Photoshop or Other Design Software

[MarkPearson]

Does anyone know how I can get my hands on copy of photoshop?

I have been told if i will need to be able to use photoshop, but I have never used it before....

I will only need to edit, resize, cut photo / logo images and edit, resize and reshape text / fonts

Anyone got any advice?

[Astaroth]

Photoshop can be bought from more or less any software retailers but it isnt cheap (£600 ish)

What are you intending to use it for? If it is simply for web publishing then I would say something like Macromedia Fireworks (£300) or even just JASC's Paint Shop Pro (£90) would be sufficient.

If it is for doing low amounts of photo editing you may be able to just use Photoshop Elements 4 (£60)

I personally would only recommend the full photoshop CS 2 if you were going to be using it heavily and wanting large print quality photos - other than users like this there are more economical and easier to learn packages on the market

[MarkPearson]

Cheers, I will check out Photoshop Elements, it is not for web publishing, its for editing images and creating simple text messages / images for my personalised rose business.

[TimL]

There's an opensource application called Gimp which apparently does everything Photoshop does and more - I've never used it but I know people who swear by it - worth checking out as it's free. You can get it at http://www.gimp.org.

Otherwise, Photoshop Elements should do the job. CS2 is amazing but probably a little heavy duty for your purposes!

[Eagle]

*
Why not the CorelDRAW Graphics Suite (http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Corel3/Products/Display&pfid=1047024307335&pid=1047022690654)?

Try it (http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Corel3/Trials/DownloadContainer)

Bitmap editing software, Leading Vector software and more for a fraction of the price of a single Adobe application. Imports/exports to and from Adobe apps too so why spend more?...

:)

[William Wilson]

There are easier software packages to use, CS2 is the choice of many photographers and designers but getting the best from it takes serious studying.

Elements is a cut down version of Photoshop with some excellent user friendly features that may suit your work, it is a stepping stone if CS2 is your preferred route.

[Fusionhost Group]

I cant remember but I think you can get a free trial of photoshop.

[JoyDivision]

I use Elements 3.0 and it has most the features of the full version, its actualy a very good piece of software, its not some mickey mouse home version as some people like to make out. Best of all its only £50.

I would say its fine more most web work. The only major feature missing is masking.

[EclipceCreate]

I've been using Photoshop more or less constantly for... about 8 years now I guess, since version 3. I can certainly agree that there's a steep learning curve, there are still features that I've never used nor understood, such as the different blending modes.

But if the Elements version is even a quarter as good as the full version, I'd recommend it! Also, bear in mind that it is possible to get second hand copies of Photoshop with licences on eBay for about 200 quid, I'd imagine you'd be able to get a legal copy of Elements off eBay for 20-30 quid?

Russ :)

[JoyDivision]

Well I am used to using using CS 2.0 from university and I have not found any major features missing from Elememts. However it dosn't have CMYK support which means it won't be much use for professional printers, but it does support web colours and RGB.

[MarkPearson]

Thanks all for your help