Low cost graphics program
I'm looking for a low cost graphics program to recommend to beginners. I've got the gimp listed, of course, but I want to put in some other alternatives in case people have problems with that.
I looked up Paint Shop Pro and was surprised to find out that a) it's now owned by Corel and b) they're marketing it as a photo editor. Is it still a useful solution for graphics??? That's too bad if they're going the photo editing route - one less affordable solution for budding web designers. It looks like a misrepresentation of the product to me but maybe they've changed it enough that it's not really a graphic design program aymore??? I guess I'll download the trial and find out.
I'm also downloading the Photoshop Elements trial to see what's up with that these days. I would like some free/shareware programs to recommend though.... ooh, I should suggest inkscape too. That will work for what they need.
I don't need anything super sophisticated - it doesn't need to do what photoshop/fireworks etc. can do. It just needs to make a basic graphic with some text on it that still looks good and exports nicely.
Busy posted this at 23:09 — 28th August 2006.
He has: 6,151 posts
Joined: May 2001
How much stuff does it need to do? Irfanview can do a bit, add text, merge images, colourise, blur ... and has some built in plugins with the option of more I believe
timjpriebe posted this at 12:40 — 29th August 2006.
He has: 2,667 posts
Joined: Dec 2004
Well, I was going to recommend Paint Shop Pro, but the version I last used is a couple of versions old. Be sure to let us know how the trial works out with that program, Megan. I've still been recommending it to clients, so if I should stop, I'd like to know.
Tim
http://www.tandswebdesign.com
Shirthead posted this at 12:47 — 29th August 2006.
He has: 58 posts
Joined: Jun 2006
Microsoft Expression Graphics engine is well worth a look. Bit strange to use (takes a bit of getting used to), but an interesting package.
It's in an extended trial at the moment - good for a few months free usage.
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Megan posted this at 12:59 — 29th August 2006.
She has: 11,421 posts
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Did it have a price on it yet? I'm guessing it would be below my "low cost" cut off ($100 US). I did download it at one time so I'll have to see if it still works.
The PSP trial download is being a real pain in the butt! First you have to register (grrrr), then the download wouldn't work because it's using some sort of active x control. Not even a message to say that I need to use a different browser (also rude), it just plain doesn't work. Bastards.
Megan
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Megan posted this at 14:26 — 29th August 2006.
She has: 11,421 posts
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Paint shop pro: basically, as before but they've piled on all this really basic help. This is so dumbed down that they must be assuming that their audience doesn't know how to use a computer (or, isn't able to think rationally, I don't know). As an example - when you first load the help panel there's a list of things you can do (mainly photo management stuff). If you click on "text and graphics" you get a list of options with subtitles. The subtitle under "add text" says "Add words to your photos". Really, how stupid are you that you need that explaination???
This is really disappointing because PSP could be a legitimate competitor for Photoshop. It's way too advanced to be marketed as a basic photo editing tool for dummies. And there are tons of those out there! Typical example of dumbing down for the mass market.
I did find quite a few usability problems when attempting to use this but all the features are there, and more. I would definitely recommend this to any web designer, beginner or not. It's a steal at $79.
Megan
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painperdu posted this at 15:43 — 29th August 2006.
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Joined: Aug 2006
I've used PSP since around version 5. It has been intuitive to use and comparativly cheap to purchase. It's still fairly cheap but I'm not sure if the UI is any better than pre-version 8. Photoshop may have a few more gadgets in its favor but for the price you won't miss these gadgets with PSP. It seems to me, however, that ever since Corel too over PSP the user community isn't as active as it once was. PSP used to have a very active user community.
For $79 -$100 I don't think there is a better choice for graphics (including photo work) than PSP.
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Megan posted this at 17:51 — 29th August 2006.
She has: 11,421 posts
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I can totally see how that happened. When you look at the new version it's quite obvious that they've abandoned the old PSP audience and are going after a completely new one (the photo editing masses).
Megan
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Roo posted this at 01:48 — 30th August 2006.
She has: 840 posts
Joined: Apr 1999
Probablly because with Photoshop's last two upgrades they really did a lot for photographers. Really the only thing that they did for graphic design was text on a path and the new warp feature. Since Paint Shop Pro and especially now that it's owned by Corel is tries to compete with Adobe, I would guess that's why.
Oh....and another low cost option is Ulead's PhotoImpact. I haven't used this since version 5, and Adobe's Elements wasn't out at that time, but if I had to recommend to people I'd do it this way:
Serif produts are quite simple but quite good...you also have Arcsoft products (seems like every camera/scanner/printer comes with something by Arcsoft)
Roo
Megan posted this at 12:53 — 30th August 2006.
She has: 11,421 posts
Joined: Jun 1999
That's not really what I meant. I was talking about the masses - you know, the people who just bought a digital camera and want to remove red eye and stuff. PSP has a lot of advanced photo editing features (among other things) that these people don't need. It's a huge misrepresentation to market it as a beginner tool because it's not. When you look at the webiste and the program itself it's quite obvious that it's not trying to compete with Photoshop proper - more like with Photoshop Elements.
I've tested all of those and would recommend them quite differently! Mine would be:
Actually, it's not really fair to rank them because they all have very different strengths and weaknesses. It depends what you want to do. I am working on writing up an extensive comparison chart of the four low cost options.
The (IMO) most important thing that Photoshop has that I haven't found in any of the others is layer effects. Are they worth $500??? I'm not so sure... Actually, I'd recommend Photoshop v. 5.5 above PSP if you could get it. I can't remember when they introduced layer effects though...
These are vector tools and aren't really comparable IMO. Illustrator is in a completely different league, but, again, most people don't need that level of functionality. Inkscape is a good alternative for people who just need to do a few things.
To cover all graphic design programs, Fireworks and Expression Graphic Designer should also be included. These are hybrid raster/vector programs that do both adequately but neither really well. I'd only recommend them if you wanted to pay money for a second piece of software. Fireworks is useful for some types of web graphics (but not for a lot of photo editing).
I agree about the lightweight. Most of the graphics work I do now consists of things like cropping and resizing and a few minor alterations - photoshop is way too resource intensive to bother with. I tried that colour mixer thing in PSP and although I thought it was kind of cool, I wasn't sure it would be that useful.
Megan
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Greg K posted this at 15:36 — 30th August 2006.
He has: 2,145 posts
Joined: Nov 2003
Here's my 2cents worth, and if you have a coupon, you can get it for only a penny if you call in the next ten minutes! LOL
I started with PaintShop Pro back in 1996 when I first started using the internet and making pages.
I had a freind who used Corel Draw and knew it well, so I started using version 6, after about 20 hours of downloading it from the newsgroups on a 14.4 modem... Yes Bad. BUT I loved it so much that 2 months later I BOUGHT version 7. I mainly used that (Corel PhotoPaint which is in the suit) for web images. When I went back to college, I was able to get version 10 for student price so I got it. However, like many large suites, it got so bloated that it took forever to load.
I had heard many recomendations for Smart Saver Pro from Ulead. They were just about to come out with version 7 of Photo Impact, so they were selling the boxed version of 6 at discount, which qualified me for the upgrade price of SSP. Together the PI discount price, and the upgrade price of SSP, I got them both for only $10 more than buying the full version os SSP. Well I gave PI a try, and to my surpise it was much faster than Corel PhotoPaint. So I started learning it.
Later I bought the Macromedia Studio, and started learning fireworks. I switched to using this for advanced editing instead of Corel, but still used PI for quick things. I now have a faster laptop, and have upgraded to CorelDraw 12 and PI 10. However, again, with growath ome bloating...... Fireworks or PhotoPaint open just as fast so I use those once again.
But PhotoImpact is pretty nice for under $100 compared to $400 for the full Corel Draw suite, or fireworks for $300. Another thing to look for, software that is one version old (usually only found in full boxed versions). Ie. Corel Draw 12 you can get at buycom for $179 with free shippin compared to the current version for $400. For someone starting out, I doubt they would really find $220 worth of new features. Photoshop Elements 2.0 is only $25 online.
As for whats up with PSP, I imagine as the CorelDraw suite is Corel's big graphics program, with Draw for vectored/publishing and PhotoPaint for Bitmapped images, they would rather you buy that as a full graphics application than PSP, which could be why they market it as a photo editor now.
-Greg
Megan posted this at 19:40 — 30th August 2006.
She has: 11,421 posts
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Hmmm.... that makes a little more sense. But then, PSP had a larger user base than PhotoPaint ever did so why not just ditch photo paint? I've downloaded a trial version of that to check out. See how it stacks up on my comparison chart
I don't ever recall hearing about anyone actually using PhotoPaint....
I'm with you on the old versions! Photoshop 5.5 is a good program - all the key features, not so much of of the bloat. My opinion is that in general people pay a lot of money for software features they'll never use. There would be a great market for "lite" versions of popular software with better usability and less bloat.
Megan
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Greg K posted this at 20:02 — 30th August 2006.
He has: 2,145 posts
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Well you have to remember, PhotoPaint is tied into the suite, where as PSP is a standalone app. It is to easier inport/export to/from corel draw. I'm not sure about PSP, but corel draw from what I remember (haven't messed with the feature since version 7) will use just about any plugin that photoshop can use, it is (or was) the closest compettion to Adobe Photoshop as far as how complex and the features. Who knows where it stacks up now. Corel has a serious marketing problem IMO. Look how many people say "what's word perfect"? (I still prefer this over Word).
Even though I have a full copy of PhotoImpact 10, I'm seriously thinking of uninstalling it and reinstalling version 6. I couldn't find my cd for version 6 at the time, and with a sale they had, the full copy was only $10 more than the upgrade, so I paid the $10. (plus the upgrade actaully requires the older copy to be installed, which sucks. Why load up my system with a program just to uninstall right away after insalling upgrade. but looks like i'm gonna do that reverse now.
-Greg
Megan posted this at 20:18 — 30th August 2006.
She has: 11,421 posts
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Wait, wait, wait - isn't Corel Draw a vector program???? I'm seriously confused now! I guess that's another marketing problem if they've changed it to raster and people still think it's a vector program! Or do you mean that PhotoPaint was most comparable to Photoshop? That would make more sense.
Megan
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Greg K posted this at 20:48 — 30th August 2006.
He has: 2,145 posts
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That was a typo on my part, I ment that PhotoPaint can use the plug-ins. Corel Draw *is* vector based like Illustrator. Photopaint is raster like Photoshop. Sorry about the confusion.
-Greg
lumi posted this at 01:57 — 6th September 2006.
He has: 20 posts
Joined: Aug 2006
for normal pictures is PSP more than enough. Illistrator, PS etc are all too expensive and to high developed for such simple tasks. i use PSP 5 since some years and it's enough for the most of my needs, even to make animated GIF with the bundled Animation Shop.
lumi
demonhale posted this at 01:53 — 30th August 2006.
He has: 3,278 posts
Joined: May 2005
I noticed this too, but so far I think two versions of PSP are the most useful... PSP7 is fast and you can get what you need from photoshop in this version... I cant reiterate the importance of fast and lightweight footprint of PSP7... While on PSP9 although a bit heavier, the coolest thing I find in this version is the smart tool layout, and the color palette that you can mix color in just like a paint, you can make great paintings that really look like its painted by hands...
Todmeister posted this at 05:14 — 30th August 2006.
He has: 19 posts
Joined: Aug 2006
I've been using PSP for a few version, presently PSP7; is very user friendly.
The quality's not as clean as APS, but better choice for beginners.
As demonhale stated, it's fast & has what ya' need; 90% of the artwork
on my webpage was done with PSP.
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teammatt3 posted this at 02:46 — 31st August 2006.
He has: 2,102 posts
Joined: Sep 2003
Isn't ImageReady free? When you download the trial of PhotoShop, PhotoShop expires in 30 days, but you can still run ImageReady. I don't know if it was meant to be that way, but that's what I'm doing. It's almost as good as PS but it's free. My sister is a wedding photographer so if I do need to use PS I just use her laptop.
photoshop250 posted this at 07:37 — 31st August 2006.
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I would recommend using GIMP if you are on a tight budget its just as good as alot of the more expensive programs out there.
Megan posted this at 15:08 — 31st August 2006.
She has: 11,421 posts
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Corel PhotoPaint: this isn't "low cost" but after the above discussion with Greg I decided to check it out. This is a good program. There are some weird usability issues but partly because they do some things very differently and not necessarily in a bad way. There are no selections - they work as masks. Layers are called "objects" (I was starting to freak because I couldn't find the layers palette. What??? They don't have layers??? They do, they're just called Objects). Some tools in here have more options than Photoshop. This isn't just another photoshop wannabe. They're totally doing their own thing here, which is good. Too bad about the bad marketing (and too bad it's only available on Windows).
Megan
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