I saw an adobe big-wig on TV a few years back. He said he was aware of the widespread use of photoshop by people that didn't fork over the big bucks. He continued by saying that he would rather see people using photoshop for free than not using it at all. He was confident that enough professionals would buy their software and that the more people learned about photoshop, The more people would buy it.

The only real difference between PSP(originally written for linux) and gimp is animation shop. Gimp has an animation mode but it isn't nearly as comprehensive as animation shop. Unfortunately, Neither gimp or PSP is worth a fart for precision pixel by pixel work.

man this is one tough room....rein said: as long as you admit that you didn't pay for something (and spare me the long justification speach).
Lotta touchy feely going on here. Why is everything i say turned into some sorta, DEW BASH. I have an opinion too. If expressing it, is going to cause termoil i won't. I like joking around, and i never intend it in a mean way. But SSSSSSSHHHHHHHHEEEEEEZZZZZZZZ . REIN dont want long speaches and blue has cut my love life down like high grass......mmmmmmm grass.......hell i'm sorry i though KARMA was what went on apple's at the fair.KARMACANDIE APPLES......mmmm....great after grass
Ya'll want me to by the room a spanking...huh....doya rein.

Fair warning LOOOOONNNNGGGGG reply ahead.



In answer to your ORIGINAL question I started with Macromedia Fireworks, then Fireworks MX, then MX2004, then GIMP, then CS2 (pirated) and now have a LEGAL copy of CS3 (discount upgrade thanks to Adobe buying Macromedia). Moving from Fireworks to GIMP was a big learning curve. Once I got used to GIMP I only went back to Fireworks for doing GIFs. Then moving to CS2 from GIMP was about as bad. It was very frustrating until I got used to how to do stuff in CS2. Now I'm starting to feel more comfortable and have really forgotten how to use GIMP basically. I still prefer Fireworks for doing gif animations though. I just find it more intuitive to use than ImageReady.



This was my rationale for using the pirated version of CS2 (started out as just the 30-day demo but then got a keygen at about day 20-25). Since I wasn't using it for commercial purposes at all and only for PSC and/or my personal stuff I felt no-harm-no-foul in a way.

But then anon prize contests started popping up (a few times after I had already uploaded an entry) I felt it wasn't right to use a pirated copy anymore if I had even the slightest chance of winning a prize (no matter how slight the chance or how crappy the prize).

Also, about the same time, I started getting asked to do more image editing tasks for work. By then that I could do better/faster work in CS2 than I could in GIMP. Since I wanted to upgrade my Dreamweaver version I was able to basically con the boss into getting me the CS3 Master Suite.

So now I don't feel guilty at all. Not really chopping much anymore must be penance for all my past pirating ways.

Now, as a programmer by trade, I must say that I can see both sides of the pirating issue. I write software for my bread and butter and I'd be ticked at the pirates for keeping me from being able to feed my kids. Also, IMHO, the number of pirated copies are one reason why the software is so expensive now. If everyone paid then Adobe could make the same profit point they are at now with a lower price. Yeah it's a pipe-dream but it "looks good on paper". Try using the same logic for a BMW/Mercedes vs. a Geo Metro/Yugo and it doesn't work right? You definitely get what you pay for.

Back to GIMP. Like any tool it's only as good as the person using it. I originally got CS2 thinking it'd make things easier and I'd start doing much better in the contests. THAT'S obviously a ridiculous idea but the marketing/buzz around Photoshop basically gives those of us with no clue the idea that Photoshop really does take the hard part out of photo manipulation. Now that I know better I realize how naive that original idea was.

You CAN do just as good a job in GIMP as you can in Photoshop. It just might take a while longer to do it and you'll have to accomplish things differently. But if you truly know how to use GIMP then you can do it. I firmly believe that. Another "free" chopping tool is Paint.Net and it is coming into its own now as a viable low-end tool (with big potential).

There were some features in GIMP that I'd love to see incorporated into Photoshop (unless I just don't know how to do them). One neat thing was that you could save a selection as a path (that was editable). You could also stroke a selection (the "marching ants") quickly. Haven't figured out how to do either of those two things as easily in CS2/CS3.

Tofu the great has a good point, and I agree whole-heartedly. The best you can do with PSP or GIMP is about the same as the best you can do with photoshop. I'd like to think I am doing the best I can with PSP9. I've seen people who have learned how to use PSP in a "For dummies" book, and get awful results. I learned how to use it by fiddling with everything. I feel like if I downloaded GIMP, I would just be swapping something I know how to use very well for something I don't.

Make Work Path from the Paths tab (click the little arrow on the right)

Edit - Stroke

HERE!HERE!

I'm using PSP 7.04 for the same reason. When I can afford PS, I'll buy it.

I agree with PVS, too.

I don't see any badness in my PSP--except my own shortcomings. It doesn't have all the fancy filters, but It seems to be able to blend as well as PS, and you can crank out layers all day. I think in the hands of someone with great skill, it would be a pretty effective tool.

Noticed and swear I tried those and it wasn't the same as what I could do in GIMP. I'll try again and see if I'm wrong. If so then.... well just then.

(either way thanks for being my personal tutor voks )

here is the adobe story.

You can buy the stuff cheaper thru educational discounts like Journey.com if you are a student. I forked out a huge mess of money in school for the Adobe Bundle and then I find out that Adobe does NOT honor educational discounts for upgrades. I wish now I had pirated the stuff. They penalize you and I also wanted to put the CS2 on the mac and the pc.. No license grants were allowed for a different platform.. They wanted a full payment for the PC version after I had bought the mac version.

So I will either pirate it or I will just keep on with my PS 7 on my PC and my CS 2 on my mac. BUT here's the deal........... you can't get ImageReady after CS2 version. It is not put into the CS3.. So I am happy to not have bought or wasted the download or hard disc space for it now. Not that happy with Adobe's policies regarding licenses.

Pirate away.

imageready is 'built in' into photoshop CS 3, no more seperate program.

Really my original question wasn't, "Who's pirated Photoshop?". It was, "Who doesn't use photoshop?". So far I only know of one person

well Danny, I don't mean to be a smartbutt here but they don't call this site gimpcontest.com or paintshoprocontest.com

you'll just not find that many on here that aren't using photoshop so the answers you got were more about users' relationship to the tool used here or the hassles.

Azionite, me (for a while), and a couple others don't/didn't use Photoshop for quite some time.

Do a forum search for terms like GIMP, Paintshop, GimpShop, etc. You'll probably get a good idea of people who used an alternative image editor. At one point someone started a thread where they "confessed" to not using Photoshop. They thought they were breaking some kind of rule and apologized.

While the site is "PhotoshopContest.Com" it really should be "PhotoChopContest.com"