I'm at the moment evaluating the differences between Photoshop and Paintshop and would like your opinions and suggestions. Outside of the price tag, what is the difference between the two? Are there any inherent advantages with the cheaper? The only thing I've noticed thus far is that my photoshop images (8x10 600dpi) when transferend into paint shop, take up around 600 MEG of memory rather than the 80Meg in Paint shop.... is there something I did wrong? Or is this normal? Also when using the fill tool it is incredibly slow at doing so, even on less intricate but equally large files loaded from EPS form... Please help!?! I'm planning on buying one or the other and I'd like to know I've gotten the one that will be better for me in the long run.

Well, with PSP and Photoshop 6 I would have said that they were pretty even. PSP has tubes, which Photoshop 6 does not have, but Photoshop has some more advanced features useful for professionals or experts. HOWEVER.. Photoshop 7 is coming soon. The demo on their web site looks simply outstanding. It features new painterly brush sets, a healing brush that is sure to make postwork for 3D a 10 minute operation instead of a 60 min affair, and a variety of other features that look like they will kick PSP out of the water until PSP makes a catchup version. If you are entertaning buying photoshop, I would wait until version 7 is out.

i personally am unsure of the healing brush tool, what the heck does it do (meaning how does it do it)? Lately, the past few releases, Adobe has been ripping off Kai programs and tools (The Liquify is ripped directly from Kai's Super Goo, and the healing brush is a direct rip from Kai's Photo Soap). If the healing brush iis the same as the one in photo soap, then it won't be anything to scream about. Like many filters, it'll offer a quick fix, but persoinally me thinks I'd rather do it by hand to be sure. version 7 isn't for me, i think my machine will melt if I try and load it up, lol. if price is not an issue, get photoshop. Steeper learning curve by far, but its worth it. If price is an issue, PSP will do a fine and dandy job. Also, taking price into consideration, me thinks PSP is a much better deal at 100$ than Photoshop at however much they're charging for it now.

Anything you can do in PSP can be done in Photoshop (with a couple of exceptions) but you can't say the same in reverse. The basic commands can be done in each but that is as far as it goes. PSP is fine for the newbie wanting to get their feet wet in a graphics software. Don't forget Photoshop 5.5 onward comes with Image Ready which is a pretty nice program as well.

Um have you regularly used either? I use PSP all the time. While I can use PS because I have more experience in PSP, PS is a strange interace and I have problems doing what I really want to in PS. That bing said one can easilly change the resolution in PS than in PSP. Setting color values is better I think in PS than in PSP. Working with layers in PS I think is better in PS than PSP ( plus I think you can make more layers. ) The history view and selection is better I thinkis PS than in PSP. Plus filters tend to load better into PS than into PSP. That's my opinion. PSP is a fine program especially for the cost. But I think ultimately you can do more in PS. Bsteph

I think there are several things to consider with this question.

The first is do you have any ambitions to use either of these programs as a professional tool? If so, I would strongly suggest Photoshop as it is the industry standard. My reason is that the vast majority of professional studios you will ever walk into are using Photoshop. If you expect to find a position in this industry knowing Photoshop is a basic requirement.

Second is the interoperability of Photoshop with other Adobe programs such as Illustrator, InDesign, Pagemaker, etc. Again these are important consideratioons if you are planning to do this professionally.

Ultimately the choice is up to you... They are both good programs, and in the end either one will become a valuable tool if you learn all the ins, and outs.

Fully agreed with Alpha there, the bottom line is... What do you want to use it for ? I would also go with Slynky "if price is not an issue, get photoshop" definitely. Some other nice features in Photoshop include the text editing capabilities, preset manager, and the actions. And of course there are a mutlitude of resources, tuts, and support on the net for Photoshop, definitely more than for PSP. Granted, most of the stuff done in PS, can probly be done in PSP too, but with greater difficulty, and more effort. In my opinion, PSP7 is about the equivalent of Photoshop 4. But as you know Photoshop is the industry standard... surely there must be a reason for that ? :)

The healing brush is an interesting tool. Basically it works like the clone tool, but using a different method. You click TWICE to get what you want. The first click (if i recall correctly) grabs the TEXTURE of a given area, and the second click (can be anywhere else in the image) grabs the Hue/Saturation/Luminance of an area. So, for example, if you want to fix a broken joint for Poser, you would click on one area to get the texture you awnt and in another to get the colors. Paint away. The other tool that is part of the healing brush is like a marquee tool. You make a selection with the marquee (the area you want to repair) then drag the ENTIRE marquee to somewhere else in the image. It appears to grab the TEXTURE of another location, but maintains the Hue/Sat/Luminance of the original area. For more info watch teh Quicktime movie on Adobe's web site, which demonstrates both tools.

Your choice depends on what you want to do with the software. If all you plan to do is play with it at home, maybe touch up an image or two, put old Aunt Gertrudes head on a donkey, then stick with Paint Shop. For the price you can't do better. However if you are planning to seriously get into graphics and work with the software then don't waste time with a PhotoShop wannabe. True the software is expensive, yes the learning curve is steeper, but in the end the results outweigh it all. Not trying to sound like a commercial here, but there is a reason why PhotoShop is the industry standard. Its ability to interface with the rest of the Adobe line and its competitors, makes it one of the most powerful tools you can learn to use.

Well unfortunately (for my pocket book) it seems that Photoshop may actually be the way to go. I've been using Photoshop 5 forever in classes so I know my way around it.... I've tried Paintshop Pro and have had nothing but bad luck with it thus far but it wasn't clear if it was me or the program I was fighting with.... I'm a big user of Adobe Streamline in my artwork, though most of my artwork is cartoon based rather than realism based so that was a big question there. Hmmmm think Photoshop is looking to be the way to go. It's a system I already know, and while it is expensive in the startup, it looks like it's going to be the more versitile and less of a pain to learn....... Hugs, thanks all and any other nuggets of wisdom you might pass along would be welcome! Lilfox

sorry to butt in. what do you mean by adobe streamline?!? im familiar with photoshop but you got me with the streamline thing. probaly a stupid question

No, not a stupid question, not that many people around this area use it I think. It's a conversion tool for shifting art into vector graphics. I use it to clean up my line art and even out the lines before I move to the color and shading parts on my art work. Lilfox

a conversion tool huh. is it afilter you use in photoshop or is it a totally different program. i do a lot of line drawing then scan it into photoshop, and am always for new tools to me along the way. sounds interestin, thanks. yodle

Adobe Streamline

Maximum control for converting images to line art

Faster than a tracing hand, able to leap from raster to line art in a single bound, Adobe Streamline 4.0 software instantly converts scanned black-and-white or color raster images into editable Adobe PostScript line art. Just scan any sketch, and Streamline will automatically create a file that you can drag and drop into Adobe Illustrator to complete your design.

It's equivalent to CorelTrace if you are familiar with Corel.

Laughs at dreamer101. Exactly! I couldn't have said it better myself ;) Great thing about Streamline for my line drawings is I can bring it in via scan, convert it, clean it up by hand so I can get the lines exactly right and as an eps file, you can size it however big or small you want after that with no grainy lines. Makes making portraits for my commissions really easy and makes the lines look really neat and crisp even at 8 by 10 600 dpi ;).... It's not instant perfection but with a little patience you can really get that professional edge on your line art ;) Lilfox

if you have a student ID you can buy the ducational pack for around $300 (comes w/imageready if I'm not mistaken) still a pretty steep price, but the benefits outweigh the cost in my opinion.

I have and use both. I also have corel photopaint9 and painter6; I use them all for various reasons. I just got photoshop7.0 and it is wonderful, but it cannot do the same job as the others in terms of natural looking media for drawing and painting. Paintshop pro 7.0 allows you to do many of the things that can be done in photoshop but you have to do the steps yourself...I made a comparison between the two when I bought paintshop pro...the small brushes in photoshop are more easily controlled but the tubes and some of the other features offer more "artistic" control in photopaint. I really like virtual painter by jasc which is a plug in to ps...I got the spray feature for photoshop and it is ok but not as good as tubes and nozzles which keeps me coming back to the other programs....I got splat which is a new plug in from alienskin and it is a great addition ot photoshop...if you can afford photoshop you should get it...it is the industry standard and rock solid...paintshop is a great addition to your toolbox as well...the combination of these programs allows you to really come up with some cool stuff.....