Graphics Programs Tutorial

[Unclesatan]

Well, I decided I would write about all the different graphics programs there are to try. If you have any suggestions or want to give me a new graphics program, gimme a PM or post here, and I'll write a review on it.

I'll start with the free ones.


FREE GRAPHICS PROGRAMS-

Paint.net
When I first downloaded Paint.net, it was to edit sprites because my Ulead Gif Animator 6.0 was so crappy at making sprites, I tried looking for a new program. I used it to make a couple sigs, but it really isn't made for making sigs at all. You can do some cool things with it overall, and the controls are easy to get used to. The hotkeys are kindof inconvenient, but I really liked it for sprite editing regardless. This program supports layers, so you can make signatures if you really want to, but I would use GIMP to make a sig before Paint.net if I had to download a free program. That's all I really have to say about this one.

If you want to download Paint.net, go to this link
http://download.cnet.com/Paint-NET/3...-10338146.html


GIMP
I actually downloaded this AFTER I downloaded Photoshop. I knew I wanted to make graphics, and I don't fuck around with the noob stuff, I go for the professional equipment most of the time, at least when I'm serious. So I tried it a few times, I made a few pieces of graphics, but when it came to filters, gradient maps, clipping masks, brushes, and all of the other cool features that Photoshop has, it just made me not want to use GIMP at all, because I couldn't do everything I wanted, especially since I have to download seperate materials specifically for GIMP (like brushes and other resources used for sigmaking), I didn't want to deal with it. If you REALLY don't want to download Photoshop, I would have to go with GIMP, because it's just the next best thing that you can get without having to pay anything.

If you want to download GIMP, here is the link.
http://www.gimp.org/downloads/



PURCHASED GRAPHICS PROGRAMS-


Corel Paint Shop Pro
This program is.. decent. It came with my computer when I first got it, so I used it alot before I actually started making graphics (probably 2 years before), because I had a 30 day trial version. I wouldn't recommend actually paying for it, considering you can get Photoshop for nearly the same price, and it's MUCH better for sig making and doing other graphics art things. You can make sigs, however, if you have it. It has everything you need to start. It has layers, filters, various image adjustments, and other things that Photoshop didn't have, but as the name suggests, Paint Shop Pro is more geared towards Digital Painting, so there IS a reason that it is so expensive. However, if you aren't planning on doing any Digital Painting during your sig making excursions, I would NOT suggest getting Paint Shop Pro, because the features and reliability of Photoshop makes getting Paint Shop Pro almost a waste of time, because you could spend the same amount of time (and/or money) downloading Photoshop for equal and better performance when it comes to sig making. Sure, Paint Shop Pro has some nice features for photo editing, however Photoshop has the same, and more, hence the name PHOTOshop, rather than PAINTshop

ALSO CONSIDER that I have not used Paint Shop Pro in a very long time, and I'm sure it is quite a bit better now that it's been updated alot. If you took my review and exaggerated the positive points about Paint Shop Pro, you would get Corel Paint Shop Pro X2

If you want a trial version of Paint Shop Pro, you can go to this link. You have to sign up to download it.
http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satelli...1&tabview=tab6




Adobe Photoshop
Ahh, Photoshop. God, I love this program. It just works the best out of any program that I have used so far, to make signatures. It has anything you really need when it comes to sig making, and even digital painting. I know alot of people use Photoshop CS4 for digital painting, because it has something geared towards high resolution (3000-5000x1000-5000 resolution lol) digital painting. I know alot of artists (like adonihs.deviantart.com) use extremely high resolutions when they paint, and come out with highly detailed and high quality pieces when sized down. If you want a sig making program, I wouldn't waste time downloading or even paying for CS4, I would pay for CS3, simply because it's a smaller file and it's slightly faster paced, as well as CS4 doesn't have many new features that are actually geared towards sig making (mostly just made the interface faster as well as added certain features for digital painters), and CS2 is quite a bit slower than CS3, some people had issues with crashing and slow menus with CS2 alot.

CS3 is the optimal choice, CS4 is larger than CS3 by a good 0.5GB, and costs alot more as well.

If you want a free trial, go to the Adobe site. Or you can PM me, and I'll help you out, perhaps a little further than that. Maybe

Please feel free to comment. I just made this because I noticed some people were having trouble picking out a good graphics program. Hope this helps someone.

[Casanova]

Very informative, I should think that this will help a lot of people that are spoilt for choice. Sometimes it can be very difficult to know what the best option is, especially if you are strapped for cash.

I'm gonna go ahead and stick this thread, as I can see it being very useful.

[Unclesatan]

Thanks! I tried to make it informative without having to read a bunch of shit in between. I figure if people read about someone else's experiences with it, they can make a better decision overall.

It just pains me to see people waste their time though, so I make things like this so people have an easier time with things.

[Daesy]

I have used Gimp and PS. PS is just the best. I don't know why but it is. Gimp is just too complicated. Maybe when i have time and a bigger computer i will play around with it.

[Contra Fates]

Great write up! This is definitely going to be very useful for some of us less graphically-inclined people. xD +Rep to you, good sir!

[Fuyumine]

Great stuff, dude! I've actually never used the Corel program, its interface looks so... dated, so I just uninstalled it whenever I got my computer. Heh. Now I feel bad that I did it, looks like there's a lot of stuff I coulda done with it.