I have both photoshop 5.5 and Painter 6 and also have photopaint9...also pp8...all of them part of my slow brain absorbtion rate....each has features that make them useful, all do the basic stuff. Until painter6, the layering aspect of photoshop made it easier to develop complex images, the floater approach not quite as easy to get the hang of. I started with 0 zero experience with these and first got corel photopaint 5. I think that the lighting in Painter 6 is far better and easier to use than that in either photoshop or photopaint, even pp8. Smudge and smear in photoshop and photopaint easier than painter6. The main advantage to painter 6 lies in the ease of use for nozzles and image pens, I find the gradient choices larger, and most mostly are the brushes. Wonderful real-like brushes. PP8 has the neatest lens flare effect; photoshop is very expensive and needs a lot more investment in plug ins; photopaint is less expensive and it has a lot of stuff if you have old versions by the way of extra stuff on the cd. I basically learned first with pp8 (easiest to use) then with the abilty to understand the concepts moved to photopaint then on to photoshop which to me is very powerful and quite stable. Painter6 is a bit cranky but I think they have most of the problems which seem to be related to the wacom or other tablet drivers. painter 6 is my favorite general graphic program, but when I have a more specific bit of work to do I go to Photoshop then to photopaint (except for the nozzle or image brush stuff).... long winded I guess.....hope it helps....