Which is better Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro?

[SeraphineNightfire]

I've been considering keeping Paint Shop Pro on my computer or installing a copy of Photoshop instead. 

Now i've not really used Photoshop much mainly i used to use PSP back when i did a little clothing tweaking for Sims games but my father kindly gave me his older copy of CS2 back when he upgraded to CS5  

So i'm sort of wondering which would be better to keep on PSP or PS? Which is more user friendly? Which has the better tutorials floating around?

I'll be mainly using it to edit images i've taken in SL not any type of clothing creation or anything.

[Ciaran Laval]

Photoshop has far more features, it's the better package by a mile but it may be that you don't need to use those extra features.

[hibit Spad]

CS2???? I haven't looked but I am gonna bet you will have difficulty finding tutorials for that. I believe that in CS3 or 4 Photoshop underwent a major interface redesign. Have you looked at GIMP. Not everyone likes gimp but it is free. For some people the interface just clicks, for others not so much. But its free so you can try it and if you don't like it you can just erase it off your computer.

[Chosen Few]

Not sure where you're getting your information, Hibit. Photoshop's interface hasn't changed significantly in well over a decade. New features with each new version bring slight changes, of course, but the basic design has remained the same.

 

The only general (non-feature-specific) changes I can think of since CS2 are these, if memory serves:

 

1. "Pallettes" were renamed to "panels". This affects nothing except the wording of help files and tutorials.

 

2. The toolbox is now collapsible to a single column, in addition to the old 2-column view. I don't remember whethwr this was added with CS2 or CS3

 

3. All right side panels are now collapsible to buttons. I think this was added with CS3, but again, I don't remember exactly.

 

None of that constitutes what I'd call a "major" change to the interface. Mostly, it's just conveniences, to help maximize workspace, while preserving the same basic interface that has served so well for so many years.

 

 

As for availability of tutorials, Photoshop is the best documented program in existance. Literally millions (no exaggeration) of tutorials for it are all over the Web, relatively few of which are version-specific. Plus there countless books, traning videos, and classes available practically on every street corner.

 

Available GIMP documentation is a drop in the ocean, by comparison. That's not a slight against GIMP, by the way. It's just a report of the reality on the ground. Photoshop is THE industry standard, and has been for decades. As such, the vast majority of graphics literature is written with that program in mind, and most other graphics programs borrow from it heavily. GIMP plays to a somewhat different drummer, always has.

[SeraphineNightfire]

Thank you everyone for you advice

To be honest i've used Gimp before and i never really liked the interface, it's very clunky and i like my boxes to by the edge of my screen and to stay there not everytime i load up to move them appropriately lol.

Well i guess it's settled i'll install the copy of CS2 i have and practice and learn how to use it

Any good tutorials anyone can recommend to get me started, baring in mind i'll be just using it for photography purposes.

Thanks

Sereh xxx

[Zoryana Magic]

I really like Dr. Brown's tutorials. They are ideal for your purpose as well, as teaching you a lot of useful techniques.

http://russellbrown.com/tips_tech.html

Just scroll down to the CS2 section

 

Another very cool series is You Suck at Photoshop - hard to concentrate on the actual tutorials, though <.<

 

 

[hibit Spad]

Ac

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Chosen Few wrote:

Not sure where you're getting your information, Hibit. Photoshop's interface hasn't changed significantly in well over a decade. New features with each new version bring slight changes, of course, but the basic design has remained the same.

The only general (non-feature-specific) changes I can think of since CS2 are these, if memory serves:

1. "Pallettes" were renamed to "panels". This affects nothing except the wording of help files and tutorials.

2. The toolbox is now collapsible to a single column, in addition to the old 2-column view. I don't remember whethwr this was added with CS2 or CS3

3. All right side panels are now collapsible to buttons. I think this was added with CS3, but again, I don't remember exactly.

None of that constitutes what I'd call a "major" change to the interface.

Actually it was in a Photoshop tutorial where I heard this, Chosen. I guess one person's major is another person's cosmetic touch up. And I won't argue with you about Gimp's secondary status as an editor. As long as it is free and open source I will keep suggesting it as a possibility for people to get started creating cheaply in SL. For those that find Gimp works for them (and no I am not one of them, unfortunately) The start up costs can't be beat.

[Shelby Silverspar]

Photoshop rocks, no reason not to use it if you have it - take advantage. I actually liked the CS2 interface a little bit better than CS4 - I have issues with sticky palettes/panels and I wish adobe would give me the docking station back, lol. Haven't looked at CS5 yet. Why not use both photoshop and paint shop pro? Many people use a combination of apps they like, no reason not to. Photoshop, like Chosen said, is industry-standard so improving your skills with that app can't really be a bad thing, right?

[Clarissa Lowell]

I love Paint Shop Pro. It's a lot cheaper than Photoshop also. But if you get Photoshop CS4 or beyond you can paint directly on an object.

[Senkiya Zsun]

PSP was great until Corel took it over (PSP 10 and later). I personally find the interface infinitely more user friendly than that of Photoshop. There aren't any features missing for RGB work that I know of (CYMK is another story), or certainly none that have held me back.

For SL texture creation, the only problem is saving your work as a .tga file as there seems to be an alpha issue. I solve this by exporting as .psd and saving as .tga through GIMP (kludgy I know).

I'm not sure you can still get PSP9 though, because PSP X sucked so bad I gave up on it. An example of its badness: you could only run it as administrator and it was hell on earth to put your files where YOU wanted. Having said that, I haven't looked at more recent versions to see if they have redeemed themselves.