which one is affordable yet decent enough to use mainly for creating wallpaper, banners and such?

Gimp and Gimpshop are good. Best of all, they're FREE!

where can you get that?

Yes, I have been using GIMP and I already forgot all about Photoshop.

Hmm I don't know abt Gimp but I'm using CS2 and I'm totally love it. But since they said Gimp is free maybe you can try it

Gimp is the best free image application. Also give Google Picaso a go, it's free also.

If you want to invest money in a good program then maybe Paint Shop Pro X2, it's $89.99 from the developers website. In the past Paint Shop Pro was the cheap option to Photoshop.

Also Adobe Photoshop Elements 7, you can get it for slightly over $100 from Amazon. It's a cut down version of Photoshop aimed at the average home user and if you can't afford Photoshop then Photoshop Elements is a great alternative.

If you want to buy either Photoshop Elements or Paintshop Pro but want to save money, then buy the older versions from Amazon because they would be cheaper! They wouldn't be as good as the newer versions, but you get what you pay for.

Also you should download trial versions and see which ones you like or don't like before investing money into a software.

Gimp is a free copy-cat of photoshop. It's UI is very similar and it can do just about anything photoshop can do.

my best recomendation is CS2, i am recently using this one, this one is complete. i love it and the brushes, gradient, style some people make it in CS2, before i am using CS2 i am using CS3 and Photoshop 7 all my brushes i download is not compatible with CS 3 & 7. you can search in google for the brushes, the CS2 program is all in google.

I agree. Photoshop CS2 can do pretty much everything. And it also comes with ImageReady.
Which I think is perfect to any graphic lover

Adobe CS2 may be great and stuff but it costs A LOT!!!!!!! LOTS and lots of money. You probably don't want to spend that much money on a software.

^ theres places where you can download photoshop cs2 for free.. not legally but its free.

I only know a site that can download Adobe CS2 for free but it's only for trial
period (30 days)

i dun mind, as long as i can use it for around a week or so.

if you're doing banners, i'd recommend illustrator rather than PS

As mentioned, GIMP/GIMPshop are probably the best free replacements for photoshop. You can get it here:
GIMP.org
GIMPshop.com

GIMPshop is the same as regular GIMP but the interface is made to look exactly like photoshop. That means that you could follow photoshop tutorials.


There's also Paint.net, another free program. I've heard it's a really good program. I've tried it, but I'm just so much more use to GIMP. You can get it here:
GetPaint.net

We are NOT allowed to DISTRIBUTE CS3 illegally.


Anyways, you can ALWAYS use "PhotoPlus 6.0" is a FREE program that i used to use... and it's really easy COMPARED to CS3. You can usually make graphics as well as make animations, but it's NOT that advanced, i guess compared to GIMP.


Um. everyone is making GIMP seem like a good program. I might have to try it one day! thanks everyone for the suggestion!

Adobe photoshop for the win. adobe 8 is still better than gimp. Just get 7 or 8. Forget the new adobe photoshops. IT's just 1.5gb of bloatware. Unless you got to do easy 3d rendering. If doing 3d modeling cinema 4d all the way.

GIMP and Paint.net are really good photo editing software and it is free. Very good program. Unfortuanlly, I have to use Adobe's overprice software for work.

i have photoshop cs4 and was experimenting its functionality and user-friendliness. I have to say, CS3 was much easier to operate but CS4 definitely have a lot of extra functions..(thats not as practical to most average user)

so as far as photoshopping versions, ranking order is 1. CS3 2. CS4 4. CS2 (CS2 and CS4 are pretty tied depending on you want functionality or easy to use)

i prefer photoshop, although it's quite hard to learn to use the results are amazing when you know what you're doing. i've heard good things about GIMP too but i've never heard of paintshop pro...

I use paint.net as alternative to PS.
Haven't tried GIMP yet but will give it a go in the future.

Cs2 the best, but i lost my code ):
and u can try photoscape.
its free

If you're doing vector graphics (banners) you might want to try Inkscape. Otherwise if you're just doing simpler tasks Paint.NET might be sufficient for your needs.

Photoshop CS2 is actually a great program but it is REALLY expensive. Before that I used CS and it was competent enough.. I find CS3 and CS4 basically the same as the older versions... they just have a lot of functions that aren't practical to the people who just want to edit their pictures or make graphics with it...

Photoshop CS2 i usually doing editing pictures but i never tried to do .gif format...

Hmm, I always thought photoshop would be better than GIMP, I've got GIMP right now. So it's practically the same then? Because I find GIMP very confusing to use so I thought maybe photoshop would be better. Ah well, I'll just stick with GIMP then..

I, personally, think Gimp is better than Photoshop [even if you have the money to buy photoshop]
cause photoshop's features have kinda a more 'hidden' feel to them. I mainly use Gimp 2 and Gimpshop and periodically go back to Photoshop and i still feel like Gimp pwns Photoshop.

I'm using PS CS2 myself. I did use PS 7 before...but I guess CS2's better? =P

Have you tried: www.pixlr.com ? It's a free web-based photo editing application, so there's nothing to download.

Using PS CS3 currently. No gif making tho >< Only in CS2. GIMP I don't really feel right while in in. First photoshopping program I used was PS CS2 =/

I've tried GIMP many times, and I just don't see how it even comes remotely close to what Photoshop can do. For a lower-cost alternative, buy an older version of Photoshop used from a site online.

sorry i dont know if this is where i should be asking, but...

would any of you happen to know where I can translate software into another language? I checked out some translation services and found one called ISP, -live urls are not allowed in your usergroup-
I dont know if this is the best service out there though. Can anybody else give me some advice? PLEASE!

google translater?