Although I use both, I've got to give a big YES for PSP. Upgrade to 7 or look at your upgrade options from 5.5 to the new version (8). The interface is much better than PS and the toolset is excellent. If you were planning on working in a pro graphics environment, I'd say you'd have to get and learn PS, it's kind of the 'lingua franca' but otherwise, go with PSP. Version 8 has added scripting, improved the vector tools and the masks/layers features and I'm very happy with it. Other than 'Layer Styles', I haven't found anything that I truly prefer in PS over PSP. -Nancy.