As you know i've just started playing around with graphic design. I've used gimp as a trail but i feel ready to upgrade. The question is what shall i get?

Please consider i am still a novice so anything too complicated would probably put me off and be laid to rest in my program files.

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Photoshop, Image Ready

Those aer hte most common ones

Well, photoshop is the "defacto" standard in raster image edition. The problem is, the darn thing is HUGELY expensive. It's power it's unique, but unless you're considering to do a career of it, I would not recommend photoshop as your next step. Go instead for Corel Paintshop Pro X, it's a very decent piece of software and very popular from his Jasc days, and with a much more accesible price.

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There are a lot of good programs out there. I've been a programmer in the graphics industry for a long time. When I started, I was with the only company that had a PC (i.e. non MAC) bitmap editing product, i.e ZSoft. Shortly after there were 2. Unfortunatly, the company I was with merged itself into oblivion. The other company merged itself into PhotoShop.
I.E. If you want to buy a quality image editing product...there is only one choice. Yea there are a lot of wannabe's out there but the defacto product is PS without a doubt.
Yea that is the rub. PS is not very intuative at all. I'll be honest, I spent 8 years writing graphics software and sometimes I have to do a web search to figure out how to do something in PS that would have been obvious in PhotoFinish (dead product I wrote).
Still PS is the only real player in the game. You either have to train yourself/learn to use it or go play somewhere else. The otehr problem is that is is not cheap....really not cheap.
That being said, if you can afford PS, you are a member of a great board with a lot of good people....We'll help you figure it out!
James

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I use Photoshop for 3 years now. I tihnk (for me) it's the best tool. I can work my layouts with ease, no matter how graphic loaded they are (and knowing myself, they are always VERY loaded )

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I started out with Image Compose (no longer in production). Like you I didn't know much about graphics. Since then I've used paint shop and photo shop. The ease of use would definately be paint shop. It's more user friendly. But if you are really going to to graphics I would get Adobe Elements and when you think you can go for upgrade to Photoshop. Either Elements or PaintShop Pro are good building tools.

i have tryed only photoshop and fireworks. fireworks i didn't liked much,maybe because i'm used to photoshop.
i have started with photoshop, and it was bit complicated to me(well, i my english knowledge then was 0 and i couldn't understand what the words mean without dictionary ). but since then i improved my english, and red a lot of tutorials, and i think photoshop is best for people who really want to be good in graphics(or any adobe products).
the problem of photoshop is price. i was lucky to get it from my school for free, but if u can't afford big price or don't have friends/school/work who have it i think paintshop will be good.

and if u choose photoshop, read tutorials, and u can always ask here any questions, as james said, enough people here can help

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Thanks everyone.

I think i might get photoshop. Can i have a photoshop trial first?

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sure you can
http://www.adobe.com/products/tryado...jsp#product=39

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Thanks.
I've just seen the price - $649 dollars? Jeez lol

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