PSP 8 went through a lot of effort to blow Photoshop out of the water. And they did, for about a month... ;D All of the layer commands found in Photoshop are in PSP, they are for the most part done exactly the same way (PSP 8 Even "Looks" like Photoshop now) This is not to say that there aren't differences, just that they are more alike than most people care to admit. (I used PSP exclusively until school "forced" me to buy Photoshop, now I use that almost exclusively) The learning curve between the two is nil, more of "Which menu option is that tool under," than "Dang I can do this in " Something I was curious about in the transparent wing things was... um... wouldn't it have worked to use a background that uses a gradient, and then just set the transparency of the wings? Or was it the background of the finished image she wanted transpaerent?