With Adobe going the Cloud route (something that I don't care for and which doesn't work well for me), I'm looking for future alternatives to Photoshop.  I currently have CS5, and had hoped to get the CS6 Creative Suite but unless I can find a copy for a price I can afford right now (not likely) then I'm probably SOL.  While CS5 will likely work fine for the forseeable future, I'm curious what other options might be out there.

So, recommendations?

There is Corel and Xara that are both pretty good.

Also, I think you have until sometime in June before they stop selling the boxed copies of CS6.

I was just on the Adobe web site yesterday, you can no longer order CS6 in a box directly from them.  Amazon was nearly sold out already, I imagine small businesses and freelancer artists like myself are probably rushing to buy them because of this so who knows how long they'll be available.   Unfortunately, I just bought some software so my "upgrade" budget is already shot, I just can't afford this right now.  I have CS5, looks like I'll be using that for a long time.   Eventually however, I'll have to find an alternative.

I used to use Paint Shop Pro, but haven't since Corel bought it (ironically I used that until I could afford to upgrade to Photoshop).   Will have too look into that.   Thanks for the tips.

There's The Gimp which is free.

Yeah, I installed GIMP yesterday actually which is a bit ironic.   Couple of weeks ago a friend was asking me if I knew anything about GIMP and I'll admit I kind of snorted at it.  I mean, after all, I have Photoshop CS5 Ext....   So yeah, kind of ironic I'm now taking a serious look at GIMP myself.  Life's a funny thing sometimes.

I've used Inkscape for a little while while waiting to afford CS5 (after switching OS from Win to Mac @ home) - not the best but it got some projects done on time to help raise the monies needed...

scott

I can't vouch for these but they were suggested by readers posting at "The Register" as possible alternative choices.

Serif Draw Plus 06

http://www.serif.com/

Xara and Xara Pro

http://www.xara.com/us/products/designer/

I know it's a shock to the system. I've been looking around for some way to still buy a boxed CS 5 or CS 6 Photoshop and no luck. This has really impacted individual users. I hope everyone finds suitable alternatives that fit their needs.  Best of luck to everyone.  m(_ _)m

Quote - Xara and Xara Pro http://www.xara.com/us/products/designer/

I have Xara WebDesigner Pro and it's a joy to use. Before that it was MS Frontpage and I did not like using it. Xara is VERY easy and I believe it does use Photoshop plugins - but I would check on that first.

For the time being I'll be using Production Premium Suite CS4, but it will certainly be my last unless Adobe changes its mind and also offers perpetual licenses in addition to CC subscriptions. And considering the amount of flack that they;ve been hearing, that may very well happen.

Here are a couple of places to visit:

http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2013/05/you-should-never-lose-access-to-your-work-period.html

http://boycottcreativecloud.com/

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1672530/adobe-5-reasons-we-killed-the-creative-suite?utm_source=twitter

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-57582735-92/adobe-kills-creative-suite-goes-subscription-only/?part=rss&subj=software&tag=title

Small update, Corel has announced a 10 year commitment to continue offering both in the box (perpetual license) versions of its products as well as subscription versions.  So while I have GIMP installed and am looking at it as I have time, I'm also going to be looking at Corel's software.  

Switching to Corel would be a bit ironic for me, since I started out many years ago using Paint Shop Pro which Corel now owns.  Life's funny sometimes.

From what I have seen so far, there are apps (including GIMP surprisingly to me) that offer many of the tools Photoshop does.  One of the main areas not duplicated were the 3D tools in Photoshop Extended, which was really useful for editing textures and eliminating seams.   However, that should continue to work in my copy of CS5 Ext regardless.

Also, I can continue using PS CS5 for some time to come, so there's not a rush in finding a replacement.

Thanks for all the links, and thanks for the blog lings Megalodon, interesting reading.

I read over at the Adobe website that the CS6 products will still be available until the CC (Creative Cloud) products become available sometime in June 2013.  However, in other statements they said CS6 will be available indefinitely.

Since Adobe hasn't made it easy to find the link to purchase upgrades or full versions, here it is:

http://www.adobe.com/products/catalog/cs6._sl_id-contentfilter_sl_catalog_sl_software_sl_creativesuite6.html?promoid=KFPMZ

Click on Buy where you can select either full version or upgrade and what you are upgrading from.

I'm not switching to the CC either.  It's a waste of money.  I'm planning to switch over to Corel for some of my programs while others I'm stuck with until I can find better alternatives.  I started with CorelDRAW back to Version 3 (on floppy discs).

Adobe can shove their cloud where the sun doesn't shine. Who in their right mind would want to RENT their software?

I started with Adobe Photoshop 5 skipping many versions as it was just not worth it. I've had Adobe Illustrator skipping versions of it. I also started with CorelDRAW 5 and again skipped many versions of it. My last purchase was Adobe Design Standard CS4 and CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4 back in early January 2010. At that time my Adobe package was 4 times the price of my CorelDRAW package.

I'm sticking with what I have although I may upgrade my CorelDRAW to X6.  I'm glad CorelDRAW is not forcing the cloud on their clients at this time.

I wish I'd saved the money I wasted on upgrading all my apps to CS6 and just purchased the CorelDRAW Graphics Suite.  I went from Photoshop CS4 to 6 only to get it on the CS6 level so I could upgrade since they quit the three version back business.

Photoshop CS4 worked fine for me and I wish I had just stuck with it.  Dreamweaver CS4 worked fine, but I had serial number issues when every time I reinstalled I had to call Adobe for a Challenge code so I had to upgrade to CS 5.5 to get rid of that problem.  I upgraded it again to CS6 because of the Adobe lies about having to be on CS6 to upgrade to the next version.

For Audition I went from CS3 to CS5.5 which removed some functions from CS3 then to CS6 which put them back.  This is a good example at how Adobe doesn't really add anything to upgrades.  They just take them away and add bug fixes.

Corel has said they have no plans to move only to the Cloud.  They have both available and they cater to both professionals and hobbyists.  I've always wanted to go back to Corel because my Illustrator 10 is long out of date even though it still works.

Adobe is stupid ! Since I have no internet at home and won't ever....the cloud is something I cannot use so I guess I'll stick with CS3 and be happy with what I have. I think Adobe will regret this cloud shit after they loose $$.

 There are a lot of people that do not have internet at home therefore the dumb cloud is useless. More stupid human tricks!

Quote - Adobe is stupid ! Since I have no internet at home and won't ever....the cloud is something I cannot use so I guess I'll stick with CS3 and be happy with what I have. I think Adobe will regret this cloud shit after they loose $$.

 There are a lot of people that do not have internet at home therefore the dumb cloud is useless. More stupid human tricks!

Presumably you have something or you wouldn't be able to activate the versions since the original CS? The "cloud" in the name is just marketing speak and has no connection with reality - it's a plain subscription service that wants to go online once per month to verify the sub (though I think it will allow several failures before refusing to work). That may still be a deal killer as it is for others of us, but it isn't anything that requires an always-on connection or a lot of bandwidth.

I used to live close enough to town to hook up my graphics machine to the net. With a tablet and internet cafes who needs it at home? My graphics machine will never be hooked to the world again therefore the cloud is out of reach for me.

I found this list of alternatives to photoshop on CGTalk, haven't tried them, but worth looking into if you absolutely don't want to use CC:

•Open Canvas
(Windows)
http://www.portalgraphics.net/en/

$50.00
** • TVPaint**
(Windows, Linux and Mac)
http://www.tvpaint.com/v2/content/article/home/
**495€ - 1180€

• ArtRage
(Windows and Mac)
http://www.artrage.com/
$50.00 DEMO

• ArtWeaver
(Windows)
http://www.artweaver.de/
29 €

• Autodesk SketchBook Pro 6
(Windows, Mac)
Link
USD $59**

• Gimp
photoPlus
http://www.gimp.org/

**
•Photoline
http://www.pl32.com/**

**
• Paintshop Pro (I still use PSP 7...Great little program)
http://www.corel.com/corel/product/...languageCode=en**

• Corel Draw
http://www.corel.com/corel/pages/in...languageCode=en

**
• Krita
http://www.calligra.org/news/calligra-2-6-2-released/**

**
• DogWaffle
http://www.thebest3d.com/pda/index8.html**

**
• Acorn 4 -
http://www.flyingmeat.com/acorn/**

**
• Pixelmator 2.1-
http://www.pixelmator.com/**

**
•Seashore-
http://seashore.sourceforge.net/The...ject/About.html**

**
•Manga Studio 5
http://manga.smithmicro.com/index.html**

**
**

There is a petition at change .org. I signed it. :)

Eliminate the mandatory creative cloud subscription model

Yup, I signed the petition.  Last I saw they had over 30,000 signatures.  There's been quite an ongoing protest in Adobe's forums but they don't seem to care.

I have GIMP installed and it does most of what Photoshop CS5.5 does, it just can't do the special effects in layers, nor can it work with 3D models for painting textures.  If I can find something to do those two things, I'm set. 

Quote - Yup, I signed the petition.  Last I saw they had over 30,000 signatures.  There's been quite an ongoing protest in Adobe's forums but they don't seem to care.

They don't. In fact they expected to lose some customers and expecting losses for 2013 and 2014 with 2015 seeing the first increases. They seriously plan to wait out all of those who want to wait to see what Adobe will do - fully expecting our resolve to lose steam and then join the CC. They really do not care about this portion of their userbase. It is ONLY about the bottom line. It's NOT about creating the tools that hobbyists and professionals want or need - it's ONLY about money.

For me, I will NEVER join the CC and Adobe can take a flying leap. Imagine if this is how they treat their loyal customers now, what is in store for those who support them by joining CC? They may even lower the price to make it more attractive to the holdouts, but that price WILL go up. When they've got what they feel is a large userbase stuck on the cloud, they WILL begin to raise the prices. It's inevitable since they will NEED to make more and more profits - their shareholders will demand it.

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