software

[Richard Hearing]

:)Iam cnsidering buying corel photoshopX2, which is on spiecal offer this month, or photoshop elements 7 what are the merits and ease of use in these programes I cannot afford photosop cs3 or lightroom but would welcome others comments

[DStanic]

Elements is a great program. It offers most of the features you would use in CS3 (which is an extremely powerful program) as well as some other useful features to make cards etc. Lightroom is what I use (which is a different concept then Elements, corel, or CS3) maybe download a trial version to try it out. I don't really read much about people using corel nowdays.

[Mturnbo]

Richard I'm sure you're talking about Corel Paint Shop X2 and not photoshop. Photoshop is an Adobe product. Not the same software at all. Elements is an Adobe product and is excellent for getting into Photoshop like work without having to buy the "Big Daddy" Photoshop CS4.

[DunnoWhen]

Before spending your money, take a look at the Gimp (http://www.gimp.org/).

This is an OpenSource application (hence free) and has a lot of the same sort of functionality as photoshop.

Search the forum as there are many posts about the gimp.

[hollis_f]

:)Iam cnsidering buying corel photoshopX2, which is on spiecal offer this month, or photoshop elements 7 what are the merits and ease of use in these programes I cannot afford photosop cs3 or lightroom but would welcome others comments

Both of these have free trial versions. Download one and spend a week playing with it, then try the other.

[nphsbuckeye]

Before spending your money, take a look at the Gimp (http://www.gimp.org/).

This is an OpenSource application (hence free) and has a lot of the same sort of functionality as photoshop.

Search the forum as there are many posts about the gimp.
Isn't gimp pretty hard to learn, especially the UI, and one has to get a few plug-ins for it? Making it harder for a newbie? I've never used it myself, just have heard stories...

[number six]

:)Iam cnsidering buying corel photoshopX2, which is on spiecal offer this month, or photoshop elements 7 what are the merits and ease of use in these programes I cannot afford photosop cs3 or lightroom but would welcome others comments

That'd be Paint Shop Pro X2. It's very capable, with most of the functions and look/feel of CS3. In fact, CS3 tutorials often apply step-for-step with PSP. As with CS3, there are lots of functions and techniques and it'll take some time to get fully up to speed. But it's worth the effort.

I use PSP XI. X2 has a couple more features such as HDR.

I'm quite satisfied with PSP.

-js

[Richard Hearing]

well I have downloaded the trail version of Corel paint shopX2 the recieved an e-mail offer from corel to buy X2 for £29.00 with tax and shipping costs a total cost of £38.00 which is about a £10.00 saving so that's what I have done thankyou to all of you

[number six]

Wow. That's a deal.

You'll find it very capable. Give a shout if you have questions...

-js

[john-in-japan]

Bought the X2, having a hard time installing. Will this install on a quad core CPU?
Tried twice. Gets most of the way through, installs the desktop icon and shows it installed in programs. Yet, never gets to trhe 'finished' box to click. Just displays the hourglass...forever. Will not open and will not uninstall. Am I doing something wrong?
John

[DunnoWhen]

.... Gets most of the way through, installs the desktop icon and shows it installed in programs. Yet, never gets to trhe 'finished' box to click. Just displays the hourglass...forever.
John

Every once in a while, I have done installs where a dialog box has been opened which awaits a response yet said dialog has been hidden behind the install window. Might this be happening to you?

[KarlosDaJackal]

I use open source software most of the time.

UFRaw for converting RAWs and pushing them into GIMP, GIMP for all its editing power, and any plugins i need i get from registry.gimp.org. I also use Inkscape for my vector graphics (logos)

Gimp is pretty easy to learn, the only people who don't like the UI are people who are used to the Photoshop UI. For what its worth I'm used to the Gimp UI and I really dislike the Photoshop UI. I've also have Adobe Elements 6 (provided free via my job), and find it nowhere near as flexibe as GIMP 2.6. GIMP also has its own goals as a program, its not designed to be a "free photoshop clone". If you want to know what its about and what it can do have a look here >> http://www.gimp.org/about/introduction.html

You can download GIMP from http://www.gimp.org/
UFRaw plugin (for GIMP and standalone) http://ufraw.sourceforge.net/Install.html the link is half way down that page
Gimp plugins http://registry.gimp.org and google are your friends
inkscape http://www.inkscape.org

[nphsbuckeye]

I use open source software most of the time.

UFRaw for converting RAWs and pushing them into GIMP, GIMP for all its editing power, and any plugins i need i get from registry.gimp.org. I also use Inkscape for my vector graphics (logos)

Gimp is pretty easy to learn, the only people who don't like the UI are people who are used to the Photoshop UI. For what its worth I'm used to the Gimp UI and I really dislike the Photoshop UI. I've also have Adobe Elements 6 (provided free via my job), and find it nowhere near as flexibe as GIMP 2.6. GIMP also has its own goals as a program, its not designed to be a "free photoshop clone". If you want to know what its about and what it can do have a look here >> http://www.gimp.org/about/introduction.html

You can download GIMP from http://www.gimp.org/
UFRaw plugin (for GIMP and standalone) http://ufraw.sourceforge.net/Install.html the link is half way down that page
Gimp plugins http://registry.gimp.org and google are your friends
inkscape http://www.inkscape.org
The only people that don't PS's UI are those used to Gimp's.:)

If you don't like one of the default UI's, you can make your own - Adobe products are very flexible in that sense.

Although officially Gimp isn't a PS close, most people view it as such, and as such, comparisons get drawn between them.

[KarlosDaJackal]

The only people that don't PS's UI are those used to Gimp's.:)

If you don't like one of the default UI's, you can make your own - Adobe products are very flexible in that sense.

Although officially Gimp isn't a PS close, most people view it as such, and as such, comparisons get drawn between them.

Well I know if I take any of 5 major image editors, with 5 people skilled with those individual tools and give them a job, they will all be able to achieve pretty much anything you ask them for.

These days the user is usually the limiting factor when it comes to the results for any Image editor application.

[nphsbuckeye]

Well I know if I take any of 5 major image editors, with 5 people skilled with those individual tools and give them a job, they will all be able to achieve pretty much anything you ask them for.

These days the user is usually the limiting factor when it comes to the results for any Image editor application.
Usually. Except for some programs, if it isn't on that program, it doesn't exist.