I've always used psp, and have PSP9. I've d/l'ed demo's of photoshop cs3 in the past, and it seemed very similar, only a bit more complicated...

But it was a demo so all the good stuff was locked..lol

I'm just wondering if anyone else has had to make the transition, and did it go smoothly for you or should I expect a huge learning curve?

Not sure if this helps... as i cut my teeth on PS (started with photoshop 2.5, still have the discs...) and i've only used the demo of PSP (kinda "flip" of you) but i've found it not to difficult to make the transition. most of whatever you want to do will be "somewhat" intuitive (based on your skill-set with PSP) with some "retraining" of thought.  

Keeping in mind, there are ALWAYS any number of ways to accomplish the same results, it's up to you to decide which is the best method for you. Some methods seem complex but offer a way out if you don't like the result (without resorting to REVERT), other methods are "quick and dirty".

The real learning curve is when you want to push the envelope, but that's what we're here for! feel free to ask a "How the 'L do you do this!!!" question, cause opinions and suggestions are like rectums, EVERYBODY has one!

remember we're here 24hours-a-day 7days-a-week (just not always in a row)

scott

I'm sure I will be back with plenty of "How the L do you.." qeustions..

:)

Luvz. Pixie

I too used PSP 9 for years - never bothered to upgrade as it did (almost) everything that I wanted...but then I succumbed and bought CS5 and I'm loving it. It takes a while to get 'into' where all the different tools are but once you do, you'll wonder how you managed before.

When I first started using CS5 I used to open PSP to finish an image as it seemed so much easier and quicker (because I knew where everything was) but I persevered and although I've still loads to learn, I am amazed at the power of the program. Stick with it and you'll love it too :)  Good luck!

All the major tools are very similar if not the same. The transition should come fairly natural. For most things, ease of use is part of PhotoShop's reputation.

Even with the huge upgrade that is PhotoShop, you may still want to keep PSP around for those quick jobbers. (Simple adjustments, basic cropping, format conversions, annotations on screen grabs, things like that.) After loading in all the presets, fonts, and libraries in PhotoShop, you'll understand what I mean. Save the PhotoShop for the "real" work. (After all these years, I still have PSP 6 specifically for the light tasks.)

Yeah I moved over from PSP too.  The main critisism I had was that photoshop is menu based and PSP was icon based.  I liked that you could put the tools that you most up on your task menu as an icon - loved that!  The other thing I miss is tubes OMG I used them all the time!  Apart from that its as everyone else says much the same - as that's from a casual users perspective I'm sure it does a lot more according to the professionals.  Once you've found your way around the menus its fine but I found I had to break from PSP all together so that I wouldn't revert back to using that. Glad I persevered but still miss the icons & tubes......