I need a program mainly to:

restore old photos
improve current photos
fool around
create artistic masterpieces

I have no interest in creating web pages.

I find psp to be quite powerful for these needs, and I'm comfortable using it. But I'm always game for something better plus this forum is great and is mainly ps users.

Do you think that ps can provide me with abilities that psp cannot? Or is it more exacting and accurate or more efficient to use?

Thanks in advance for any input

feivel

I didn't switch from PSP, but I did switch over from the GIMP, which is pretty equivilent for a switchover. If you can get it for the educational price, then I'd definitely recommend it. I got the Design collection, the collections are a good value - for not much more than the price of just PS, you can get 4 programs for example PS, Illustrator, Acrobat and InDesign, I got a package that included GoLive and LiveMotion for free but I think that offer has expired unfortunately. it's a fair learning curve, but it's definitely worth it, it's an amazing program, it's not the industry leader for nothing. there's a lot of really nice tools that you won't find in other programs either, like the healing brush and patch tools in PS 7, Actions, Liquify filter etc. etc. It partly depends on what you need in a program though, I think it would be smart to download and try the demo version of PS 7 before laying down any money so you can decide if it's really going to be worth it to you (you can download the demo here (http://www.adobe.com/products/tryadobe/main.jhtml#product=39) )
As for efficiency, it's a well laid out program with good shortcuts, but it really comes down to your knowledge of a program, if you know all the shortcuts and tricks, you'll be able to work fast, and if it's a well done program like PS is, then that will definitely help matters.

- David :)