How does FREE software sound? GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is Photoshop like. In some ways better. This is not the usual watered down freebie. This application originally written for LINUX has been ported to Windows and is in many ways equal to or better than Photoshop. I use both. Did I mention it is FREE?

http://www.gimp.org/

Don't be put off by the somewhat weird install routine. Its worth the effort.

There are many photo editing applications out there. If you're looking for something simple to use, yet fairly powerful, checkout ACDSee which uses the Swiss Army Knife approach. One of the best thumbnail/image viewer applications that also supports basic photo ediing.

http://www.acdsystems.com/English/Products/ImagingProducts/Featured1/index.htm

Have you ever tried the Corel products? CorelDraw and PhotoPaint? Release 11 is due out later this month. I too do not like the Adobe products either - like you, I find them cumbersome.

I hate it too mostly, but Photoshop 7 has got me warmed up to it. they improved a lot of the cumbersome areas... for example each tool remembers what brush settings you used for it last time, whereas before there was just one brush setting for all tools. and tweaking the size of your brush is now a slider that is always visible instead of hidden away in brush properties. the healing brush is amazing for touching up stuff. the new text engine is excellent.

performance wise and visual quality wise (especially the layer effects!) Photoshop 7 is hard to beat. but I do also like Paint Shop Pro (for screen capturing and photo color enhancement) and ACDSee (for viewing images and rotating JPEGs losslessly) and Fireworks MX for web graphics.

all those have varying degrees of photo editing capability. I haven't tried GIMP yet.

Thanks to all for the info, shortens my task of sorting through countless programs .

Thanks for the photoshop info,,,yeah I am going to look a 7

You don't say how sophisticated your editing projects are, but, if your needs are relatively simple, I would recommend Micrografx Picture Publisher. I haven't shopped or upgraded for years (using version 7), but the program satisfies my needs. It will scan, retouch, convert formats, copy textures, etc.

I use CorelDraw to enhance text options (fitting text to odd shaped paths, extruding text to 3-d, etc). Haven't used Adobe's Photoshop.

Caruso

I agree that PhotoShop (and all of Adobe's products) have a pretty steep learning curve, but it's worth the investment (time and $$). If you are looking to perform basic editing and enhancements, then the above-mentioned titles will do. But if you want to be able to do more complex work, there is definitely a difference between a $40 program and a $600 program.

If you are interested in probably the best image viewing program out there, check out irfanview (www.irfanview.com). In addition to viewing, it creates slideshows and has some very nice batching capabilities. So if you have a bunch of photos that you want to prepare for, say web, or do repetative resize, filter, and format for various reasons, check it out.

It loads extremely fast and reads just about any image format out there, so I use it for my default image viewer instead of Windows XP's builtin viewer.

It is free, but it sure does not behave that way.

<<<<<<<<<there is definitely a difference between a $40 program and a $600 program


I agree in most cases,, I am looking for a photo program that is to photoshop as vegas is to premiere

Check out GIMP. It is as or more powerful than Photoshop in most areas and you can't beat the price: FREE. Not trialware, not shareware, simply FREE. Period.
While normally you get what you pay for, this is one of those rare exceptions. GIMP is very powerful, by no means a toy or waterned down in anyway. For many that didn't want to pay the price of Photoshop and instead when with PaintShop Pro or some other Photoshop clone, you really should check out GIMP, be prepared to be amazed what you get for FREE. Everyone I've shown it to is blown away.