Xara vs. PaintShopPro vs. Photoshop

[Kirk]

I've gotten to the point where I'm thinking about crafting my own page headers myself. I've farmed these out in the past to rent-a-coder.com, but I'm getting tired of fighting with designers who want to "***" things up to much (can I say that on this forum?) :0

Most of my page headers are just a couple of stock photographs comp'd together with a little text and a few gel buttons beneath (link for affiliate signup, faq, etc) - really simple stuff.

I'm good with raw HTML, but graphics are new territory. I'm sure I could learn this easily enough, but I'm having trouble narrowing the field of graphics programs. Here's the state of my research...

1) I've downloaded Xara extreme and spent a few days playing with it. Lots of video tutorials (which are very helpful) and seems to have a ton of features.

2) PaintShop Pro - downloaded the trial - seems simple to use, but not as simple as Xara, IMHO.

3) I have an old version of Photoshop on my old Mac G3. I know PS is powerful, but it just seems like a beast that is overkill for what I need. I called Adobe about an upgrade - I can do it, but it will still cost me 2x over PSP and Xara.

If anyone has been down this road, please jump in and give me your .02. My main considerations are ease of use, existing tutorials, prebuilt libraries. Also, if I could do ebook covers easily too - that would be the bomb!

[Warren Contreras]

[the mudslinger]

[deep.snow]

Try Paint.NET as an alternative to those..
It is FREE and provides comprehensive functionality though...

Here is the url:

[JerryShown]

[Bina Omar]

I would agree with Warren. Adobe Photoshop Elements is a good software. Especially if you've used Photoshop before. It's affordable and is a concise version of Photoshop. It also supports saving graphics for the web.

What's also great about it is the ability for you to edit Photoshop files in it. You can download a 30 day trial at the Adobe site.

[bignewbie]

I create web graphics for a living and started out much the same as you. My first software of choice was Paint Shop Pro. It's extremely affordable, realitively easy to use and offers many of the same features as Photoshop.

If you just want to create your own headers and footers, then this might be the best way for you to go. Photoshop Elements is also good for photo or image editing but if you are looking to create softboxes, ecovers ect. then you can beat Photoshop and Photoshop actions. This is what I and most Web Graphic Designers use to create those eye poppping photo realistic covers you see all over the web:D

Good Luck!

Eric

[-kz-]

I recommend Gimp

Free open source software

Maybe a bit confusing interface

gimp.org

[theuniek1]

If the only thing you plan to create is header images, then Photoshop Elements may be enough. Venturing into the waters of heftier design projects may mean upgrading to the full Photoshop (which supports actions and some other features that would make your life easier). Eric is right when he says the graphic designers use actions to create those eye popping covers, and actions can also be used for a number of other things like batch processing images (i.e. cropping, color correction, so forth).

Gimp is free, open source, and powerful software but it comes with one of the steepest learning curves I've seen in a while. What you save in money, you spend in time.

Sorry, can't comment about Xara or Paint Shop Pro.

~ Teli

[eBookWriter]

I'm a graphics program junkie. Besides some of the other programs mentioned, I also have PhotoImpact and RealDraw Pro, PaintShop Studio, and Serif DrawPlus. Each has features I like that the others may not have, or they're easier to do--whatever.

When it matters to me to have a 3D book cover image for my eNovels, I do it RealDraw Pro because it has a built in book template that lets you do up a nice cover. You can even put info on the spine with no trouble.

CompactDraw also has a book cover template--not the same one. It's a little trickier to do, but the results will be great once you get the hang of it. Last I knew, both had trial copies.

There is only one template, I think, in either program, which might feel limiting to some, but for me, it was all I really needed. Just now, I've quit making 3D book covers and am just going with flat covers.

PaintShop Pro 7's browser is my favorite feature for finding my stuff. I usually have that open even though I'm probably using some other graphics program to create my covers. Sometimes the preview option doesn't work or is non existent in other programs. If the programs are compatible, I copy and past the graphics one to the other. I upgraded to 8, but wasn't happy with the new browser feature. Haven't looked into any upgrades since.

Can't tell much about PhotoImpact yet, I just got it.

[EntrepreneurDad]

I'm a big Photoshop user and Photoshop Elements is a great tool for making web graphics. Although I've never personally used it, I also know GIMP is pretty highly regarded and is a free open-source application.

[CorpRebel]

Maybe all you need is MS Paint that's already on most Windows PCs! Look at what THIS guy can do with MS Paint!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk2sPl_Z7ZU

(Note: need a fast connection to watch it)


Rick Wilson aka CorpRebel

[Warren Contreras]

Since he specifically said headers, I didn't mention how I do cover graphics. I use my $20 Elements 4 to do the flat layout and added another $39 to my toolbox for:

http://www.nervepreserve.com/quick3dcover/

[AstarothSolutions]

Whilst I use Photoshop a lot for my photography I have never seen it as a real tool for creating websites in. Now perhaps it is because all the functions I know about are photo related rather than graphics generation but still.

Gimp is very good but it goes in the same boat as Photoshop for me.

PSP is ok... havent used it for many years so dont know what it is like now.... whilst I am not a graphics person either I dont think Fireworks is that bad (though dont use it with dreamweaver so probably not using all its "features"

[theuniek1]