I only were using trial versions of Photoshop and before that I used different image editors and all I can say that if you just need to manipulate simple graphics and you won't get a lot of money from your work with Photoshop, I doubt you need to pay over 100 dollars for such a software if you're not even planning to use all the features of the software.. I then found Gimp, free, open-source image editor on Linux, later I found that it is also available for Windows, the user interface really was annoying, I used it and closed it, didn't like it, but with time using Gimp I got used to the simple interface, but there were much more tutorials and similar things on the web for Photoshop, but now, there are plenty of tutorials how to do that and that, how to get some-kind of result and there are plenty of people using Gimp who can help you and give you some support on IRC #gimp channels, on different forums.. So I am staying with Gimp, but if I had the money I could also buy Photoshop, but maybe not, due to I think I wouldn't even use it.. As I know to Gimpshop is available, which has an interface similar to Photoshop for easier migrating to GIMP and Gimp has an extra animation package with which you can easily create animations, besides if you know some scripting languages like python, Perl you can write yourself anything you like, if you ever played with Autocad, then it would be something similar to scripting with LISP for Autocad, as I remember it is called AutoLisp and you can write yourself a lot, Gimp has Script-fu from which you can call external programs and etc. If you would ever plan to do something professional with Gimp it really gives enormous capabilities, I bet Photoshop has a lot of features too and can do even more, but GIMP is simple and doesn't take much space or resources and is developed/maintained by a community by simple and smart people, which doesn't want to get millions out of their work.
Another example would be Blender and/or 3DsMax? One free and open-source and much lighter, another costs lots of money and uses lots of space and resources, even though if you want to professionally use Blender then you need a lot of extra things too, but this is another topic.

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)