I have been looking for a program similar to photoshop, but want some more affordable then what I have been seeing with the prices of photoshop.

What other programs are there? And where can I buy them? I have Windows 8.1 as my os and use firefox as my main browser.

Attached Link: Not the latest, these are samples from v8 - check v9 too

for Painting: Project Dogwaffle, there's a free-for-home learning edition at www.thebest3d.com/howler/download

It's based on v8.2, the latest is v9

 

It also does some animation, lots of visual effects.

The top price is $89.

It's PC/Windows only.

It does layers but not opaque layers. Layers can be used for many things other than hiding other leyers behind it.

 

There's a free program called Paint.net that has layers.

There's also Pixarra Twisted brush, by Ken Carlino. His and PD Howler 8 are also in a www.CoolCreativeBundle.com bundle

 

Howler 9.1 is available here at Rendo.

Artrage is also a good contender. Good painting, not much in filters and 3D. Howler does have 3D for elevation map based terrains and other.

 

Look at IrfanView. It is free.

Attached Link: gimp

then there's always the opens source GIMP...here's the link for the Windows DL:

 

Once in a while I look around,
I see a sound
and try to write it down
Sometimes they come out very soft
Tinkling light sound
The Sun comes up again

 

 

 

 

 

I actually like paint shop pro.

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I use Poser 13 and win 10

Quote - Look at IrfanView. It is free.

 

Irfanview is awesome. Free for home use indeed, I recommend you sponsor Skiljan Irfan for the good he's done :-), www.irfanview.com - Irfanview is primarily an image Viewer (!), not so much an alternative to Photoshop when it comes to working with selections and masks and layers but there are many many things you can do with Irfanview much faster and conveniently. Definitely a must have even if you use PS. Or for me with PD.

By-the-way, perhaps you can explain wat you want to do? Photoshop has evolved into such a do-it-all and so much more tool that you can't assume you want to work with a Photo. You might want to paint colormaps in 3D. Or work on Video. A lot of things can be done. Ditto with Dogwaffle, where 3D in the GPU is reality and fast.

 

Tell us a bit about your needs. There is a free version Photoshop 2 you can find that is old but might cover your needs. Not my recommendation, but still worth mentioning. Likewise, there are free trial or home learning editions of many other tools that, amongst other things, let you work on images.

 

Do you do digital painting? DO you need particle brushes for foliage effects? Do you want pigment lifting (or even know what that means?). There are many aspects to imaging and painting.

Do you like to work with filters?

Do you like to code your own filters (e.g. with Lua scripting)?