Graphics Software Suggestions, Please

[ssmithBH]

My wife has been an good amateur artist for years and will be taking a class at the local community college on art through the computer. I am interested in finding good art-related software, such as the various Adobe offerings. I hope that my wife can get whatever software we decide on through the community college to get the "educator" discount. I've been looking at the Adobe Design Collection (Photoshop, In Design, Illustrator and Acrobat), but the "best" non-educator price I could find was over $1,100.

We will use the software for 2D art projects, photo-retouch, etc.

Any suggestions welcome!

 

[Drakkon]

All it really sounds like you need is Adobe Photoshop and not all the "extras" (acrobat etc) and at a CC may not be too bad.
Cheaper down the line is Fireworks and Paint Shop Pro which although similar arent as complex.
or if u really get cheap you can get the Gimp editor
Adobe is the best for what you want to do imho...but because its the best u gotta pay for it like it is the best :-/

 

[metalmania]

Don't forget Illustrator.

 

[AmigaMan]

pirate photoshop like everyone else j/k, I've used Paint Shop Pro 4 for several years and it works great. Of course I have the graphical talent of a coffee bean and I'm too cheap and stupid to buy a copy of Photoshop and learn it.

 

[rbV5]

Photoshop is nice for photos and image processing, but for creating artwork I MUCH prefer Painter combined with a Wacom tablet. I come from a natural art background myself, and I like corel's (procreate) awesome featureset. The Wacom Graphire2 tablet I purchased (Intuos would be better) included a copy of Painter Classic (nice for starters), combined with infranview, an excellent freeware image processing application similar to photoshop, you would have a compelling/powerful toolset for under $100 with the Graphire2 tablet, and under $200 with the intuos2 tablet.

 

[Shagga]

What about Photoshop Elements 2.0? It's very capable in terms of Photo editing but as for Artwork I'm not sure. It does have a lot of the functions and features of Photoshop and has some that Photoshop doesn't!

It's considerably cheaper and on that basis I would suspect it's not as good a Photoshop. Elements is for the enthusiast and Photoshop for the Professional I would surmise.

 

[ssmithBH]

Thanks for all the great responses. The Wacom tablet is a great idea! There are a variety of different sizes - which one is the best compromise between cost and usability?

 

[rbV5]

There are a variety of different sizes - which one is the best compromise between cost and usability?

Hard to say, depends alot on your style. I use a small 4x5 tablet, which suits my style perfectly. If you tend toward longer sweeping type strokes, a larger tablet is may be necissary. I was lucky enough to be able to try out some different tablets before purchasing. The intuos2 models are especially nice and twice the sensitivity<sp> of the still excellent Graphire2 model like mine. Prices go up exponentially with the larger tablets, but are a good value IMHO. Wacom carries new and refurbished models if you want to save a little.

 

[Derux]

I found a community of Graphic designer a few weeks ago .. if I am not mistaken the name is teong.com or toeng.com ... you may want to join them and ask from them. You may even get a second hand software (I don't know if it's legal, but it worths the try) from some of the artists who upgraded their software and find no need for the older version

I have Photoshop in my workplace and I am just so accustomed to it, so I would recommend Photoshop.

 

[notfred]

Originally posted by: Drakkon
All it really sounds like you need is Adobe Photoshop and not all the "extras" (acrobat etc) and at a CC may not be too bad.
Cheaper down the line is Fireworks and Paint Shop Pro which although similar arent as complex.
or if u really get cheap you can get the Gimp editor
Adobe is the best for what you want to do imho...but because its the best u gotta pay for it like it is the best :-/

You obviously don't know what a graphic designer does if you think that all she needs is photoshop.


Anyway, most community colleges (at least in California) don't offer student discounts on software. (It would be really easy for someone to sign up for one class for about $100, and them save $1000s on software purchases)