Litst, I can't comment much about the cost of Photoshop, because I work for an ad agency that buys all the software I use, nor can I comment about "Gimp" because I've never heard of it (I'll have to check it out). I currently use Photoshop 6, and the sheer range of control it gives over image manipulation is not only impressive to me, but has saved many of my assignments by allowing me to do things that would be enormously time consuming/expensive to create any other way I know of. Photoshop is a workhorse in the world of advertising, and it's an industry standard that is understood by the clients I work with. No other image manipulation program can claim that, no matter how intuitive it is to use. By the way, not all Americans own gazing balls, just as I'm sure that not all French are rifle-droppers! scifirex