It depends on what you want to do. I use PhotoDraw 2, Photoshop 7, PhotoPro
2.0 (old), PictureIt 7, PhotoFiltre, Paint Shop Pro 6(old), Corel
Photo-Paint 10, the GIMP, Image Composer 1.5 (very old), and PhotoPlus 6.0 (old). All can do a respectable job of minor retouching, but it's hard to beat the Unsharp Mask tool and many of the above do not have it.

PhotoPlus 6 (free) works just like Photoshop--same concepts, same keyboard shortcuts--just less horsepower. I love it.

Another program worthy of honorable mention is Oriens Enhancer Gold. A piece of crap when it first came out, it is gradually becoming a good program, and it is still free. I like some of its effects.

For quick retouching, Photoshop and PhotoPro are about equal. PhotoPro's Fix Flaw tool is easier and more effective than Photoshop's cloning tools.

For heavy duty retouching, you usually can't beat the 800-pound gorilla, Photoshop itself.

Corel Photo-Paint 10 is in some ways superior to Photoshop (and in some ways worse). I use it mainly for its truly cool effects.

For batch retouching (crop a border off 100 photos), PictureIt does well.

For a tiny learning curve and excellent documentation, PhotoPlus 6 (they're up to Version 9 now) is hard to beat. They give you good deals if you act reluctant to buy or if you somehow score an older copy and qualify for an upgrade. www.serif.com nice folks too.

I use PSP 6 only for its paint tubes. Why bother with its complexity when I have Photoshop, and PSP is not simple like PictureIt or PhotoPro? PSP 8 trial didn't impress me.

PhotoFiltre (free) moved up in my eyes when I built a freeware-open source system, with Windows 2000 the only piece of paid software on it. (Linux, without the heartburn of Linux.) My first challenge was to crop and "de-blemish" an image using only free software. I chose PhotoFiltre, and the job was done in under a minute (Crop, Clone). PhotoFiltre is also part of a tiny freeware system that includes an excellent icon browser (Scrutico), a tool that adds an animated reflection to an image (Reflet), and a decent image viewer (Visioimg). It also has a ton of free downloads--tutorials, plugins and such. Part of the documentation is in French.

The GIMP has always been a challenge for me. I don't think like it does. But it has some cool filters and gradients.

PhotoDraw 2 remains my all-time favorite (blush) because it is so powerful and so easy to use. A power retouching tool it is not, but I defy you to name anything that can turn out original business graphics (usually incorporating clipart) any better or faster. It is also one of the better drawing tools (Edit Nodes, anyone?). I usually try to use it rather than Visio 2000. Anything (PhotoDraw) that comes on three CDs and is easy to use can't be all bad.

The only thing I use from Image Composer 1.5 is the clipart and the Impressionist plugin. Both are unique.

I'll close by mentioning CleanSkinFX, a freeware skin-smoother from www.mediachance.com . It does a nice job of smoothing the zits without being too obvious about it. The nice thing is you can zap every zit at once instead of one at a time. I know, Photoshop can do the same thing. But without a single mouse click?

I have some 30 other graphics programs and tools, but those are the highlights. I omitted the drawing programs, since this is an image editing group.

Have a nice day, y'all.

"You can never have too many graphics programs."--Walter Donavan, July 2004

"JP Kabala" wrote in message

Never buy anything having to do with graphics
from Microsoft. They have never, in the history
of the company, produced a graphic design or photo editing product that wasn't more trouble than it is worth.
Isn't it DIP that has no flood fill tool?

I use Photoshop and like it... but it is pricey and may be more horsepower than you need or want.
PSP is more powerful than Elements, and more versatile,
but if you are primarily a photographer, Elements
has a few nice features. I like PSP better-- but I'm
primarily an illustrator who takes photos sometimes.
And with PSP's power comes complexity.
There is a learning curve. Not as steep as Photoshop's
but not insignificant

Other apps to look at

--Corel Essentials-- similar price point to Elements and PSP --Ulead Photo Impact-- it's a little too cute for my taste, but some folks like it.

mark-wade

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