Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/03/11
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Don - I too am relatively new to this - at least new since Xmas time...But I think I have the answer you're looking for. There are two paths you might take - Low end, under $100, there are a number of easy to use programs that will take care of basic manipulations, but will not grow with you in any sense. My view is these are really more for the snapshot-make-a-birthday-card-for-Grandma crowd. At the other end, as you note, there is PhotoShop, for $600 plus and the ability to do ANYTHING with ANY image. There, is, I have discovered, a slightly sleazy third path....Corel makes something called Photo-Paint8, which is their clone of PhotoShop (it recognizes all the Adobe format stuff and uses all the plug-ins.) It too costs a fortune, BUT.... The "upgrade" for Photo-Paint8 sells for under $110, and like a number of other Corel products, the "upgrade" is, in reality, the entire, complete, unlimited, program - with the Huge manual that comes with the complete program. To make use of a PhotoShop upgrade you have to have something to upgrade to...not so with this.. So get Photo-Paint8 - there is virtually nothing you can't do with it, but you can also do as little as you want to. It is a big program, but you'll find that you can begin to do basic things without even opening the manual....and you'll find yourself turning out really good quality prints....