Paint Shop Pro vs Photoshop

[albatrosss]

Obviously Photoshop costs what it does because of its versality. Yet when I see the work that "Kraellin" does on a daily basis with Paint Shop Pro, I wonder if the disparity in price for Photoshop is justified, unless of course you are a pro.

I am a hobbiest probably with intermediate skills (probably an overestimate) and I was considering Photoshop as a gift for my grandson who is fairly proficient using Photoshop on my computer. Now I wonder if, for the non professional enthusiastic hobbiest, Paint Shop Pro might be the way to go. I understand that you may well recommend using Paint Shop Pro and then go on to Photoshop but I wonder if that's the way to go.

I can understand that this is a difficult question since most of you use one or the other so making comments might not be appropriate. In any event I thought that I would ask the question anyway. I am looking forward to your responses. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Thanks

[chal]

Hi.
I do've Photoshop CS2,and i'm agree with you it's very expensiv i hardly use CS2,because everything CS2 can do i do the same in PhotoPaint X3 from Corel,as far i understood Paintshop is a cheaper version of Photoshop,so why buying something that's much more expensive while i can do in Paintshop.
thanks ,charles

[Swampy]

The main advantage to buying him Photoshop is that you say he's already fairly proficient with it. It might be frustrating for him to have to "learn" new software or may take some of the "joy" out of exploring and expanding what he already knows.

On the other hand, it is expensive (especially when you can't take it for a business deduction), And PSP has many similar capabilities.

[winwintoo]

Have you considered Photohop Elements? It's also by Adobe and is usually available at about $100.

Margaret

[Dave.Cox]

I personally, don't like paint shop pro. It isn't because it won't do the job, because for the most part it will. It's because I don't know it, don't really have an interest in learning a completely different way of doing what I am already proficient with. Maybe it's not a very good reason, but it could be enough to throw your grandson's learning curve off. Before doing a switch on him, I would find out if he is acceptable to the idea.

As far as which one is better, I have several friends that know both, and without exception they tell me, you can do everything in Paint that you can do in Photoshop, but it is often much easier in Photoshop. Since speed and time is an important factor in any work environment, This to me is also an important consideration for a young upcoming artist.

[DCobb]

I am a hobbyist. By profession I was an elementary school teacher, and have been enjoying retirement for the past several years. The thing I like best about Photoshop is that you have a fully integrated system. I recently went from CS2 Premium to CS3 Design Premium. No conflict with different platforms from different software manufacturers. One handy package.

dc

[Doug Nelson]

The benefits of one program over another nonwithstanding, there's just so much more learning material for Photoshop. Life is hard enough without adding more obstacles.

[LonK]

I'm sure you've heard it before: It is not the tool that makes someone a great image manipulator, rather his command of the tool he has and his knowledge of the art. I personally use an even more obscure tool: PhotoImpact (and an older release at that). Can you tell by looking at my work?

That aside, there is another very compelling reason to go with Photoshop and it has to do with how you learn things. If you need specific step-by-step instructions rather than just concepts to achieve a certain result, PS is a better choice, simply because of it's ubiquity and the sheer number of tutorials available for it.

My advice is to get the best tool you can afford, then concentrate on learning how to use it proficiently. As far as retouching is concerned, I think learning photography (lighting, color, composition, etc.) and art basics is by far the most important thing one can do.

[Syd]

If I were your grandson, I would want Photoshop. No question about it. What kid would want second best? Who would want some no name brand MP3 when all the other kids have iPods? And apart from that, presumably you are going to spend a fair whack on Paint Shop, so you might as well go the extra mile and get Photoshop. Who knows you might have a budding Dragan or Fiscus in your family. Nurture his talent with the right tools when he is young and it's anybodys' guess where he could end up. Finally, it is also the industry standard and, as others have mentioned, the sheer volume of information, how-to-tutorials, etc just blow the competition away.

Syd

[albatrosss]

Syd,

I'm kind of cheap. Paint Shop Pro $79.99 while Photoshop cost $625.99 at Amazon. Quite a difference in price. Now the question is if Photoshop is worth the difference for a non pro user.

[Kraellin]

albatross, normally i would move this type of thread to the software forum, but since you flattered me in your original post, i'll leave it here for a bit.

you might also wish to look in the software forum. there are other threads there dealing with comparisons between photoshop and psp.

and here's my response to your question, what does your grandson want? i know whenever christmas came around when i was a kid and i wanted X and got Y, i was always disappointed no matter how good Y was. so, i think the real question isnt how good is either program, but what does your grandson really want?

ok, with that aside, paint shop pro is a very good program. but, photoshop is the cadillac. psp is a good sedan, but photoshop is the luxury car. but, the prices are also comparable in that regard. psp you pay sedan prices where ps you pay cadillac prices, about 5 times more for ps if you bought both retail.

psp has the easier learning curve but ps has more tutorials/helps and so on.

if your grandson is going to go professional and get a job somewhere, they arent likely to ask him if he is psp proficient; they'll ask if he's photoshop proficient. it just is the defacto program.

psp does have a few items that ps doesnt. ps has a ton of items psp doesnt.

specialty add-ons are written to the ps standard, not a psp one. you dont see folks advertise their plugins mainly as psp compatible but rather mostly as ps compatible. for instance, you'll often see a plugin stated as 'works with ps and ps compatible programs'. though, sometimes they will list those ps compatible programs. (bear in mind this is just a 'mostly' generality here)

and, last, what will your grandson be using the program for? you mentioned my name, being someone that uses psp a lot and i do. however, i'm mostly using very simple tools here in the restoration forum. i use clone, airbrush, push (a type of smudge) and a few filters, for the most part. so, if that's what your grandson will be doing, why pay $650 for a program when you can do the same thing for $125? but, if he's going to be doing other things, particularly commercially, then it makes more sense to spend the extra. i actually have cs3 as well as psp, but i rarely use it. my tastes are simple. and i have always hated the ps clone tool. it's just not as intuitive to me as psp's. plus, i'm still shying away from that learning curve.

but again, all of those things are secondary to the first one, what does your grandson actually want?

oh, and i shld mention one last item. ps can often be found at very substantial discounts, so saying $125 for psp and $650 for ps isnt necessarily always true. i got cs3 for about $255 from adobe (not some pirated, nefarious site). it's the full version, with cd's and paper manual and it really was from adobe and no, it wasnt an educational version or some other version. adobe runs deals from time to time, often around christmas and i got cs2 that way, but it was close enough to the release time of cs3 that i was told if cs3 came out within 90 days of when i got my cs2 that they'd give me the cs3 upgrade for free, plus shipping costs. it was just too sweet of a deal to pass up. in fact, i found out about the original deal from someone posting a notice here on retouchpro. of course, the same thing can happen with psp as well

[winwintoo]

I posted this earlier, but nobody paid attention

Have you considered Photoshop Elements? For the <$100 price, it has many of the same capabilities of the full version of Photoshop and you can learn a lot from the many Photoshop tutes that are available.

But what do I know,

Margaret

[albatrosss]

If I remember correctly Elements does not allow masking which is really a necessity as far as I'm concerned. Also Elements costs as much or more than Paint Shop Pro but it seems, from the little I know about Paint Shop Pro, that PSP has more features.

Thank you for your response. Appreciated.

[albatrosss]

Kraellin,

You deserve some flattery for your contributions to this forum.

I don't think that my grandson will be doing anything professional with these programs other than to get some enjoyment from them as his grandfather does. As I read the responses I'm surprised that PSP is receiving such positive responses. In fact tomorrow I'm going to the library to find some texts and materials to better understand what PSP can do. I am in the market for a new computer and I was not considering the Mac since I would have to buy Photoshop for Macs. If PSP even approaches what Photoshop can do I would seriously consider a Mac rather than a PC. What started as a thread to get information to help me choose a program for my grandson may well give me the incentive to buy a Mac.

Thank you for your comprehensive and timely response and once again I would like to compliment you for the quality of your responses to all of us that are trying to utilize all that Photoshop has to offer.

[winwintoo]

Originally Posted by albatrosss

If I remember correctly Elements does not allow masking which is really a necessity as far as I'm concerned. Also Elements costs as much or more than Paint Shop Pro but it seems, from the little I know about Paint Shop Pro, that Paint Shop Pro has more features.

Thank you for your response. Appreciated.

I use masks all the time in Elements.

Margaret