Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop Elements?

Which is best for creating graphics?

[sosidge]

Which of these two packages would be the best for creating web graphics? .gif logos and the like?

I'm currently using Serif Photo Plus 5 - acquired free on a cover disk - the graphic creation tools are very badly designed, and quite buggy. It's hard to create graphics, full stop, and if you manage it, they're very simple. Photo editing is better, but the pics always look a bit rough compared to Photoshopped pics I've seen elsewhere.

Paint Shop Pro seems to have the nod in this forum at present.

Which of these then? Or another stable package perhaps?

Thanks in advance.

[trillianjedi]

Which of these two packages would be the best for creating web graphics?

Personally, I'm a Photoshop freak. I couldn't live without easy to implement layers and paths. I have heard good things about PSP but I've always found the workspace a little un-intuative. That could be that I'm just used to PS though of course.

Remember, a good designer can create a good logo in MS Paint. The software itself won't design for you.

You have to choose depending on what features you want out of it. What kind of designs you do, and how you work.

TJ

[pmkpmk]

I'm using Photoshop for years, but with our own products we bundle PSP. PSP has become very powerful over the last couple of years and is a close rival to Photoshop. However, Photoshop is still unmatched when it comes to editing very large files - but that's not a criteria for webdesign.

As for Photoshop Elements: look and feel of the big PS, but much less features. For webdesign it should suffice.

May "feature-ranking" would be:

Photoshop: 100%
PSP: 95%
Photoshop Elements: 60%

I have in mind that PSP is very aggresively priced compared to PS. But I don't know the price relation compared to PS-Elements.

[Gert_Jan]

Take a look at Macromedia fireworks. (www.macromedia.com)

I lik it a lot more then photoshop. I think the interface is much more userer centered then PS. For the web fireworks is my choice. I must admit that when it comes to hardcore photo manipulation PS is probably a bit better.

[Gert_Jan]

Take a look at Macromedia fireworks. (www.macromedia.com)

I lik it a lot more then photoshop. I think the interface is much more userer centered then PS. For the web fireworks is my choice. I must admit that when it comes to hardcore photo manipulation PS is probably a bit better.

[Mardi_Gras]

I know there is a 60 day trial available for PSP. Why not try it out and see what you think?

[Eric_Jarvis]

If you are intending to learn to do top quality graphics then PhotoShop is the way to go. However, if like most of us, you are aiming merely for a moderately high standard then Paint Shop Pro is far easier to use and you probably won't ever find any advantage in using PhotoShop.

Fireworks is a fine package but doesn't suit the way everyone works. I hated using it since it simply doesn't suit my processes. Others love it. It's very much a case of suck it and see.

The Gimp is free and has many advocates.

[pmkpmk]

My impression of Fireworks is that it's rather a mee-too clone of Photoshop with no original features of its own. As far as I have heard, Macromedia is (or was) even in court with Adobe because of this.

I have only used it briefly and if you know your way around Photoshop, then Fireworks is pretty easy to use. Given such a similarity, I would tend towards the original.

PSP however has a lot of original features and is more trend-setting than Photoshop.

But as stated earlier: use the tryout of PSP and see if it works for you. There's also a 30-day eval of Macromedia Fireworks on their website. Adobe also offers a tryout, but the limitation with Adobe usually is that you can't SAVE files with the tryout.

In then end: use the one which gives you best economic value and is easiest to operate for you.