Editing Software Progression

The question is how much you want to learn about image processing and how
much you want to be automated for you.
Elements has some wizards and allows the basic use of layers and masks, but
is not as flexible as the full version of Photoshop. The big advantage
Elements has over Paintshop Pro is that it allows use of color management in
the same fashion as Photoshop. If you progress you will appreciate this
feature because color management is the key to more easily match your print
to your monitor without tearing your hair out.
If Epson still offers the "Epson Academy" program on its web site this is
well worth the $30 cost even if you do not use Epson printers (although
Epson and Adobe must have collaborated because color management is easiest
to accomplish with Epson printers): the heart of the course are video
demonstrations of how to use Photoshop features, particularly
masks/layers/curves/color management etc. that are difficult to learn just
from reading a book. If you like what you see you may want to wade into
deeper waters.

"Magnusfarce" wrote:

I'm getting involved in digital photography and would appreciate some
ideas about photo editing software. Judging by this group and by the
books on the shelf at my local bookstore, Adobe's Photoshop seems to
be the strong favorite for software of this type. I have Photoshop
Elements (ver 1) and plan to start with that, with the idea to upgrade
to the full version of Photoshop when the appropriate time comes. Is
this a good approach or should I consider going directly to Photoshop
instead?

Since noone else thought of this:

Why not try The GIMP? It's open source, it's being actively developed and
it does everything one needs in the amateur to semi-pro range.
Download link (for Windows):

http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/

There's some simply *great* documentation to get you started:

http://manual.gimp.org/
http://gimp-savvy.com/BOOK/index.html
http://gimp.org/tutorials/
http://gug.sunsite.dk/
http://www.gimpguru.org/

Regards,
Wald

wald wrote in
27.12:

Why not try CinePaint then (= ex-FilmGIMP)?

From the website (http://cinepaint.sourceforge.net):

* 8/16/32-bits of color per channel (up to 128-bits RGBA)

Just thought you might be interested...


Yupp - that looks interesting.

Unfortunately - they currently have no stable Windows release
and it is not planned before Q4 2004. Thats now! But ... as they
still say that; it is probabaly not Q4 2004, but rather sometime
2005.


/Roland

CinePaint ?

Last I heard ... it was still mostly a Beta ... and not
available as a pre-compiled Windows Executable.

Regarding both "The GIMP" and CinePaint:

Both of these programs are approaching being quite capable
.... but in reality are "Hacker's Delights."

Do not get involved with them unless you own ... and know
how to use ... a "Compiler."

"RSD99" wrote:

CinePaint ?

Last I heard ... it was still mostly a Beta ... and not
available as a pre-compiled Windows Executable.

Regarding both "The GIMP" and CinePaint:

Both of these programs are approaching being quite capable
... but in reality are "Hacker's Delights."

Do not get involved with them unless you own ... and know
how to use ... a "Compiler."

Well... opinions differ, I guess :-)

Regards,
Wald

Roland Karlsson wrote:

Unfortunately - they currently have no stable Windows release
and it is not planned before Q4 2004. Thats now! But ... as they
still say that; it is probabaly not Q4 2004, but rather sometime
2005.

I'm not quite getting this. Are you talking about the next Windows,
Longhorn? In that case, it's even worse: it's planned for Q4 2006, so count
on 2007 at the earliest :-)

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/p...rget2006PR.asp

Regards,
Wald

"RSD99" wrote in news:5%Zad.5244$YU4.1917@trnddc06:

Regarding both "The GIMP" and CinePaint:

Both of these programs are approaching being quite capable
... but in reality are "Hacker's Delights."

Do not get involved with them unless you own ... and know
how to use ... a "Compiler."


I'm not sure why you say that -- we use the precompiled versions of The
GIMP on several windows machines at work and it's just fine for about any
general image editing tasks. If it worked with a tablet, it would be
suitable for many more.

Bob

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"bob" posted:
"...
If it worked with a tablet, it would be
suitable for many more.
...."

It does ... at least with the Wacom Intuos2.

From a posting by Tor Lillqvist on
comp.graphics.apps.gimp

= = = = =

You need to pass GIMP the command-line switch --use-wintab
to enable
pressure (and tilt) sensitivity. This is because there used
to be several
bugs in the tablet support in GTK (the tookit that GIMP
uses) on Windows.
However, I think most of them should be fixed now in the
latest versions of
GTK.

If you start GIMP by clicking on a shortcut (onb the desktop
or in the Start
Menu), edit the shortcut's properties and add --use-wintab
to the shortcut's
command line ("target").

Wald wrote in
27.12:

I'm not quite getting this. Are you talking about the next Windows,
Longhorn? In that case, it's even worse: it's planned for Q4 2006, so
count on 2007 at the earliest :-)


No - I am talking about the next stabel Windows release
of CinePaint. Stable releases of Windows I have stopped
waiting for already


/Roland

"RSD99" wrote in news:crcbd.1$yk5.0@trnddc01:

"bob" posted:
"...
If it worked with a tablet, it would be
suitable for many more.
..."

It does ... at least with the Wacom Intuos2.

From a posting by Tor Lillqvist on
comp.graphics.apps.gimp

= = = = =

You need to pass GIMP the command-line switch --use-wintab
to enable
pressure (and tilt) sensitivity. This is because there used
to be several
bugs in the tablet support in GTK (the tookit that GIMP
uses) on Windows.
However, I think most of them should be fixed now in the
latest versions of
GTK.

If you start GIMP by clicking on a shortcut (onb the desktop
or in the Start
Menu), edit the shortcut's properties and add --use-wintab
to the shortcut's
command line ("target").






Cool -- I'll give that a try!

Thanks.

Bob

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