One step undo in Photoshop? You're joking. Take a look at the History pallette. You can set the amount of steps PS can memorize, and you can undo or restore from any point within that range.

PS: I resent the remark about Photoshop owners using pirated software. My copy was bought for my by my former employer. They bought every artist a personal licence, and we were allowed to keep them as part of our severance package.

Geep - not exactly what you want, but take a look at (currently) Corel Painter - try the Just Add Water blender.

Hi RHaseltine, Thanks for the info ... I'll go take a look. cheers, dr geep ;=]

paint shop pro has a great soften tool it is part of the retouch brush. You can vary the intensity by changing the brush step value. It is great for smoothing areas of textures.

"But, if you want a job in the industry...better go with Photoshop or you won't even get your foot in the door. If I were looking to hire someone and they didn't know Photoshop there'd be no way I could even consider them." This is what I'm talking about... it's elitist and ridiculous. It's like saying you'd never buy a painting from a particular artist because they use acrylic brushes instead of sable hair brushes. Apparently a portfolio doesn't mean anything. PSP opens PS files, has all the same features now, so it's not an inter-office compatibility problem, so what's the issue? I just don't get it. If the quality of work is good, how they got there shouldn't matter. ** waving a big sign that says "this is not a flame, just bafflement" **

The thing is PSP does not have all of the features of Photoshop, especially of the CS version. Photoshop with the integrated ImageReady can make web-site creation a breeze. Also, the new CS interconnectivity between Adobe products can really streamline and enhance work. I've looked for work. Take a peek at say, Monster.com at Graphics job requirements. They usually require Photoshop and or Quark, though now Adobe InDesign is being required for some.

Well...it's not an elitest thing at all...its about raw power. And about a long-time industry standard, designed by color professionals for a specific industry. It's about stability across a wide platform.

Color correction and press work is a VERY specific science. When you have a $50,000 job on the press, you DO NOT want something to screw up because your program was not designed to handle it. Or because your printer is unfamiliar with it. That's what Photoshop is designed for, which is why the industry swears by it. The main issue here is the quality of color management and calibration across the industy.

I couldn't hire anyone with ONLY PSP experience, because I would have to re-train them number one, AND I wouldn't have the software as a standard in my shop, number two.

I've never tried opening a huge file in PSP, but some of my latest work is going at the rate of 425 MB for a single 2 page spread. Photoshop CS doesn't even blink. It does slow down a bit if my HD is full, though. And Caly is right, Adobe products are designed as a suite, to work seamlessly with each other and speed up workflow. If I had to use PSP and Word to do my work, I'd have quit long ago, simply because they don't have the proper horsepower/design for what I do. Jasc has some neat features....it can do a lot of cute things Photoshop doesn't do automatically, but for professional work, one wants the total control and DOESN'T want the program thinking FOR you.

I mean no offense here, but I've been doing this work for 20 years now. If something works...it works. It's not as simlpe as the hairs in a brush. It's entire algorithms that manage your color space and determine how ink goes on paper at quite high prices for press runs. Photoshop masters in color correction and manipulation are paid upwards of $100 an hour...

For the price, yes..PSP is outstanding, for what it does. For rock solid performance...my vote still goes to Photoshop..

Photoshop is the industry standard, and if you hope to move on as a professional artist, thats where you should concentrate. Also, it is the leader in graphics editing technology ... PSP lags behind be several versions on most things. Also PSP is aimed at the Hobby market and that is quite noticeable by the interface and the lack of serious tools and emphasis on novelty items. The four basic tools I use on every single piece that I make are not available in PSP. Why? good question. Not cute enough I think. I was more than happy to delete it from my system after reviewing it. I'll stick with Photoshop very happily.

Hi Lyrra,

re: " ... The four basic tools I use on every single piece ... "

What are the tools to which you refer?

I just ordered Photoshop CS and am looking forward to comparing it to PSP which, so far, has served my purpose very well.

I don't need it to do any professional work but my curiousity finally got the better of me. ;=]

cheers,
dr geep
;=]

If your doing small freelance jobs for folks I doubt they care what you use. But if someone was doing work for me freelance it woudl have to be in Photoshop. Thats not about elitism... it's about workflow and compatability. I simply don;t have the time to risk a difference in how PS and PS handle color spaces, press serations or any of the rest of it. Besides, I doubt seriously PSP has all the same features - especially with the new features in CS... but let's jsut talk 7.0. Does PS do all the blending modes? handle the large file sizes? No reason to get all upset about this - you just need to realize that above a certain level the tools you use MATTER... and it is rare that a company needs/wants you so bad they will re-train you.

I see a lot of people here talking about "industry standard". Remember that Photoshop might be the industry standard in the US, but in Europe CorelDraw is also an industry standard. CorelDraw has a few features that Photoshop doesn't have, and includes many things like OCR, *.pdf creation, the ability to do layout in the QuarkExpress formatt, as well as including some 3D abilities and a subset called R.A.V.E. which can create flash animations.

If you mean layer blending modes, you'd have to tell me if this is all of them. We've had these layer blending modes for two or three versions at least, which is when I discovered them and their uses. It's possible they were around longer and I was oblivious. If you're referring to blending brushes, such as dodge, burn, etc. then yes, we have those as well. I'd have to see the "healing brush" someone referred to in action to know whether we have anything that serves the same function in PSP. We do have several scratch-removal filters and smudge/blending brushes. As far as streamlining for web site creation, while PSP doesn't directly export to an HTML suite, that's to be expected when it's not the same brand name. We do have optimizers for typical web image file types, slicing tools, and mapping tools. I don't know what size file you consider large, but I've handled 2200 by 1700 pixel images with few problems... the filters may take an extra second to process. I find that type of thing to be hardware dependant though. Hope that answers a question or two.

They both have their uses, Just depends how much you're willing to spend, especially if it's just a hobby. But if you're going to do Professional work you generally need to have Photoshop. Photoshop CS has an image size limit of 300,000 X 300,000 pixels and 56 channels per file. Photoshop 7 is at 30,000 X 30,000 & 24 channels. Remember, Print files can get mega-huge. CS can support non-square pixels for those that work with video. For photographers there's an improved histogram, and built-in camera Raw format reading as well as a great new shadow/hilight adjustment menu. Visit the sites, look around for reviews, take the trials for a spin... figure out what's best for you. Perhaps 1, perhaps both, who knows.

Color correction and suite capability are the two benefits that Photoshop has over PSP. Beyond that, PSP can do just about everything "editing" wise that PS does -- with the addition of unique tools for handling vector shapes that PS has a difficulty dealing with unless you port over to Illustrator. My preference is for Photoshop, but that's becuse while I hate it more than just about anything, I know it. And what you know is always better than what you don't -- until you learn it....

Photoshop does have more features than PSP, and that's part of why it costs so much. There are several native filters, layer styles, various image correction features, and, especially, the ability to prepare work for print. Pretty much ALL jobs in graphic design require you to be proficient in Photoshop. HOWEVER, that doesn't mean that Paint Shop Pro isn't a perfectly solid, usable, and high quality program. It is. It's got some good features that are unique. It's a LOT of bang for the buck. I still believe that it depends a great deal on what you want/need to do. bonni

> *"Remember that Photoshop might be the industry standard in the US, but in Europe CorelDraw is also an industry standard."*

And if I was working primarily in the UK I would probably wind up using that for those reasons. This is not about blindly following the "industry standard" and using a inferior tool - in this case the tool (Photoshop) is absolutely top notch... so the downside of using a tool that is not standard is not compensated for by any dramatic increase in ability or productivity.

"If you mean layer blending modes, you'd have to tell me if this is all of them."

There is a whole lot more behind the "blending" options than those. They are probably not things you will use in your work, or maybe they aren't used often.... but when you are discussing a tool that will be a major portion of your workflow I tend to choose the one that provides me the most options.

"Color correction and suite capability are the two benefits that Photoshop has over PSP."

If you are including color space management in with color correction I agree. I would also add the new "layer comps" ability as an awesome advantage.

In the end it can be summed up like this. You won't spend nearly as much on PSP and you might never need anything more than it is. But if the question is about "more powerful" then there really is no competition between the two.