GIMP

Fireworks is now owned by Adobe and it will either be bundled as a lightwieght web graphics editor with Dreamweaver or just killed to stop a competing product with Photoshop.

That being said, Photoshop is gold to me, but I use it on an ongoing basis professionally, and I don't have to pay for it.

Twiggy, don't go recommending cracks. Not only are they illegal, they're also explicitly against Astahost rules. Besides, cracks are just an excuse for hackers to get their malware (virii, trojans, spyware, etc.) into our computers. Avoid at all cost. =^^=


What, you mean you just skipped over my list? =^^=

Of course, it's true that the three you've mentioned are the best of the lot. GIMP, as you've noted, isn't exactly like Photoshop. It has a steeper learning curve, for one thing, and fewer filters, but you can achieve practically the same results with GIMP that you could with Photoshop. All it takes is just a little more work.

I've always found it best to use several similar programs when it comes to developing something. My graphics, for instance, usually requires that I use 3 different programs: Photoshop, GIMP, and Illustrator. Each program has it's own feature that adds a little something to the project and makes for a great end result. If you want to go completely freeware, then there's no reason you couldn't have GIMP, PhotoPlus, and Paint.Net (the top 3 freeware image editors) installed on the same machine.

If you want to mix in some cheap but good quality commercial image editors, then there's no reason not to go with Corel Paint Shop Pro. I know, I know, I'm contradicting my first post. I admit I'm rather biased against the program, but I've heard some very reputable reviews that Paint Shop Pro X has come a long way from its predecessors. According to the reviews, it's now much closer to Photoshop (the industry standard) in terms of quality, but is much, much cheaper. Get that and GIMP, and it'll almost be as if you have Photoshop. Well, almost. =^^=

I got a Photoshop 7 from my sister and I love it. Never used GIMP though I've thought about it when I couldn't find my copy of photoshop. I can't compare the two, but have heard alot of good things about GIMP. But I don't think I would want to use anything other than Photoshop, I'm so used to it. Actually, I'm still getting used to all the features it has to offer. But I'm glad I didn't have to pay for it, I hear it's very expensive, just means I cant register it.

there's no program out that will match photoshop for free... however there are plenty out that may accomplish what you want to do for free... or at least for a trial period... which kinda sucks since you'll need it sooner or later again right? Time to dish out the cash I guess, depends on you

Sorry to hear about that, something similar happened to me a while ago.

To my knowledge theres no free program that can really be comparable to Photoshop. What I would recommend you do is have a look at Photoshop Elements ( < $100 on Amazon.com.) Its like a lite version of Photoshop more or less. Anyway read up about it since I dont really know the full details. Other than that I would have a look at Macromedia Fireworks and Paintshop Pro. Hope this helped

This post has been edited by Celt: May 14 2006, 04:49 AM

The Gimp is comparable to photoshop ^^
it just lacks one or two things but for a free program it's worth it. When you think about photoshop being like a thousand bucks it's a rip off!! i have it but using gimp for alot of things.

I personaly like Gimp. I use it on Linux.

I don't think GIMP quite compares to photoshop. Photoshop is simply an incredibly complex and powerful program, and you notice it when you have to pay for it. i think it's overpriced, at least for home use they should knock a good 400 or 500 off the price, that would make it a more viable option, and if they want to go on charging companies and design studios 800 or 1000 or more, well then that would be reasonable.
though if you CAN afford it, i would recommend it. Here's another idea: keep using the trial version, and just go through the registry every month and change the date so that it thinks you're only on the first day of your trial. I don't think THAT is illegal, is it? Maybe a gray area, but not banned.

Photoshop is a very powerful tool. The only problem i have with it, is how it renders text. The AA imlpements they added helps a bit, but Illustrator has great rendering due to its vector base. I also use Fireworks MX, hit has the ability to work with animated Gifs and visually help you compress images. I mainly use it to compress my images i need for web use. Lots of option to lower file size and visually give you an idea on when it will look like before exporting it.

GIMP is the only free graphics design sofware that I know of,which will compare to Adobe Photoshop.GIMP can't beat Adobe Photoshop but is well worth getting,though it does clutter your desktop alot...