Which one is better for making textures and making your renders abiit better looking? I plan on buying one but dont know which one to buy.

Any thoughts???

Well ONE difference is about the price ... PSP is $100.- and PShop  $600 at least...

so when money is no problem Go get PhotoShop... 

ok cool, so photoshop is better then? Money isent a problem as a friend of mine just ran into alot of cash and said he would buy me one thing, anything under 1000 that i want lol

I just wanted to know which one is better

Well thats COOL cant you friend run me into so cash too :} i whould like Lightwave 9 thats under 1000 aswell :}

Chris

The biggest friend of your friend ;}

Hey!    my wallet is missing!

Many people think Photoshop is better.

But PSP will do about 90% of what Photoshop can do, and PSP is cheaper to buy, has a smaller learning curve to learn.

Maybe ask her what your limit is and maybe you can get PSP and another program of something else?

I have, and use both. In my opinion, the only advantage PhotoShop has over PSP is that there is a huge amount of support for it by many very talented merchants here (brushes, actions etcetera). And there is very little for PSP.

There are some things I do in PSP and some things I do in PS CS2.  I have to admit all of my skin textures are done in PS CS2 but I do garment textures in PSP a lot of the time.  So, if you have a friend who'll buy you PS CS2, do that and save for PSP,

Attached Link: http://www.thegimp.org

I still use PS7, I would love to get CS2 but the cost is way out of my league, never tried PSP so I'm biased anyway!!

Is Photoshop really hard to learn to use? One reason i am intereste din it is all the cool brushes and such. I dont know if PaintShop has brushes and such like PS does, does it?

Quote - Is Photoshop really hard to learn to use? One reason i am intereste din it is all the cool brushes and such. I dont know if PaintShop has brushes and such like PS does, does it?

PSP has brushes, and you can convert Photoshop brushes to PSP using the "ABR Viewer" which is free online.  It changes the Photoshop Brush to a .png file, then you need to change it to .pspimage file and then you can create a brush from it. It's a bit tedious having to do it one brush at a time, but it's possible.

As for Photoshop. The interface and some of the tools are vastly different than PSP.  I have Photoshop and am trying to learn how to use it and I'm totally lost with it even though I've been using PSP for almost 7 years. I find that I can't do much of anything in Photoshop because it's so different than using PSP. 

I asked in the Photoshop forum and was given this link:

http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/photoshoptutorialsbasic/

There is also a link to a free 8 week online course, which I've enrolled in.  So far I've only done week 1 which is the interface, but it's helped.

http://graphicssoft.about.com/c/ec/1.htm

It's mainly about personal preference.  The reason I am trying to learn Photoshop is because I really love PSP v7.04, but I also like some things about PSP v8.1,  but the 2 versions can't share all files so I find myself with 2 versions of the same program and duplicate files for each version. Instead of "enhancing" and "adding" to a program, Corel chooses to change, delete and remove features/functions etc.  Which is why I find myself with 2 versions of the same program. PSP 7.04 can do things that v8.1 can't and vice versa. 

So I'm hoping that I can learn Photoshop and get back to having only one 2D graphic program on my hard drive. 

I'm having a hard time trying to learn Photoshop because I'm so used to PSP and I don't like change.  But if you haven't used a graphic program, you have nothing to compare it to so you will probably have an easier time adjusting than I am.

It's basically a matter of personal preference really.  It is good that you are researching the different programs before investing.

I use PSP 8.1 and PS CS2. (I own PSP10, but ended up uninstalling it because I love PSP 8.1. For me, it's a near perfect program. )

That hardest thing, for me, in learning PS was that I already knew PSP. I kept trying to do stuff the same way in both. And you need to tweak your thinking a little bit between the two.  I would think it's easier to learn PS if you don't already have PSP. No little tricks to unlearn :)

I think that which program you select is based on what you intend to do with it. My "arty stuff" (textures, frames, backgrounds) are all done is PSP. And my postwork is done almost exclusively in PS.

Melz, if your friend is willing to buy it for you, I'd say get PhotoShop CS because it's more expensive program. And the market support for it is incredible (plus tons of free stuff). You can pick up PSP fairly cheaply on your own later. 

I think Amazon has the best prices.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_sw/104-5878497-1819966?url=search-alias%3Dsoftware&field-keywords=photoshop&Go.x=9&Go.y=14

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_sw/104-5878497-1819966?url=search-alias%3Dsoftware&field-keywords=paintshop&Go.x=11&Go.y=9

Oh, and congratulations on having such a nice friend:) It must have been a very pleasant surprise to find out he was going to give you such a nice treat!

I use PSP9 & Photoshop CS2, & to be honest I much prefer PS9 as I still find most things easier to do in PSP.

I haven't found anything yet that Photoshop can do, that PSP9 can't.

Just out of curiosity, what are (some of) the things PSP 8.1 can't do that 7.04 can? I prefer using PSP8.1 myself, and use Photoshop CS at work.

Well, it's not so much "can't do", it's really a matter of not being able to achieve the same effect in v8.1 due to changes in the method of doing some things. A good example is "masks".

In PSP v7.04 application of a mask was a no brainer.  Create a new layer, apply the mask, flood fill, delete the mask.   With PSP v8.1 came changes in how you apply a mask, and because of that I've noticed that some of my favourite effects done with masks cannot be achieved in PSP v8.1 and above because of the way masks are applied.  I can get "similar" or "close", but the effect itself is not the same.

There are others, but the mask is the most prominent change.

You can see what I mean in the above example.  It's the exact same effect applied in both versions. You can see the one in v8.1 is more opaque and fuzzy than the v7.04 one which is how the effect is supposed to look.

I haven't checked it out in ages but Photoshop was the industry standard .  I assume this is still the case.

If you are going to use whatever program you get on a professional level then Photoshop is the one to get.

Photoshop is about $649.00 US

The Standard 'Creative Suite' might be an option to consider  at around $899.00 US

http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/?sdid=KFWJ

There is a comparison chart between the Standard and Premium versions of this package part way down the page.

Illustrator is the Vector program
InDesign is for Desktop Publishing (Pamplets, brochures, posters etc)

If you can afford the extra cash (about $200.00 US) you can get the Premium Version

Helen

There is a free 30 day trial version of Photoshop available at Adobe's homepage and probably something similar for PSP I imagine.

You could download both and see which one you prefer before investing what is really a rather large amount in either (even if it's not your own money).

Personally I use Photoshop CS2, but that's mainly because I got it very cheap from a special student offer. I haven't tried PSP.

Quote - There is a free 30 day trial version of Photoshop available at Adobe's homepage and probably something similar for PSP I imagine.

You could download both and see which one you prefer before investing what is really a rather large amount in either (even if it's not your own money).

Yep, I agree with that!  It shouldn't be about spending as much money of your friend's as possible, it should be about what you personally prefer, and if it's the cheaper program, then so be it.

PSP does have a 14 or 30 day trial.  I think back in the days of Jasc it was 30 days. I know I liked it so much that I bought it within a few days of downloading the trial. And Photoshop also has a trial.

I've been using Paint Shop Pro for years, version 7 has been my favourite, ideal for digital photos & postwork. I have recently bought Pro Photo XI & while it's took me some time to get used to a new interface & stuff there are some good effects to be had with this for postwork. I now also have a full working trial version of Photoshop CS2. Now I agree with others that it can be a bit daunting at first because we have been so used to PSP but it you stick with it there is a lot of cool stuff you can do with it. I will continue to work with this program to achieve what I can out of it, but I will still be using PSP because it is a dream to use.

Ideally it is best to have both programs, but if you are serious about postwork & money is no object then PS CS2 is probably the way to go. But still try to get PSP because of its ease of use.

I hav'nt used PSP much, but I've never needed to leave Photoshop.  I'd like to say that Photoshop 9 is worth all that money, but would have to say that it has'nt changed all that much since version 7(Which first came with ImageReady(For .GIF work)  So, if you'rte looking to save a little $$, I would recommend looking for an older version of Photoshop, before PSP.

BTW - If you do'nt hink you'll need ImageReady You could pick up version 4 or 5(Whichever first introduced Actions...)