Just spent an hour installing Photoshop CS3 :-<

[OwlHoot]

.. Inkscape works for me.

Yes, I've used Inkscape a lot. I'd be happier if you could control the SVG XML format a bit more, although clearly there are limits to that.

I'd also be much happier if one could work with native SVG coordinates (Y downward) and use "raw" SVG mode without it adding a load of crud to the SVG file.

P.S. I just checked, and VectorEye isn't free any more. But for what it does, $119 is pretty good value.

[bogeyman]

VectorEye (free) is also good at that.

Looks interesting that.

Thanks OH.

[OwlHoot]

.. Likewise I can drag and drop a bitmap image into Illustrator and it will trace it into a vector object. What more could you want?

VectorEye (free) is also good at that.

[bogeyman]

Can`t stand bitmap editors, you can never select the object you want to edit,move, etc. Inkscape works for me.

That'll be because a bunch of pixels is not an object.

PS offers plenty of tool options to select regions of pixels however.

Also, PS is not just a bitmap editor. It has vector objects and 'smart' objects so best of both worlds. I can drag a complex vector drawing from Illustrator into a PS window/layer and the vector drawing stays intact (in CS3).

Likewise I can drag and drop a bitmap image into Illustrator and it will trace it into a vector object. What more could you want?

[bogeyman]

I've got V7 of PSP, which does everything I've ever wanted IIRC. What's in PS that is not in PSP and that one might want? Might have to watch out not to upgrade to V8 if it has gone downhill.

I've had huge time-wasting sessions with GIMP trying to do the most basic things. Once I was trying to figure out how to draw a circle or something simple and spent maybe an hour trying to figure it out. I think the answer was it's not easy.

Well PSP V8 came out about 5 years ago

Photoshop does much, much more than PSP. It's a professional tool, not just for twiddling with photos, but for creating commercial artwork for print.

PSP's support for CMYK colour management (essential for print) is patchy at best. It's also buggy as hell when it comes to sizing images for print, where you need total accuracy.

For web stuff PSP (pre-V8) is generally fine, although its gradient effects are neither as smooth or controllable as Photoshop's.

[dinker]

Can`t stand bitmap editors, you can never select the object you want to edit,move, etc. Inkscape works for me.

[TimberWolf]

You can't really compare Paint Shop Pro to PS. Considering everything PS does (and does exceptionally well) it's not that bloated. It needs a fairly pokey machine but it's worth it.

Paint Shop pro used to be a nice little application up until V7. Bitmap and vector graphics all in one easy to use package. Then V8 came along with added bloat and noddy features nobody wanted. Then Corel bought and every release has been bigger, more bloated and useless.

I just can't even stand to launch Gimp. It sucks so badly it makes baby Jesus cry.

I've got V7 of PSP, which does everything I've ever wanted IIRC. What's in PS that is not in PSP and that one might want? Might have to watch out not to upgrade to V8 if it has gone downhill.

I've had huge time-wasting sessions with GIMP trying to do the most basic things. Once I was trying to figure out how to draw a circle or something simple and spent maybe an hour trying to figure it out. I think the answer was it's not easy.

[Spacecadet]

Wow! You can't use many PSP features

Agreed

For basic picture editing, which is all i need and do, paint.net does the trick

[bogeyman]

i use paint.net

i think there is only a couple of paintshop features not in paint.net which i actually miss.

Wow! You can't use many PSP features

[Spacecadet]

i use paint.net

i think there is only a couple of paintshop features not in paint.net which i actually miss.

[bogeyman]

I use Paint Shop Pro, which does everything I need. Or if I'm in Linux, I'll have a go with GIMP and decide whether the time spent figuring out how to do stuff in GIMP would be better spent just rebooting into Windows.

I avoid RealPlayer for much the same reasons as you give for photoshop, and that's 'free'.

You can't really compare Paint Shop Pro to PS. Considering everything PS does (and does exceptionally well) it's not that bloated. It needs a fairly pokey machine but it's worth it.

Paint Shop pro used to be a nice little application up until V7. Bitmap and vector graphics all in one easy to use package. Then V8 came along with added bloat and noddy features nobody wanted. Then Corel bought and every release has been bigger, more bloated and useless.

I just can't even stand to launch Gimp. It sucks so badly it makes baby Jesus cry.

[VectraMan]

Bonjour is Apple's open source implementation of zero-configuration networking software.

Should have guessed. Steve Jobs at work again.

[TimberWolf]

I use Paint Shop Pro, which does everything I need. Or if I'm in Linux, I'll have a go with GIMP and decide whether the time spent figuring out how to do stuff in GIMP would be better spent just rebooting into Windows.

I avoid RealPlayer for much the same reasons as you give for photoshop, and that's 'free'.

[OwlHoot]

Maybe this belongs in the techie section, but in case anyone needs to install Adobe Photoshop CS3 on Windows it's worth knowing that this needs what looks like a vicious piece of malware called Bonjour Service

The first time I ran the install, my firewall popped up a flurry of prompts saying this service was trying to act as a server to accept incoming connections. HUH?!

Naturally I refused, but then the installation failed, and since this is vast and takes almost as long as Windows to install I wasted over an hour. More like two.

Why does every thick little commercial program like Photoshop, and Nero, even Symantec Ghost, have to morph over time into a vast piece of over-engineered bells and whistles belaboured bloatware that tries to take over the PC?


OH in Wilmslow mode

P.S. There's some info about Bonjour as it relates to Adobe here

P.P.S Anyone have a product key for Photoshop?