 

PS

PSP

Dreamweaver

Fireworks

w/e

[Lady Jedi]

Originally posted by MTV2

Matters what your doing though

so ya try some of the demos first

PS

PSP

Dreamweaver

Fireworks

w/e

Well, I was talking to my sister and it tuns out that Dreamweaver is included in the Web Page Design program. But what I want to know is this: What's the difference with Dreamweaver and Fireworks? On the link that Dravis left for Fireworks it said:

Images can be easily exported to Dreamweaver, Flash and third-party applications.

So would we need something in addition to DW for grapics manipulation and the like or does DW work for that too?

And I think that if Dreamweaver isn't entirely what she's wanting then I'll set her up with some trials. Thanks again.

[Samuel Dravis]

Originally posted by Lady Jedi

Well, I was talking to my sister and it tuns out that Dreamweaver is included in the Web Page Design program. But what I want to know is this: What's the difference with Dreamweaver and Fireworks? On the link that Dravis left for Fireworks it said: So would we need something in addition to DW for grapics manipulation and the like or does DW work for that too?

And I think that if Dreamweaver isn't entirely what she's wanting then I'll set her up with some trials. Thanks again.

Dreamweaver is for the actual HTML site itself, not graphics. Macromedia sells a lot of web specific design tools, all of which are integrated with one another if you have more than one installed. So there's menu options like 'Export to Fireworks' in Dreamweaver, and vice versa.

 

So -

 

Dreamweaver = page design/content. Cannot manipulate images.

Fireworks = Only for images, with exceptional ease to use in conjunction with Dreamweaver.

 

Hope that helps.

[Lady Jedi]

Originally posted by Samuel Dravis

Dreamweaver is for the actual HTML site itself, not graphics. Macromedia sells a lot of web specific design tools, all of which are integrated with one another if you have more than one installed. So there's menu options like 'Export to Fireworks' in Dreamweaver, and vice versa.

Well, since she's already got Dreamweaver, I think that Fireworks sounds like a pretty good choice.

 

So -

 

Dreamweaver = page design/content. Cannot manipulate images.

Fireworks = Only for images, with exceptional ease to use in conjunction with Dreamweaver.

 

Hope that helps.

Oh, it helps more than you know. Thank you all so so much. Now, who wants a dancing sheep?

 

 

:sheepdanc

[lassev]

Originally posted by toms

I haven't used PSP in a while, but each version seems to add old photoshop features, so it must be pretty close to matching most of the common photoshop functionality by now.

 

Don't be so arrogant. PS and PSP are two separate programs with much differences between them, right from some basic aspects of how things are handled. PS is not some figurehead that PSP is trying to follow. I think it has been TOO long since you used PSP...

 

Nevertheless, if money is no issue, PS should be the way to go. But of course for business solutions, like the idea of this thread is, you have to find the most effective tool available to perform the exact functions required - which does not necessarily mean the 1337357 tool available.

[edlib]

Hey now...

 

I recently upgraded from Paint Shop Pro 7 to 9,.. and I couldn't believe how much it resembled an older version of Photoshop (5.5) I used to use at work, and how little it looked like older versions of PSP i had used in the past. I think there is a definite attempt on JASCs part to follow Adobe's lead in several of the current features.

 

However... Photoshop is still intended for pro users, and PSP is meant for consumers. PSP has a lot more "friendly" features (like Tubes) meant for untrained casual users who are putting together personal webpages, or church bulletins or the like.

That doesn't mean it can't be a powerful tool in the right hands.