Aye, I use Painter 5 and Photoshop 5. Photoshop 7 adds mainly vector graphics, but as I already have Illustrator 7 I have little need to upgrade, so far. Just bought the Flaming Pear plugins, and they are addictive! Tuttle, honestly get them BOTH if possible! Try Half-Price Books, if there are any in your area. You could probably buy both, legally even, for less than a hundred bucks! In fact, that's how I got into Bryce in the first place, I found Bryce 3D (It Moves!) and Poser 3 for about 50 bucks a piece! And the lady at the counter was nice enough to take my name and number, then she called me when someone brought in Photoshop, and then Painter! I also nailed Illustrator, Kai's Power Show, Kai's Photo Soap (nearly useless, but rookies will love it), Amorphium Pro, and Ray Dream Studio 5, all from the Tukwilla store! That was like three years ago, in the Golden Age of new software around these parts... If only I could have gotten a deal on my FIVE copies of Bryce 5! (cackles bitterly!) Painter paints like a dream, even with a mouse. Photoshop is without a doubt the most powerful software in it's genre, I mean there's a reason it's called PHOTOSHOP! Don't let the learning curves scare you, they work together very well... But alas, I know nothing about tablets. They scare me. I love my laser mouse! And a wireless mouse is useless for my other passion, gaming...