The closest thing to a free powerful graphics editor is either pain.NET or The GIMP.

The GIMP
- very unstable and not suggested for anyone who wants a stable envirnoment.
- if you can cope with the numerous errors, then the plugins can prove very valuable
- is as strong as Photoshop and alike when it comes to the actual editing

paint.NET
- very stable
- can be seen as the bridge between paint and PSP or Photoshop.
- Only has limited features
- little or no plugins yet available

Verdict: paint.NET for easy use
The GIMP for advanced graphical manipulation / creation

However, if you prefer old style pixelated images, then why not use manual hard labour with paint.


--mik

nah man
i think i am good
with ma photoshop, psp and fireworks
but thanx anyways
accorfing to u they mite be actually good sites

Ive not used the Gimp - it seems a shame about the errors you are reporting as I always believed it was a fairly widely used application - not usual with something that keeps crashing! Anyone else have this issue with the Gimp - think I will have to give it a trial and see.

Dan

i have been using gimp for 5 years on linux as well as windows and little problems with it. it is not a good as the latest photoshop, but gets the job done. that and it cannot read some jpegs from some digital cameras.

Ok first of all Gimp is not that unstable ive had it for a month and nothing has happend. Also a new version has just been released someting like Gimp 2.6.9 or something like that which has got rid of any errors on the scripts(which there was few of)
So if you are looking for a free one dont use paint it just dosnt loook as good as something produced on gimp and also gimp has 1000's of brushes to use!!

in a matter of fact, Gimp has some bugs, but usually bugs appear due to the gtk engine, but I have problems with the gimp on linux too, sometimes it just quits, but not often. So what just restart the software..

Try PhotoFiltre. Link: http://www.snapfiles.com/get/photofiltre.html

Recentlly I have been using Pixia.
It does not have much control over the media when compared to GIMP or Paint - much like the real art media. That is what gives it the reality factor, at which I am good at when compared with CG.

Thanks for the share, i just install it and test it, and I think that there exists a lot of tools like this one, but in my opinion this cool software is very simple, come with all the basic tools founded in every graphic design software -and expensive- and the difference is that it is very easy to use even for the people who are not designers like me.

Best regards,

For 908% of the work I do, GIMP can do it and sometimes it even does a better job than PS. (Okay, I have to admit, I'm still running on PS7 for Mac...I have no need to upgrade until I switch to Mactel)

That being said, that 2% is a major amount of my work. That's because I rely on a couple Photoshop Plug-ins to generate textures and there is no other programs for mac that will do the same thing. Also, there is not any programs for Linux either nor equal plug-ins for the GIMP. So I'm locked into using PS until my needs are met by another application. Considering PS now is only $150 for upgrades and the plug ins were $50....I'd need a new app that is less than that or so riduclusly superior for the added money that i was forced to use it.

So I'm stuck with PS, but for most every day users, GIMP will do everything they need and more. Plus I've found it to be pretty stable on the Mac. Sure it crashes, but no more or less than PS in my experience.