posted
Ulead makes PhotoImpact which is now up to version 7, which is a pretty powerful program for the $. Supports most of the plugins for Adobe. I've been using PhotoImpact 5 with much successs over the years.
Registered: Sep 1999
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posted
Ed: The question is if you rather want a tool for modification (masking, placing objects, distortion etc.) or rather one for drawing something from scratch. The next question is if you would like to work vector-based or pixel-based. Usually pixel-based is considered easier, but you're always stuck with the quality you see on screen.
Illustrator, Corel Draw, Micrografx Designer and Macromedia Freehand are vector-based (and at least in Designer it is hard to get a decent pixel image out of it).
Photoshop, Corel Photopaint, Micrografx Picture Publisher and Paintshop Pro are pixel-based. They have similar drawing functions as the vector-based software.
There are many more pixel-based programs which don't have any decent drawing tools and which are either only an extension of Paintbrush or meant for photo retouching. I think this is not what you want. IIRC PhotoImpact has no drawing functions either.
-------------------- Bernd Schneider
Registered: Mar 1999
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Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
posted
Paint Shop Pro 6 & higher does have vector-based capabilities, though. And while I'm on the subject, I'd like to mention that I long ago gave up on doing any form of curved text with it becasue I'm too stupid to figure it out correctly.
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
Creating curved text with PSP7 is rather easy. You have to create the text (as a vector object). Hold your mouse over the bottom middle handle of the text and there should appear eventually (after minute movements of the mouse) a small 'A' with a curve under it. This is how you do curved text.
-------------------- I haul cardboard and cardboard accessories
Registered: Mar 1999
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Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
posted
I'll have t'try that, T-Bird. I'm using 6.02, so it may not be the same, but I was trying it with the whole "apply to an existing vector path" shit.
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
There's also Fireworks from Macromedia to add to Bernd's list of pixel based programs. MX is the latest version.
We use it at work for creating images and especially buttons for our website. I think it's a great tool for doing just that - haven't tried it on image and photo editing though. For that we use Paint Shop Pro 3.12 and 5 as well as Photoshop 7.0
In case anyone is wondering why we still use PSP 3.12 - it's because of the great "Undo-brush" tool. I don't know why they got rid of that one. No other current program offers this handy feature...
-------------------- Lister: Don't give me the "Star Trek" crap! It's too early in the morning. - Red Dwarf "The Last Day"
Registered: Nov 1999
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